Stratford School

4576 Willow Road

Pleasanton, CA 94588

13 Reviews

School District
Grade

K-5
Type

private

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Reviews

Submitted by parent on May 27, 2024

My daughter attended this school from Pre-K to first grade and her experience here was fantastic. In all the three years, we found the school and teachers to be very supportive and they instilled the joy of learning in her. The school not only values academics but also good character. This was important to us. Her first grade experience in Mrs. Cavanas's class went beyond our expectations. Mrs. Cavanas is an excellent teacher who cares deeply about her class's kids and works with them to bring out the best version of themselves. She uses several positive reinforcement techniques that encourage kids to learn more, make good choices and win rewards. She organized book sharing events that exposed kids to many different books and inspired them to read more. What touched me the most was that she went out of her way to accommodate my daugther's remote participation in this event since we were traveling just because my daughter didn't want to drop out of the contest halfway. My daughter adores her and so do we. Thanks to her and the school, as working parents we could be almost hands off with our daughter's academics. I highly recommend this school and especially Mrs. Cavanas.
Submitted by parent on February 28, 2018

This school is privately owned and is run like a business. Small improvements have been made to the school. Teachers are paid less than public schools and expected to teach more. Administration (4 principals in the last 6 Years) and teacher turnover is very high. Complaints have been made about the 5th grade teachers but nothing has been done. My son will not be attending this school next year. Sherri Adams - you have failed us.
Submitted by parent on February 16, 2018

It was good. Great experience at Stratford Schools.
Submitted by parent on August 25, 2017

OK, this may be a politically incorrect comment. Our 4 year old greatly enjoyed the school, despite the fact that we were a bit shocked by the diversity at the school. I'd say in preschool/preK, 70% children are Indians, which is pretty much the Silicon Valley standard mix ratio, another 15% other Asians and 15% mixed non Asians. This may be a deal breaker for some family but not us. Some parents complained about the academic challenges, our pre-schooler seemed to have been able to handle it well. He considers phonics a fun activity, and he started to enjoy soccer and requested to start routine trainings. The well rounded education is non-beatable by other preschool/preK in Dublin area. e.g.: students were encouraged to color a paint based on how they felt listening to a piece of classical music. The school introduces artists, musicians and STEM all year long. Just to show how much content they covered, in one year, kids were able to name paints from Da vinci to Andy Wharhol. This is HUGE! The music class is also fun, after the 2nd semeter, my son requested to start learning piano because he wants to play some songs. Phonics are maths are much more "advanced" in comparison with other schools. I like how they incorporate challenges and fun together in daily education. Without being challenged, we'll never know how much our kids can do. Some parents complained about the intensity of academic challenges, but I'm not 100% agreeing. Why would anyone, in current era, under such competitive environment, expect their own kids to be playing meaninglessly throughout their childhood and waste such precious time? As a matter of fact, comparing with many other countries, where kids can name 20 colors and count to 100 at 3 years old, Stratford is the only hope for for Tri-valley area parents who want to advance their kids.The only area I would like to see improvement in the school is to have more enriched after school classes and trainings. The school has great facility, which can be utilized for soccer, baseball and many other activities. Instead letting the younger ones running around, it maybe a good idea to enrich the afterschool programs for preschooler and pre K.
Submitted by teacher on February 25, 2016

Stratford Pleasanton is a safe option highly focused on the children's academic development. Unfortunately they have recently lost Jessie Channey, who was the heart of the school and put a spirit into the school that is now gone. This, in addition to the lack of diversity and options outside of academics, are some of the reasons we have chosen to move our children.
Submitted by parent on March 27, 2015

This school is a machine. The teachers teach to the average, with little regard for the strengths or weaknesses of each student. I imagine that every teacher in each of the dozen or more schools in this for-profit chain is synchro-teaching the same page to each child, every day. The quality of the teachers is variable, many are unremarkable. The teachers are not required to be credentialed (though this is not always a good measure of quality). The enrollment continues to rise, the school is now very tight. However, my impression is that the student turnover is high, but I have no facts to base that on. Only Spanish is provided, but it is good. PE and computers fine, art all but nonexistent.
Submitted by parent on October 29, 2014

This school is academics and no play. I pulled my preschooler out due to lack of play time they have. 4 year olds need to enjoy their youth. Found out this school has been sited by licensing. I'm not sure why anyone would put their kids in this school. My kid was not happy here at all
Submitted by parent on January 17, 2014

The balance of academics and extracurricular activities are awesome.Teachers are good,homework and class work system has balance.Parent involvement is encouraged and parents are notified well with their online portal system. Now why two stars less- teachers have complaining attitude.They are perfectionists where we adults are never perfect ourselves. They expect the kids to be robots.This is definitely unattainable in a class with age range of 5 to 7.When they allow kids eligible for DK in KG they expect them to behave like first graders. What's then the role of teachers, what are they for and what is the essence of learning and improve over time.We request parents interested in admission to discuss expectations with the principal right from day 1.
Submitted by parent on November 19, 2013

We love Stratford since my preschooler seems to be having a great experience there.He is learning a lot and enjoys being at school everyday:)
Submitted by parent on October 11, 2013

We put our 4 year old in Stratford. What really worries us is the child seems intimidated. When we get into the school he will cower, walk by our side, shy away from contact with the teachers etc. This is from a child who is normally very social. There was an incident in the playground where a preschooler threw a stone at him narrowly missing his eye. When I went to pick him up, he came running to me and started crying and looked so traumatized, When I asked the primary principal, she asked him to "be a little man and to set an example".. They tried to underplay it by saying he threw stones at lunch and so preschoolers threw stones in the evening. All these years, never have teachers given such ridiculous explanations when a child is hurt. My son said there were no "Commanders or caretakers" for the extended care at that time. We still do not know how the children threw stones and why there was no supervision. We are planning to withdraw him - we do not believe in kids being intimidated. But I have to mention he loved his classmates, his room teachers and his classroom. .
Submitted by parent on February 08, 2013

This school is amazing! My kindergartened loves the school and looks forward to going everyday. The difference? The curriculum is really keeping up with the times (Parent loves this) BUT in a Fun way (Child loves this) Right balance of Academics (Parent loves this) and PE (child loves this) Very open culture of meeting and getting along with Teachers (parent loves this) and has enough fun events in the classroom to get togther (child loves this) Right balance of one-to-one attention (child loves this) without being spoilt/ pampered (parent loves this) Diverse people / very friendly managment, always appraochable, no-attitude tantrums, very inclusive in child's growth (Everybody loves this!) Stratford is a blessing in Pleasanton!
Submitted by parent on October 02, 2012

Our experience with Stratford has been quite rewarding. We were still seeking that Special environment where we knew our kids would grow & be challenged yet rewarded in their formative years. We were quite happy to see the attention to detail in the many ways that the Teachers & Principals looked after our little ones both from the curriculum and approach to teaching. They made it fun & motivating in the classrooms that our 2 young ones were looking forward to going to school daily. We feel this way of education imbibed in their Program encourages a Lifelong passion for learning and pushing their minds & imagination. We find the Stratford curriculum well rounded and all subjects have something in common therefore making the learning experience more fun and rewarding!
Submitted by parent on September 25, 2012

We are so happy that Stratford has finally arrived to Pleasanton. Although it's only been a few weeks of school, the elementary school girls are loving it! They come home singing songs that promote school spirit or help them with sentence structure. Stratford seems to have a model for keeping learning fun while emphasizing the academic fundamentals. We appreciate how organized the curriculum is as well as the high expectations that they have of the children. However, our girls haven't felt pressure but rather they are rising to the occasion. Our girls are happy going to school, are learning the importance of personal responsibility as well taking pride in ones work. The teachers are kind, compassionate yet honest with the students as to the expectations. We have found this to be a winning combination. The small class sizes allow the teachers to really get to know the students. The specialty classes such as music, Spanish, computers and physical education round out the curriculum. As parents, we appreciate that the vocabulary words are relevant to the history lesson, the art project may be related to history and the poem for the week is tied to the science topic!