Review: Goddard School

[Jacks Mom]

Our son attends the Ashburn Goddard School and we like our teacher Ms. Barbara. She has over fifteen years of preschool experience and is extremely talented with children. We are very fortune to have find a preschool with so much love and care. Thank you Ms. Madhu (owner).

[Mrs Mackenzie]

We are very blessed to have found the Goddard School. The teachers are very loving and caring. The programs that are offered are high quality such as yoga, sign language, manners, building language. These are in addition to the cognitive, fine and gross motor development.
BEST PRESCHOOL IN THE AREA>

[ABC]

The Goddard School is a wonderful preschool however, they pay there teachers $11-$13 an hour with very poor health insurance 80% paid by teachers 20% paid by the employer. The school prides itself on college educated teachers but cheap labor prevails with an extremely high turn over rate which is unfortunate for the children. Teachers beg for raises but are told that the school can't afford to give them. Is this just another form of greed? With such high cost of tuition of an average of $1200 per child a month and a class of 20. You do the math!

[What You Need to Know]

I do NOT reccomend sending a child to the Goddard School in Ashburn, VA. The turn over rate there is outrageous!! The school has been through two directors in just a few months. In addition, the entire office staff has changed within the last two months. Whenever I try to address an issue with the owner of the school (since she has been there the longest) she refers me to the NEW office staff, who doesn't know me or my child.
As far as the school being a "safe" place, think again! I recently dropped my daughter off and found an electric sander plugged in and ready to run on the playground. What was worse, kids were hovering near it, ready to turn it on. Another time, I picked my daughter up and she was in a classroom with 12 other toddlers and only one teacher. I was told when I signed my daughter up, that the ratio was 1:5. So, the teacher was clearly out of ratio. The list could go on...Please don't make the same mistake I made by believing the lies the owner of the school tells you during your first visit. Find another school where those in charge care about the kids, not the money they bring into the school.

[Parenting]

Not a good pre-school. Turn over rate is way too high for my child.

[Good Fun Daycare]

My daughter has been attending this school since 8/2007. Yes, there have been turnover issues, we have struggled through a few of them but.. I have looked around it is the same all around the area. I would love for more of our tuition on to go directly to the teachers and there benefits.I have loved all of my dd teachers. They are smart, kind people and if those are the ones that are staying than the management is doing the right thing. Just my opinion.

[Goddard Parent]

My son has been at Goddard for almost a year. Turnover is so high... but is that any different than the rest of the industry? I agree that all of the teachers who work there need to get paid more. Maybe the turnover would stop. Tuition was just raised. Did any of this go to the teachers? Most of the teachers there are wonderful and caring.

[Unnamed]

This lady was fired for neglecting the children, so yes thank the owner Ms. Madhu for hiring this lady who doesn't take care of our children.

Jacks Mom wrote:

Our son attends the Ashburn Goddard School and we like our teacher Ms. Barbara. She has over fifteen years of preschool experience and is extremely talented with children. We are very fortune to have find a preschool with so much love and care. Thank you Ms. Madhu (owner).

[abc1]

Tuition has been raised 3 times in the past year. Where is the money going? Nothing changes but the teachers and the quality gets worse with the high turnover rate.

Goddard Parent wrote:

My son has been at Goddard for almost a year. Turnover is so high... but is that any different than the rest of the industry? I agree that all of the teachers who work there need to get paid more. Maybe the turnover would stop. Tuition was just raised. Did any of this go to the teachers? Most of the teachers there are wonderful and caring.

[A Mom]

The teachers in the infant room are really good with the babies. They are a bright spot!

[Lauren]

In reply to the pay comment...you're correct. That is exactly why I quit. I have a 2 year degree in child care, experience, great credentials and a real heart for this profession. I got paid 11.50$/hr. I was shocked, but I asked about raises and was misled into thinking there is a 30 day raise and annual raise, none of the long time employees had ever been given a raise. I didn't stay around long enough to be eligible for benefits. They did tell me not to park in the parking lot (if it's not your week, you park on the street), given a one day notice to go get my fingerprints done on a Saturday (I told them I'd rather be compensated for my time and do it Monday, they said "no, they couldn't send me") and made to do the most detailed lesson plans that we barely had the materials to do. The school is atrocious. The teachers deserve more respect if not money.

[Beth]

Well, I have a four year degree and I was only makng $12.00 an hour. I also have 11 years experience teaching preschool and have excellent references. I left because I had to spend alot of my own money to buy construction paper and craft supplies, etc. We were expected to redecorate the room every month with mostly handmade art dectorations, not only from the children's projects, but the teachers had to put up their work also. You were not allowed to have any bare spots on the wall. They had unrealistic expectations from the teachers, and I didn't feel appreciated for all of my hard work.

[Vegan Mommy]

Wow...thank you all for the great reviews.
I was thinking about sending my 15 month old there because everyone bragged about how great the school is. Not very ethical though.
I don't think I'll send my son there now because if I am paying so much for his tuition, I'd want the teachers to be rewarded with that money because THEY are the ones doing all the work.

[A Mom from the Past]

The teachers at the Ashburn location were great! They showed love and attention toward my kids. Buy they ALL were unhappy because of the owners of the school. I don't care how good the reputation of any day care is ... if the teachers are not happy it filters down to the kids. I always got the impression that the owners were money hungry, they put unrealistic expectations on the teachers! In fact, when I left I took one of the teachers with me to be my Nanny ... I treated her much better!

[Beth Delaware]

Goddard is the worse school my child ever attended. I personall have my degress in early childhood education and i know it is a bad paying career and that is why i do not practice it. Turnover is horrible but the worse is communication and neglect. I picked my child up 1 day to find a huge bumb and scrape on her head and she told me she fell outside (shes 4) i asked the school about it they didnt notice it then i asked when did they go outside the said 2x once before nap and once after ... So they laid my child down with a head injury to sleep 2hrs. Then 1 day she had a wetting accident and they changed her panties and put her same wet pants on and told her they would dry. she had a change of pants... When i picked her up she smelled like pee... She has 4 more days there till her last day e withdrew her but shes not even going. I dont trust they will care.. This is just 2 of many issues. I could name plenty of more. I reported them to state and corporate head quarters.

[former goddardteacher]

I went back to the nonprofit school where I taught for twelve years after teaching at one of their schools. Was treated like garbage.

[Dolores]

Beth Delaware wrote:

Goddard is the worse school my child ever attended. I personall have my degress in early childhood education and i know it is a bad paying career and that is why i do not practice it. Turnover is horrible but the worse is communication and neglect. I picked my child up 1 day to find a huge bumb and scrape on her head and she told me she fell outside (shes 4) i asked the school about it they didnt notice it then i asked when did they go outside the said 2x once before nap and once after ... So they laid my child down with a head injury to sleep 2hrs. Then 1 day she had a wetting accident and they changed her panties and put her same wet pants on and told her they would dry. she had a change of pants... When i picked her up she smelled like pee... She has 4 more days there till her last day e withdrew her but shes not even going. I dont trust they will care.. This is just 2 of many issues. I could name plenty of more. I reported them to state and corporate head quarters.

Darn good thing you chose not to pursue a career in early childhood education given your grammar, spelling,capitalization and punctuation!

[Ally]

I just started working at The Goddard School and love it. As a teacher, we do work really hard to put together lesson plans that will benefit each age group. The owner and director have been more than nice, I respect both of them as my bosses and my friends. I teach the 12-18month group and have an undying love for each one of my students and I know that every other teacher there feels the same way about their students. When I decided to major in education after switching from business marketing I was really nervous about my decision, but after getting my first teaching job at Goddard I have realized that teaching your children really is my passion. If I had children, I would no doubt sent my children to The Goddard School!

[upset mommy]

I was so excited to have my children at The Goddard School. My excitement ended the first day. There was no warm welcome, I was overcharged, and the owners and the Director were rude to me. I went home and cried my first day. It got worse as the days went by. Any concern I had about my child was belittled and even laughed at by the Director. None of the great activities(yoga, Spanish, ASL,...) were even taking place in the classroom. I asked my sons teacher to demonstrate the sign for the week and she told me she couldn't. Numerous licensing policies are broken and I am surprised they haven't been shut down. I also agree with the mother whose child had a head injury. I was dropping my children off one day and witnessed a similar incident...A Toddler fell and hit his head he had a GIANT knot on his head and ice wasn't even applied! It was my worst childcare experience EVER. However every Goddard is different, but I highly DO NOT recommend the Goddard on Research Pl.

[Private school owner]

We own multiple private schools and recruit some of the best teachers. At a minimum we require a 4 year degree for preschool/pre-k teachers, and half of my teaching staff has a Masters. We also require plenty of teaching experience. Naturally, we are consistently rated top of the pile and offer programs at 60% of the fees charged by franchises.
Given all these facts, what really matters the most is the quality and dedication of the owners. We strongly believe that education cannot be effectively franchised, as it cannot be cookie cut all the time. Franchises are great for burgers and fries, but will always fall short on matters where dedication is the key ingredient, which cannot be easily duplicated.
Having said that, each Goddard is different and you should set up a meeting with the owners (not necessarily the director)and learn more about the school.
One thing is for sure, regardless of what Goddard location, there is one that makes a lot of money and that is the Goddard HQ (Franchise Fees!!!).