Northlake Academy

We joined Northlake in September 2018 with our 2.5 year old toddler. She came in being behind in her speech and within 2 or 3 weeks her vocabulary doubled! The teachers are kind and care about the well being of all the children in the class. Now both my daughter and son are at Northlake and I couldn't be happier. I appreciate all of the little extras they do like Spanish, Japanese, Gymnastics etc. In my opinion the school focuses on what's right, the children, and what they can do to grow/teach/develop the whole child.

We love Northlake Academy! My girls (two and four years old) have been with Northlake Academy for about eight months now. The teachers and the director know every child by name. I had sent my girls to a few different preschools/daycare centers, including Montessori method locations before finally choosing Northlake Academy. The staff truly cares about their children’s well being, safety, and learning. Teachers are experienced and energetic. They have passion for guiding and teaching the kids! My older child will continue to learn in Super K (kindergarten) and then Elementary classrooms. My younger one is in the toddlers’ room. One day she came home with her Potty Club photo with a lot of sparkly stickers all around the photo. She was as proud as she could be! I highly recommend Northlake for any age groups!

Both my daughters attend this school. They both love it. There is a nice balance between the studies and fun/sports activities. My daughter's (3rd Grade) Math has significantly improved after she started attending here. The teachers are very dedicated and it shows in how much the kids love them.

If you’re even considering enrolling your child into this “school”, I would hope you can afford a good lawyer. You will need this lawyer to get you out of the contract when Sue decides, on the THIRD WEEK of school, she doesn’t want your child in her school anymore but will sue you if you do not pay tuition for the rest of the year. This “school” had suspended my child 3 times (in the first three weeks of school) and threatened to expel (but we’d still have to pay tuition for the entire year), my FOUR-YEAR-OLD child for being “disruptive” and “unruly” for having a hard time sitting all day studying for those unending standardized tests they use to show off scores to parents of future prospective students. My FOUR-YEAR-OLD wanted to play and run around, the school wanted him to sit and learn, in one place, all day. Instead of working with him to gradually be able to sit for that long a period of time, the teachers and Sue decided it would be more convenient for them if they just called me or my husband to take him home, every single time he wouldn’t sit for their lesson. They would call and tell us we have 40 minutes to come get him. This happened EVERY, SINGLE, DAY, every time he wouldn’t sit or was arguing with a classmate, or wasn’t completing tasks as expected. Though I had my doubts a four-year-old should be sitting for that many hours on end, I asked Sue (since his teachers would not communicate directly with us but would rather speak only through Sue, the owner of the school) if there was anything we, his parents, could do to help him get adjusted to these new and more rigid ways of schooling. Her answer was that we were not doing a good job punishing him and were obviously “enablers”. Mind you, at this point we were already having daily talks with him, daily lectures, time-outs with him every day regarding these problems in school. We had taken away his privileges. I’m not quite sure how much “punishing” Sue wanted us to inflict to prove we weren’t “enablers”, as we had tried everything within our power without any actual advice from anybody at Northlake. I became alarmed when Sue said my son’s behavior was “dysfunctional” and that she would soon be expelling him if he didn’t learn to fall in line with the expectations of her school. I contacted his teachers at the preschool he attended before Northlake and was told in no uncertain terms that he showed no “dysfunction” and that we should strongly consider pulling him out of a school that would throw those kind of words around about a four-year-old child, after THREE WEEKS of knowing him, and especially when they are not medically qualified to do so. Still I worried that maybe Sue and the Northlake teachers might’ve been seeing something I didn’t with my subjective parents’ eyes, so upon Sue’s suggestions, I signed my son up to take a mental assessment test from a pediatric psychiatrist who didn’t find any kind of behavioral disorder that needed addressing. We took him for a second opinion, and the pediatric therapist at the second place was actually so alarmed about the things Sue was expecting and possibly forcing from these kids, they contacted her and insisted on sitting in on classes for weeks (out of their own concerns and without payment from me) to make sure my son wasn’t being mentally abused by them. They too advised strongly that we take our son out of Northlake. We were in such a scary position because we couldn’t quit our jobs but we also could not afford to pay for another daycare if we still had to pay the tuition at Northlake for the rest of the year. Everything Sue promises, make sure to get it in writing! Or better yet, don’t put your child and family through the stress and emotional (not to mention financial) strain of dealing with this “school” and consider somewhere, anywhere, else!

Northlake is an amazing school!! The teachers are wonderful, the class sizes are small. My daughter loves it, 3 teachers in her class! Personal attention, Ms. Christina potty trained my daughter in less than a week, they make you feel part of the school, I remember every time that I approach Ms Christina with concerns about my daughters stunted speach proficiency, she tells me “don’t loose your patient we are racing a bilingual kid” what I loved, because I felt that she was part of it (what it’s truth) they come with solutions instead of complains. Ms Christina and Ms. Kelly give support to my daughter all the time, even on weekend she asks for them. There are fun community events, the holiday programs are amazing. We love it there. They have gymnastics (I don’t have to take her or pay for extracurricular activities) Spanish and Japanese!! I feel like the way my daughter is learning, is the ideal for her age “learning through play”. Also is really enjoyable seen how Ms. Sue (the principal) interacts with the kids, they love her. I’m so happy, I will recommend this school to every parent that is looking for a family oriented school.