Feedback on TRIS
Hi Parents!
We are considering TRIS for our daughter when she turns two. We toured the school a few months ago, and really like the staff and general Montessori approach. Just hoping to get some more recent feedback about TRIS as it looks like the last reviews are from 2014.
Thank you so much!
B & S
Feb 2, 2020
Parent Replies
Hello... we currently attend TRIS and our children have been there since 2012, with my youngest starting at age 2. I currently have one child in Upper Elementary and one in Lower Elementary so you can guess we love the school. The preschool program is amazing! For our family, the language immersion was critically important, add to that the amazing music and art curriculum and its really the perfect place. I love that I don't have to run my children around to additional lessons outside of school. We also enjoy the year round schedule and the extended hours of the program, and quite frankly, my kids hate when I pick them up early. They love to stay at school until 5pm or 6pm!!
The teacher teams are amazing and really do an incredible job. They are loving, nurturing and genuine. I don't think any other Montessori program can offer what TRIS does. They really are about nurturing and growing the whole child, especially if you continue the program into early adolescence. If you have further questions or want to talk directly to parents I'm sure the office would be happy to give you contact information for currently enrolled families that you could speak to one on one. Good luck with your decision - I know its a big one.
Our child has been at TRIS for two years. It is a wonderful place. If I could go back in time, I would enroll at the school as soon as my kid turned two (as you are planning to do) instead of waiting until the latter part of his preschool years, as I think he would have really benefited from the Montessori approach and the nurturing, loving environment and top-notch teaching staff at the school. The children hone practical life skills, interpersonal development, foreign languages (French and Spanish), art, music (lots of singing), and geography, in addition to reading, writing, and math. They have regular PE and outdoor education lessons, and instrumental lessons are available. It is not cheap, but we feel that it is worth every penny as our child is happy, thriving, and developing into a wonderful, well-rounded person.
We are there as well.
Generally - the school is great, our children love the teachers and are very positive about things. We have personally noticed positive behaviors coming out of our kids that are directly attributable to the school. We would definitely go there again (but wonder about what the difference really is with a few options that were closer to home)...
BUT.
The staff communication is horrible. They don't really seem to provide a support network for the parents from what we've seen. This is most clear in two ways (which may not be a con to you):
1. it's hard to get teacher feedback on day-to-day things, like even if the kid pooped or napped
2. there's no guidance on what we can do at home to further the lessons
Usually such questions are met with "the Montessori method means we can't be overbearing and you're not trained" or some variant of that.