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December 2023 by Meghan Gibbons
I recently had to go back to work, and finding the right fit for my family was not easy. But as soon as we came in, it was obvious we made the best choice. The amount of care and overall joy form the staff here was evident from the first day we stepped in. They all clearly love their job and care about each kid. My kid especially always has a smile and is excited walking in here every day. Very grateful to have found such wonderful people and place for us. I would highly recommend them!
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December 2023 by Sara Sterling
We are so happy and grateful for TLE Downingtown. Our daughters thrive with excellent teachers and programs. Our older daughter comes home every day with something new she has learned. Donyetta, Lisa and Nikolai are caring leaders who make sure every child is loved and cared for. The kids are so excited to go to school every day and see the faculty and staff in addition to their great friends. We couldn’t be happier !
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December 2023 by Neha Bisht
I cannot say enough good things about The learning experience. They take amazing care of our child, and truly put the health and wellness of the children at the forefront.Many thanks from the heart for all your hard work, love, dedication, patience to the children. The school is very secure and I feel safe sending my kid there. The owners and all the staff are very friendly and welcoming. I love this school. The Learning Experience school was the best decision I made for my kid. The school is always clean and well organized even with all the classrooms full and active. The staff is friendly and well prepared to keep the children safe, active and engaged. A warm and safe environment. I highly recommend The Learning Experience.This preschool has everything a parent wants for their child. A Happy Parent?
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December 2023 by Phil Foriska
Our experience with TLE Downingtown has been great! The classrooms are well equipped and we feel our children have made considerable progress since enrolling. The school hosts some great events each month that allow parents to interact with each other and get to know the teachers. Donyetta, Lisa, Nikolai, and the teachers we’ve encountered so far are so welcoming and kind to us and our children. There has been some teacher turnover since we’ve been there but it’s clear the admin staff is doing what they can to prevent it and fill open positions when it occurs. We would definitely recommend TLE to other parents.
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December 2023 by Laura Proctor
My family has had a wonderful experience with TLE Downingtown, in particular with Miss Donyetta, Miss Lisa, and Mr. Nikolai and how they've guided the center and its staff. All three of them are invested in the kids that attend TLE and they foster a caring and exciting learning environment. They were kind and gentle with my little one when she was a nervous new student and she now lights up each time she sees them. I can also tell that they respect and value their teachers, and they lead by example in treating every mom, dad, caretaker, and especially every child, like they are welcome and part of a family. I'm very grateful to Mr. Nikolai, Miss Lisa, and Miss Donyetta for their hard work and dedication to ensuring that my daughter and the other kids at TLE are happy, safe, and excited about learning.
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December 2023 by Zachary Duncan
We enrolled our daughter at the beginning of the year, but withdrew her several weeks later. Chief among our concerns was the lack of communication. Our teachers rarely (if ever) updated the app informing us of diaper changes, whether our daughter ate the school lunch, or her own (we eventually requested that she would be served her own to be sure she was eating), was unsure of time slept, etc. It was rare for her teacher to be consistent, or even in her classroom when I came to pick her up at 3:30 pm, so even speaking to someone to understand the day was frustrating. As my daughter is not potty-trained, the several days that she was moved to another class, was done so without informing the teacher that diapers were needed (I would find this out when picking her up). Several times I picked her up with not just full diapers that were cold (showing she had had peed some time prior), but twice she was still wearing her urine soaked clothing (without being changed to her new set). I had to change her diaper numerous times prior to leaving The Learning Experience. We found that her diapers were not being used/replaced at an appropriate rate, nor were we informed when she was running low on them.One Monday, we were shocked to find that she had been moved to a different classroom and teacher without any notification or introduction of her new teacher/classroom. This was done with several students of several age groups with several parents voicing protest. She was moved back for a single day with the director throwing the new teacher "under the bus" saying that the teacher moved her on her own and that was "overzealous" and "should not have done that" (despite our daughter being on the new roster for the classroom, name tag and cubby switched, etc). When I was unable to find her diapers and wipes in the new or old classroom after searching for 15 min., it took the director another 15 minutes of personally searching. They moved her back for a single day before shoving a letter in her cubby telling us that she was being moved.One of the worst experiences of having our child attend TLE Downingtown was dropoff. It was rare that a teacher ever came to assist in transitioning our daughter, forcing me to pull out games, involve her with books or playing with other students. All of the staff would simply sit there and watch while kids were crying while their parents attempted to leave. Many kids came over to be involved with the activities I was trying to engage my daughter (as they were seemingly being ignored). Many times, I had to verbally request employees to help me after spending more than ten minutes to get my daughter settled. Ms. Karen was the exception, and on the days she was in during dropoff (which was rare), she made a great effort to help us.I was shocked to witness an episode of a teacher shouting an expletive-laced tirade over the phone with a classroom full of younger students and several times witnessed staff yelling at students, clearly frustrated.When we shared our concerns with the director, were were given assurances that these issues would be corrected, but found that even after several weeks, they were unable to offer the level of care that we expected.When we signed our contract with The Learning Experience: Downingtown, we were promised a 10% discount as I am an educator. This discount was never applied, as funds were being withdrawn automatically from our accounts. When I brought this to the director's attention every few days, she blamed "the other end" and continually lied saying that I was experiencing the same thing "nine other families" were experiencing (but she was working to fix it). Despite promises that funds would be reimbursed and the billing corrected, we have been overcharged more than $1,500 dollars. Even when we withdrew our daughter, we were charged additional weeks after our contracted had officially ended without any effort to reimburse these funds.We are considering legal avenues as our messages are not returned, and our emails ignored
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October 2023 by Rebekah Mills
When sharing this review, I want to start with the positives because some of the employees at TLE Downingtown do truly care about the children and families they serve. Donyetta is phenomenal. Her care and attention to detail cannot be matched. Her years of experience and patience shine. Additionally, some of the teachers I met during our time with TLE made me feel confident everyday that our infant son’s needs would be met.Unfortunately that is where the positives end. My first concern was the inaccuracies in the app that parents can use to be updated about their child’s activities and met needs during the day. The app notifications, sent by teachers, were offer wildly in accurate. I would be notified that my child had gotten a 4 oz breast milk bottle when we were solely formula feeding. I was also notified that my child had only had wet diapers for two days, leading me to call the pediatrician before learning that my child had a bowel movement both days but they had been inaccurately recorded. Although these things seem small, as a parent and first time one at that they can shake your trust in the care your child is receiving. Another issue I had was the seemingly revolving door of teachers in the infant room. It seemed like there was a completely new staff every few weeks. This made it hard to build rapport and trust with the people I was leaving my infant with every day. Although I can understand that all employees have to pass background checks and hold certifications to work in these centers, it was unsettling to constantly be greeted by new faces. Finally, my son had a persistent cough, contracted conjunctivitis twice, and hand foot and mouth once in the three months he attended TLE. Although young children are certainly more prone to illnesses and immune systems take time to develop, I was concerned about the level of care being taken when cleaning the spaces and toys the children played with. While there are so many great things the center and staff are capable of and I cannot speak for the care the older kids receive, I would not recommend sending your infant there.
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October 2023 by Cole Creasy
I am a person that never does reviews I like to see how a place is myself this is my first review ever and there is a reason, the experience I had here I wouldn’t want anyone else to go through. My daughter attended this daycare since she was 7 weeks old she is now 7 months. Mrs Lisa & Mrs Donyetta are the ONLY reason we stayed as long as we did. The amount of problems we had with them taking thousands of dollars out of my account on top of our weekly payments is just unacceptable and then they made it a problem to give back what they took out. I had to have my bank block them and get my money back and then do money orders until I found another daycare. Mrs Lisa and Mrs Donyetta are amazing I hope this company realizes they are the only reason some parents are staying still ! I hope one day they decide to leave here and open their own daycare or go somewhere else so the ones who loved them can come back to them cause we will be the first through that door! I am incredibly sad we had to leave them other then that I do no recommend this daycare at all!!!
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September 2023 by Briana Arlington
I am so incredibly grateful for this place. The amount of love, support, and attention the staff show my son is more than I could have ever wished for. He has shown progress both physically and socially since starting at TLE. I highly recommend the learning experience!
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August 2023 by Annamma K V
Don't send kids there. They are not taking care of well.
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June 2023 by Amanda L.
10/10 recomment this school. The center is clean and full of curriculum. The Center Director Ms. Donyetta is AMAZING. She has the best personality, cares for all the kids and staff if they were her own and loves showing off the curriculum. The staff memebers are welcoming and it shows that they definetly love what they do. Great location as well.
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June 2023 by Impact health
While today is certainly the last day for my son in TLE, we love his teachers. Ms. Tika and Shannon are amazing, I appreciate their firmness in raising these kids, I cannot deny them that credit however, there is something fundamentally wrong with either the owner or whoever the lady at the desk waiting to devour parents for picking up their kids. She needs a lot of joy in her life. This lady think she is an Alfa and Omega; other parents are already tired of her also. She has no positive outlook, always looking to see what could go wrong. The week she was at the front desk, it was as though she was forced to respond to greetings. If she is indeed the owner, she could use some interpersonal lessons.I would pick my son up at 3pm but a few times, they are about waking up from nap or even still sleeping so I would wait for 15 minutes so as to not interrupt other kids or kick start a bad evening for him, this I explained to his teachers too, but the school thought they can't accommodate that. I don't want to leave a child who is GTube feeding depended in school a minute late, I am not that kind of mom but if the kids would still be sleeping, I would think 15-20 mins is a reasonable amount of allowance to give the entire classroom. If I had not accommodated the school when the first 2 weeks my son started, we would be in court with TLE over child abuse and neglect. We had a rough start with TLE, but we accommodated them.Ms. Donyetta we will miss for sure and a few teachers who are not just there for the paycheck.TLE curriculum needs to be a little serious. there are a few things I am not pleased with as a customer/parent, but I am reasonable enough to cut the school some slack, the slack they can't cut their pupils plus I run a business too so I should be gentle with my criticism.There are better school around for sure, TLE was an option because other schools were filled to the brim as at the time we were looking but the Director promised that we entrust our son to her, so we did.Mayo"s mom.
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April 2023 by Mike Baer
Can't say enough about Donyetta and her staff. This is our third daycare between our two children (one a similar franchise model and the other a independently-owned daycare) and, by far, this has been our best experience. The environment is welcoming, bright, and friendly. The policies are clearly communicated when things change (keeping in mind that these franchises are at the whim of a company). My daughter actually LIKES going to school every day - this is something we've never experienced before. My ONLY gripe is the inability to self-provision receipts and tax forms for. The app's implementation of that is ... not great.
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January 2023 by Lakshmi Nair
The Learning Experience Downingtown is really amazing. It was hard for my daughter initially but the staffs and teachers really helped her and now she loves being there. Thanks TLE for all the support.
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January 2023 by Jennifer Stamaris
We've been with TLE since they opened right before the pandemic started. Once they re-opened post pandemic, if I'm being honest, it was a struggle for a bit as there were a lot of changes in the Center Directors and parents not being allowed in the building due to Covid protocols. However since the policies have changed in beginning of 2022 to allow parents in the building, I've noticed a vast positive difference in the center mostly because we can communicate the kids teachers on a daily basis now and see what activities the kids are participating in. There has been a new director Donyetta who has been there for most of 2022 and the stability of her and the team of teachers she's brought in has been wonderful. We've seen an increase in events that include the parents, school pictures, and parent/teacher conferences as well as increased communication. We are much happier and both of boys enjoy their classrooms, teachers, and going to school.
