L'Academy Mandarin Immersion Preschool San Mateo

Our 2.5 year old daughter just started at L'Academy San Mateo earlier this month, and we have been really happy with our experience so far. This is our daughter's first time in a preschool/childcare setting, so we were a bit worried about how it would go, but she has been adjusting well and enjoying her time there. The director, Farina, and the teachers are warm and friendly, and we have great confidence that our daughter is being well taken care of. You can tell that they really enjoy being with the children and care very much about their growth and development.

We visited a lot of preschools throughout the peninsula, but decided to enroll our daughter here for the following reasons:
- The school just opened in October 2021, and is very clean. The children also switch to indoor shoes inside the center.
- They provide healthy meals and snacks prepared onsite.
- COVID safety measures are excellent, and they currently provide free weekly COVID testing for the children, which is unheard of at other centers.
- The Mandarin immersion program is a huge bonus. Although we don't speak Mandarin, we wanted our daughter to have the opportunity to learn Mandarin, and it's going great so far!
- They have an app available for parents so that you can receive updates and photos throughout the day. They also provide a monthly newsletter with updates on what the children are learning, such as the artist or composer of the month, and incorporate art, music, science, and many other learning opportunities for the children. The transparency and open communication with parents is top notch.
- The school also helps with potty training and doesn't require the children to be potty trained to start.

Overall, we have been very happy with our experience at L'Academy and highly recommend this center!

Our 1.5 year old started at L'Academy San Mateo one month ago, and we are very satisfied with our experience at this center.

L'Academy San Mateo checks all our boxes: language immersion, play-based learning, age-appropriate fun activities, caring and loving staff, quality interactions with teachers and peers. To our surprise and delight -- they even offer organic healthy meals & snacks prepared onsite! Additionally, this newly opened center is very clean, bright and airy, with brand new furniture and playground structures.

We get a lot of updates of activities, meals, nap & diaper events throughout the day. The teachers are always willing to give us more updates at pickup / drop-off. The program director Farina is very warm and responsive to our questions. L'Academy also seems to be doing above and beyond to ensure a safe and pleasant environment for kids while our under-5 age group still couldn't get COVID vaccines. They offer free weekly onsite COVID testing, and we have yet to hear another childcare center that does the same.

We are not hearing much chatter from our 1.5 yo on how his day went, but our boy is always so happy to be going to school. We look forward to his daily updates in the future -- in Mandarin Chinese! We'd also expect to send his younger sibling to L'Academy San Mateo when the time comes!

Our son started at L’Academy in San Mateo two months ago and he’s enjoying his time there! He talks about his teachers and friends all the time and looks forward to going to school (Although he still doesn’t like saying goodbye to mommy or daddy when he gets dropped off in the morning). I can tell the director Farina really cares about the kids, as she has gone above and beyond to help our son get acclimated to his first experience being at school. She also takes the time at the end of the day to give us updates on how his day went and even asks us (the parents) how we’re doing as she knows it’s a big transition for the adults too! The center uses a wonderful app that allows the staff to update us with notes about meals and potty, as well as when they went down for nap and photos of what they did throughout the day.

We fell in love with it after our tour with the co-founder Helena. She was warm and welcoming, and took the time to answer all our questions. I appreciated the in-person tour and for allowing our son to play in the classroom when other schools only had virtual tour. Just prior to our son‘s first day, the director also set up a time for us to visit the school with our son again to get him acquainted with the classroom, his classmates and teachers. We appreciate the transparency that these visits provided, which ultimately helped us to decide to send our son here, and we couldn’t be happier with our decision!

A few other bonus points:
+ Cleanliness, the school is brand new and only started enrolling students back in October 2021
+ The teachers, Teacher Melissa and Teacher Wendy, speak excellent Mandarin, and introduce fun songs in Mandarin that my son remembers and sings all the time when he‘s at home
+ Excellent COVID protocol and weekly testing for the staff, children and families
+ A nut-free school, plus additional adjustments made to the menu to accommodate for our son’s multiple food allergies
+ Nutritious snacks and lunch provided
+ Flexible full-time/ part-time schedule
+ Helps with potty training but doesn’t require the child to be potty-trained to start

In short, if you’re looking for a center that provides a stimulating program along with a language immersion experience for your child, I would highly recommend L’Academy!

My 2 year old son joined L'Academy in November 2021, and he's really thriving and enjoying his time there. He was starting to outgrow his last daycare (that we loved dearly) so we decided to transition him to a preschool. L'Academy just opened up when we toured but we got great vibes right away and and it check off all our boxes (and more). The factors that played into our decision to send him here were:
- The founder, director and teachers seemed really warm, caring and attentive
- It was play-based yet educational
- The space was clean, bright and airy
- They have an outdoor play space
- They take great precautions with COVID
- They offer meals and snacks
- They are mandarin immersion
- They offer exposure to arts and music
- They have an app to track our son's activity throughout the day to keep the parents informed (pictures of him, diaper changes, nap times, eating habits)

Farina, the new director, has done a great job in
really transforming the space and creating fun structured activities for the kids in the short time she's been there. We were a bit nervous with the transition initially but she has really put us at easy by listening to our concerns as a parent and helping to tailor the right experience for our child. Since joining, we've noticed that our son has been wanting to do more art at home, his language skills has significantly improved and he's more independent in feeding himself. So far, it has exceeded my expectations and I have nothing but good things to say about L'Academy. I highly recommend it to others!

My daughter is a new student with L'Academy and we couldn't be happier. The center is brand new, incredibly clean and very convenient along the Burlingame/San Mateo border. We are new to the area and when looking for a daycare/preschool, we were trying to find an option that was receptive to feedback, diligently communicates updates, had a curriculum that was both logical and promoted all-around development, and had a Mandarin immerson program. A bonus is the school provides all meals (lunch and two snacks) made in-house.

Our daughter, while only having attended for a bit over a week, is absolutely enjoying herself. Each day we receive multiple photo updates on her activities, incl. meals, and when she's had potty breaks. At the time of pickup/dropoff the teacher is always available to answer any questions or provide a general update on our daughter's development.

I'd highly recommend L'Academy to anyone.