REVIEW OF The Learning Nest Academy - North York BY parent, Ryan Stagno

(5) Student Experience

The facilities are very clean, the staff are very caring, and the food is excellent. We have had very good experiences with communication about issues or successes with our daughter. The number of new skills that she has come home with is significant. I believe the environment created by the Learning Nest has inspired her to want to do what she sees her peers doing. It’s funny to see her come home singing a new song or picking up her plate and scraping it off into the garbage when she’s done eating: these skills we have not directly taught her, but she picks up from her peers and teachers and loves doing so. I’ve also been very impressed by the quality of the food and the variety, which I believe helps develop a varied palate and prevents picky eating.

Why The Learning Nest Academy - North York?

The facility is close to our house and close to public transit, meaning drop-offs in the morning are significantly easier. They also have a stroller shed, which helps facilitate an easy drop-off.

Expectations vs. Reality

It aligned with my expectations in the sense that she enjoys being around her peers and picks up new skills because she sees them do it.

Your Advice

They should be aware that this is very expensive. I recognize that money goes somewhere: this is why the Learning Nest can retain excellent staff, provide varied and well-crafted meals, and maintain a good curriculum. However, even for a financially comfortable household, tuition can be a significant expense.

(4) School Leadership

The leadership team seems very competent. We do get regular updates in terms of curriculum priorities, upcoming developments, special events(and the rationale and learning development opportunities of each) via email/Kindertales app. I have heard other parents voice some concern around effective communication, though this is not something I have personally experienced (my daughter has only been enrolled for five months). I will say there was one incident where the educators informed us that another child bit my daughter. Nobody saw the incident, so the report that came to us was very light on details. There was a discrepancy in the story between two different educators who told us, and when we asked leadership to clarify the nature of that discrepancy, they told us they would, but we never heard back from them.

(5) Teaching

Teachers at Learning Nest are very good. They clearly care very much for the children, and it’s very encouraging to see them create such a welcoming, warm, and loving space. My daughter is very often coming home, saying new words, counting enthusiastically, or singing some new song that we did not teach her. They go over colours, the alphabet, and numbers (the basic building blocks), but it’s clear that these lessons are presented in a way that’s fun and engaging and builds important social interactions and development that will be necessary for her in her life. It’s not easy to trust your kid's education with someone else (especially for the first time, as daycare is for many), but Learning Nest North York has made it easier. In particular, Yatri and Dana are so wonderful with my daughter.

(5) Academics

This is very similar to the answer above it without trying to repeat myself too much. The curriculum at Learning Nest seems very robust. What I can say is that my daughter is enthusiastic about going to school each day but clearly comes home with new skills, interests, passions, and has a lot of fun. A particular strength of the school is its no-screens policy (I’ve heard from other parents at other daycares that there is some screen time baked into the curriculum, and I promise you nothing would make me withdraw my kid from daycare faster than that). The teacher-to-child ratio seems good in the sense that she’s never neglected, and there always seems to be a good amount of support from the support staff, such that they can call in backup when required.

(4) Extracurriculars

I’m not sure what exactly the extracurriculars are (it’s not like the kids are playing baseball - the curriculum includes outside time, so it’s not extracurricular). However, if we are going to include their outside time as part of this answer, I would say water play was clearly a big success. The kids always seem to have a lot of fun playing and splashing around. It was messy and led to a lot of extra laundry, but worthwhile if the kids enjoy it. The intention of water play was always to be in the morning; however, in recent weeks, it has been too chilly in the morning to do so, and they moved water play to the afternoon. This is challenging because if you pick your kid up immediately after or during water play, they are wet and cold, and it’s an additional layer of complexity to get them home, especially if you have to walk.

(5) Students

The students seem nice. I don’t know any of them personally. My daughter seems to have friends and says their names excitedly, so she’s clearly benefiting from the social engagement and always enjoys going to school. The class sizes seem healthy. I recognize that there is a five-to-one ratio of children to teachers, and this seems to give educators a good oversight of what’s going on. There was one instance where my daughter was bitten by another student even though nobody saw the incident during outside time (we knew because the bite marks on her forearm were visible); however, I have a level of understanding because it truly is an impossible task to watch five children at once, especially when they’re running around

(4) School Life

My daughter does love going to school at the Learning Nest. I think it’s a very multi factor reasoning, but certainly having good teachers, lots of activities, and a fun and educational environment plays a role. To be honest, I would enjoy it if there were more art projects because I like taking home little bits of what she worked on the previous day. There are some, and it seems to come in waves, but it has been a couple of weeks since she was sent home with an art project, and I’m tired of the same caterpillar with feathers on my fridge. I need to mix it up. The teachers implemented a nice little quality-of-life improvement in that they have a pot of coffee brewed for parents.

(4) Community

I think the community of the living nest has been very kind and welcoming (as far as relative strangers go). I now recognize most of the parents as they’re doing pick-up or drop-off around the same time as me, and there’s always a friendly atmosphere, some light chitchat, or questions about how the kids are doing. I think Learning Nest could maybe do something to have a social gathering amongst the parents to foster that community, but arguably that’s not really what daycare is for, so maybe that’s not their responsibility. I don’t feel like parent feedback is necessarily sought after in terms of the curriculum. We receive updates about the curriculum on a semi-regular basis, and that is a reasonable opportunity to voice objections (if anybody had some), but I don’t feel like there is a lot of parental involvement in the life of the school.

(5) School Location

The location is extremely convenient and is basically the main reason why we decided to go with the Learning Nest (we decided to stay for the variety of reasons outlined above). Being so close to the subway means that I can drop my daughter off on the way to work. They also have a stroller shed which means I can safely lock up the stroller, and whether it’s me or my wife who does, the strollers are there waiting for us.

(4) Admissions

The admissions process was pretty easy as far as I remember. She joined the toddler room (probably easier than joining from the infant room because the toddlers need less care, relatively), and we really only had to do trial days to make this work. The first day we were there for a matter of two hours with her. The second day we dropped her off for a half-day. She took to it like a fish to water, so starting Monday the next week we were doing full days, and everything went really smoothly. My advice to anyone interested in the Learning Nest is to start saving money aggressively.