South Loop Montessori School

Terrible school. The principal is very verbally combative and defaults to defensiveness when you try to address concerns. The elementary school is better due to her more minimal involvement in the day-to-day with children.

I have two children in the PYP (primary years program) and they are both thriving. The staff and teachers are warm, caring and provide a nurturing but highly structured environment. Starting in kindergarten, classes go on so many field trips and truly do use the city as an extension of their classrooms. Class sizes are small enough that teachers are able to really get to know each student. At the end of kindergarten last year, my child was reading independently at a level at least a few years ahead of her age. We work with her at home on this, so I can’t say it’s all because of the school. But it rarely is the case that a child’s progress is only due to classroom learning. Would highly recommend Daystar to other parents.

I love the school itself. They relocated last year and it isn't in the best area. The teachers really care but they seem to be overwhelmed sometimes due to the extended school hours. My child has been going to this school since 1st grade, and she loves it. The activities, learning courses, programs etc are all amazing. The only bad thing Is some children here can be a really bad influence, and they tend to expose other children to things that children should not speak of.

As new parents at BISC - SL we have been highly impressed with all aspects of the school for your 12-year old daughter. They offer a world-class education with a focus on the individual student, giving them the tools and confidence to learn. What they avoid is the pressure-cooker system of rote learning and memorization that is in fashion at many top private schools. Great new campus in a safe part of Chicago, and an expanding list of sports, make this a great option when considering elite schools in the Chicago.

The FXW community seems wonderful, but I wouldn't recommend sending your child here. Our 4-year-old attended for a year, and he was fairly miserable here despite being extremely happy at the school he attended before. It was difficult to reach FXW staff to voice this concern (his teachers were basically unresponsive over email), and the staff I was finally able to reach were sometimes deflective, saying things like "COVID was hard on these kids." At this point, I'm ashamed to admit FXW had me convinced they were largely innocent, and FXW recommended a therapist for our son.After ONLY ONE appointment with the FXW-recommended therapist, we were told our son did not even need therapy, and furthermore, that therapy had been recommended to something like half of his FXW class. A second independent therapist agreed, and even went so far as to say (1) she would not send her child to FXW even if it were free, and (2) we should transfer our child to a different classroom as there had been "other issues" with that room. We spoke to FXW and kindly requested a transfer to a different class, but they refused. At this point we notified them that we were going to pull our child from the school entirely and asked for a refund of our $10k deposit. They also refused.In short, FXW is filled with wonderful families, but you should avoid. It's pretty damning when even the FXW-recommended therapist says the school has issues, and it's impossible to think they're putting students first when they wouldn't even accept the recommendation of their own therapist to move our child. I'm also astonished they would not give us our money back. The $10k we lost won't destroy our family, but I shudder to think of less fortunate families that, in this situation, would have to choose between financial hardship and keeping their children in a clearly problematic setting.