Kensington School of Naperville

Both of my children have been at Kensington since they were infants. My son just started kindergarten this year in District 204 and all I can say is that he is so prepared for what they are teaching in the schools. This was all due to the excellent curriculum that is taught at Kensington! My kids both love the school and have thrived due to the nurturing learning environment present at Kensington. I would not hesitate at all to send my kids to this school.

Our two children attended Kensington for a total of six consecutive years. Kensington was a wonderful fit for our children. Their full-day program was balanced in terms of curriculum and play-oriented activities and our kids were more than prepared for kindergarten when they graduated from Kensington. The school was always clean and the facility is fantastic, in and of itself and compared to other schools I have seen in the area. The teachers were the most important aspect of our Kensington experience. They were incredibly attentive, approachable, knowledgeable and nurturing. There were some challenges with school administration during our years there (turnover with the directors, transitional pains with new systems for check-in and payments, etc.) and while those could be frustrating, the experience for our kids was always positive and when they are happy to go to school, we didn't let admin-oriented issues affect us too much. That said, I trust those issues have disappeared with the new director (she was our last teacher at the school and is great). I don't think there's a one-size-fits-all pre-school but for us, Kensington was a great place for our kids to learn and grow for many years.

Our son has been going to Kensington for a year now after being in an at-home daycare. The level of care, the curriculum, and the ease of doing business are all top notch. The only recommendation is better communication with the parents about weather related school closings. They waited until the last minute, then you must hunt down the closings on the news websites. If you miss the update you're screwed. They have a website of their own, that should be the medium for closings.

We strarted at Kensington when my older daughter was three, and she just started kindergarten last month. My younger one has been there since she was three months old, and she is now two. Therefore, we've experienced almost each room at this point. From the care and structured activities in the infant room, to the curriculum and focus on social development in the pre-k class, the staff at Kensington prepares kids to adjust to their new stages of development. The facilities and enrichments help create an atmosphere of both fun and learning. My five year old is thriving in kindergarten, and I attribute much of this to the pre-k curriculum. Everything in the kindergarten curriculum was covered in the pre-k class. Overall, I cannot imagine sending my kiddos anywhere else. I drop them off and they run to their teachers, and I pick them up and they don't want to leave. I can't ask for anything more!

In contrast to the mom concerned about her 5 year old daughter, I can only summarize our experience with Kensington School as overwhelmingly positive. Before we enrolled our kids there, we did some research and visited several other daycare facilities in the area, including the selective and prestigious Compass school. Kensington was by far the nicest building, with the most spacious, well-lit and tastefully appointed rooms. The staff was unpretentious, friendly and professional. The kids quickly adapted and thrived in the school's environment. They progressed very nicely and developed both socially and intellectually. One of the teachers was especially motivated and talented. She went out of her way and performed well beyond our expectations in helping us potty train the kids. While no school is perfect, and perhaps some of the other early childhood institutions are more academically rigorous, we do not believe our kids would be happier in any other environment. I wanted to add a few more comforting thoughts for the concerned mom. Nothing that could happen between two 5 year old children could be construed as a "sexual assault". At that age, children do not understand sexual relations. It is only curiosity that motivates them. When I was 3 and 5 years old, I was also enticed by neighbor girls to play "doctor" and other naughty games. At the time, I was not interested in or able to perform a sex act. Obviously, these activities should be monitored and strongly discouraged when applicable. Boys need to be taught to respect girls and treat them with special care. But children do misbehave at times and these things happen more often than we think. My interest in female physique awakened only when I was 12 or 13 but by then I knew that I was no longer a child and these things were not games anymore. These early childhood experiences did not turn me into a sexual deviant so no damage was done. We should not base a review about months or years of child care and education on one incident of exaggerated importance.

Please do not send your child to this school. My 5 year old daughter was sexually assaulted by a boy at the school in the playground on school grounds. It was my daughter who immediately told me what happened when I picked her up at school. My daughter has been severely traumatized by this. The Director's response was to laugh about it, and say that this is developmentally appropriate and corporate's response was that it was my daughter's fault because she hugged the boy. My daughter doesn't like this boy. This boy has been violent in the past. I guess if my daughter's shorts weren't too short this wouldn't have happened. This troubled boy remains at the school. I had to contact the police. The school did not contact the police, or even write an incident report. Had my daughter not been so articulate in disclosing what was done to her, I may never have known what happened to her. Please protect your child and choose a different school. I don't want this to happen to another child.

We absolutely LOVE this school! The teachers are all amazing and Molly is the best Director! Our son is so happy here and we can not imagine a better school.