preschool teacher

child care teacher

daycare teacher

lead teacher

teacher

La Petite Academy

I started working at La Petite while I searched for a teacher position in a school. I was treated a little differently then most would because I have a degree in early education plus several years of classroom experience. Compared to other daycare systems they pay pretty well if you have experience and offer benefits. I understand a person working at La Petite with no experience working with or teaching children would make $10 starting wage. The company does regularly offer sign on and referral bonuses. The medical/dental/vision benefits are pretty good. PTO is based on how many years you have been with the company plus hours worked. 

One of the hardest things with working at La Petite was how corporate minded it was. Everything revolved around making the company/school look good for potential walk throughs for prospective clients. For example as a teacher I had to have four "DOL" (bulletin boards) put up each month. They had to include the child's work, a pretty detailed description of the project and its learning goals, pictures of the children making the project, quotes from the children as the made the project, etc. This cost hours of work that could have been spent doing much more important things for the classroom. Since I needed four boards it seemed as if as soon as all four boards were up for the month it was time to start all over again! I was also asked to keep up curriculum material around then room even if it was an inconvenience to the children or myself. 

I was personally paid pretty well at La Petite, especially after I was transferred to another center because of my qualifications. However they did railroad me regarding a management position that I applied and interviewed for. I was told by my boss that I pretty much had the position. However, after the interview I didn't hear any more for weeks. Then I learned another candidate had come forward and she was offered the position. The manner in which this was done was unprofessional and not fair and in the midst of it I almost left the company. Soon after I was offered another teaching position that was an improvement to what I was doing, plus a raise. I was also told I would be the next person in line for the next manager position that opened up. However after months of working I was never offered another position nor did anyone talk to me about it. 

The kids are fun. There are a lot of resources available, however some centers have more resources than others based on their enrollment and level of importance to the company. 

If you have experience as a professional working with children and/or in a professional atmosphere it may be hard to work with those who have less experience or are not professional in their style. This was the case at the first center I worked at where I often worked with young people who cursed, skimped on responsibilities, or didn't know any basics to teaching or behavioral management. It is also disappointing that La Petite makes a big deal for those who go through the CDA training but do not properly recognize those who have hours more educational credit in college or university studies; and/or those who obtain Bachelor or Master's degrees.  

Working at La Petite Academy was not fun for me. From the first day until the last day, my experience was unpleasant for the following reasons:
1. The teachers are not treated with respect by the director. I had several days where I (as well as other teachers) went without a lunch break or any break for the entire 8 hour day. I wouldn't even have the opportunity to go to the bathroom to change from my bathing suit after a field trip to the pool. I would have to sit all day in a dripping wet bathing suit with a towel wrapped around my waist. I also was given one work shirt which was 3 sizes too big for me that I had to wash and iron every day for work. I had asked if I could purchase more but nothing was done. I also requested time off when I first started (which was approved by the director) but when it was time for me to go, she told me the day before my time off that I could not get that time. This led to me quitting (I wasn't missing my mother's wedding) and her scolding me and claiming that "she should have never hired me"
2. The work environment is terrible. No A/C in the summer with 25 kids crammed into a small classroom is not fun. The classrooms are too small, the toys are in bad condition, and the menu lacks nutrition that kids need. EVERYTHING is dirty. I spent as much time as I could without escaping my teaching duties, cleaning and organizing closets and toys and bathrooms. The place is mopped and vacuumed and picked up every night but it needs to be scrubbed and sanitized monthly, which doesn't happen.The teachers can't focus on that during the day obviously because of the kids.
3. The children are out of control. I am usually very patient with children but working here really tested my patience. Some of the children in attendance when I worked there were completely out of control, as in punching, kicking, biting, screaming, and defiant. All day. Every day. These children ruin it for the rest of the kids who actually listen and have fun. The children with disrespectful natures should have been expelled after their third warning, but they were bringing in money so the director decided to look the other way.

The only thing that made working there worth the agony were the employees. They all had similar stories to mine and we bonded because of the poor working conditions. Most of the employees were pretty nice and easy going. Overall, I would never step foot in another La Petite ever again.

I don't even recommend this school to people I know who are looking for daycare, let alone people looking for a job. I get paid just barely over minimum wage as a lead teacher while my assistant teacher gets paid significantly more. I have two years' experience and a bachelor's degree while my assistant has no experience and just graduated high school. 
A typical day for a lead teacher includes:
- Arrive at 8:30 am, but really this could be at whatever time they decide to have you come in. You'll find out the Thursday of the week before.
- Assist assistant teacher in the remainder of "breakfast" for the kids by cleaning up and trying to control whatever children are running away from the table.
- Sit down and read a book to the children who decide to listen. 
- Do some sort of activity that Learning Care Group has picked out. Usually something ridiculously easy for the age group or ridiculously difficult but mostly interesting and fun.
- Continuously change diapers, clean the classroom, pick up toys, lead tours that come through your classroom, and watch children all at the same time lest someone gets hurt and you are always to blame. 
- Take the kids outside for 15-30 minutes for playtime.
- Come back inside and clean up. Wash the kids hands and sit them down for lunch.
- Eat lunch family style while cleaning up after the kids and continuously making sure their plates are full or else they will cry. No, I'm not being dramatic here.
- Nap time. Thank goodness for nap time. Getting the kids to go down for a nap is a thing all on it's own but you'll learn that as you go.
- You go on break sometime during nap time for about an hour. The kids sleep for two hours, which means you have one hour to put your DOL's together, put your DOL's up, sign off on paperwork, fill out their Daily Connections, create the next week's lesson plans, clean the classroom chairs, etc.
- Your assistant goes home and your second assistant comes in just as the kids are waking up. More diaper changing, etc, then snack time.
- Free time for the afternoon, which means you need to watch them for fights, etc, and clean up after them until it's time for you to go home whenever you get down to ratio.

Bottom line, do not work here. It's a trap, and they will make you very angry with the way they do not care about the kids as much as they care about profits. Save yourself the stress.

There are some pros and cons involved with working at La Petite in Scottsdale. If I could give it an extra half star I would, but I cannot!

I do agree with some of the things the other reviewer said about the gossiping and teachers having to use their own money to buy things, those are definitely downsides. Of course, not everyone is always gossiping or hard to work with, I had some very nice coworkers at La Petite who are really excellent at what they do.

There are issues with management as well. Mainly because there is just not enough help. Many times if I were to try to call either the location or management I had a very difficult time getting a hold of anyone. I understand that they are very busy, but it makes things hard when there is not enough communication between management and the staff. We also had an ant problem for a little while, they were crawling all over the counter where we prepare the food, management shrugged it off.

The worst thing about working here was how ridiculously overworked everyone was. I worked 10 to 11 hour days every day for a while, sometimes only getting half a break. At most other jobs I'm sure that does not sound too awful, but when you're chasing kids all day, it's exhausting! Also once I was sick, like real sick could barely move, so I called in, no one responded. Received a text saying "Hey, I know you're sick, but we need to let someone else go home so you have to come in". Seriously!? We work with little kids! Pretty sure parents would be angry if they knew we were handling their children while sick. 

Nearly everyone who had worked at this location has quit without putting their two weeks in. Everyone I can think of just couldn't take it anymore and quit on the spot. I did not do this, but I think that really says something about how unhappy the vast majority the staff really is.

I have a whole boatload of horror stories, but there were some things I actually did like about La Petite Academy. I liked that there was a relatively regular schedule, like we usually came at the same time about every day. Also liked that the routine for the kids was followed closely, reduces chaos! Also as I said before, there are some incredible teachers working here. OH and free snacks, mm vanilla wafers. That being said, there are so many things that made my job experience less than enjoyable, however it is all about the kids, and that is what kept me there!

Where to begin with this job....

Upon being hired, I was immediately provided with the necessary trainings needed to be on the floor unsupervised. The interview process went well; the director was sweet and welcoming. 

I was a floater for a while, going where I was needed and I was a closer most of the time, which I did not mind at all, being as I lived ten minutes away from the location. The kids were wonderful, the staff was inviting, and I always had the support of the staff and management whenever I had a question on what to do and they never seemed bothered by it.

Not even six months into the job I was promoted to lead school age teacher, because the former lead teacher was leaving for another position. The decision to put me back there seemed almost immediate and unanimous, as I was back there a lot and made great connections with those children. 

The lead teacher position was obviously more demanding and required more work than a floater position - for example, writing lesson plans, having those lesson plans updated week to week, having a current menu up, knowing certain allergies, etc. I was also told to keep current projects up and to decorate the classroom. It was a lot of work but I loved every single minute of it. I played games with those kids, taught them how to sign Christmas songs, and made sure that they were happy and learning something new every single day.

Some days, the management would buy lunch for everyone, and during teacher appreciation, would always make sure we all felt appreciated. The holiday shows and Pre-K graduations were always fun as well.

I can't really think of any cons to this job - except that I had to leave it for another job due to moving away. The management was wonderful, the staff was wonderful, and each individual child I met there was wonderful. If I had not had the experience of this job. I would not be where I am today. 

La Petite could be an alright school, however, the Niceville facility needs a lot of improvement—all the way around. It could totally benefit from starting from scratch.There has not been a steady Director in over 6 months. There have been revolving door directors ever since our last one suddenly quit due to extreme burnout the beginning of 2021. The class sizes are very high, causing stress on the teachers and students. The school consistently over enrolls students (money hungry) and you hardly get a 2 second notice when you get a new student!!  The age groups are mixed in order to compensate ratio. There are often children as young as two in the same classroom as School Aged children for 8+ Hours and management sees nothing wrong with it. It is a huge safety issue. Management was kind of “thrown” into things, so there is a huge lack of training there. As an employee, I have seen other employees be treated poorly or unfairly by management and other staff (cliques), causing them to leave. The turnover rate of teachers is excruciatingly HIGH!!!!! They can not keep teachers because they do not treat them right, pay them well, or support them. I taught preschool but gave up because I was never able to get any lessons accomplished! The district manager is not helpful and knows these things are happening, yet does very little to encourage the staff and support them. There would be days we are so short staffed we don’t get lunch breaks unless you demand it. Sometimes you wouldn’t know you’re not getting a lunch break. They would just give you a cold chick fil A sandwich and basically expect you to know that means you’re not getting a break. The school in and of itself looks very rundown and poor inside. I basically ran from this school. Perhaps things will be better in the future, however, in my several years there I was very unhappy. My students were the best part of the job. 

This company does not care about children, education, staff or their reported values. They care about money and will say and do anything for it. They care about appearance rather than substance. Yes, good teachers are hired but they quickly leave when they find that they are not respected  valued or supported. Pay is horrible and benefits are lacking. Especially compared to other learning institutions. Management is not trained to manage. They are only trained to survive each day and it is stressful for them and for staff. Fighting to survive shouldn't be the constant status.  Working with children is stressful on its own but teachers can overcome most things for the children. Management from the very top down is the problem. Raises are insulting ranging from .07 cents to 1.00 and they routinely skip years though they are profitable and constantly expanding and though they profited during the pandemic and took emergency funds from the government, they did not pay the working staff hazard pay and argued against safety measures from the beginning of the pandemic though the staff that worked directly with children were more at risk and everyone in higher management was able to safely work from home and recorded tasteless and tone deaf videos from their mansions and high end kitchens and personal gyms that were mandatory to watch to thank staff for keeping everything running( you know, for risking our lives to keep the rich safe and comfy). School management constantly lied to teachers and parents about positive cases in the school. 

The center I worked at had a director that did not trust her staff, watching them constantly through the windows not getting her own work done. I felt more like a zoo animal than an employee. I loved that families and children that I worked with, and really miss them. I loved my coworkers. As a result of the director not trusting her staff many employees did not stick around longer than six to nine months. There was way to much paperwork as a result I felt like I didn't get to bond with the children in my classroom. The lesson plans were done for you making so that the teachers couldn't use their creativity. The curriculum that we used was older than me. After Learning Care Group bought the company they started making a lot of changes that didn't sit well with its employees. There is very little communication between the upper management and their directors, resulting in lots of communication difficulties between the directors and staff, and rushing to put policies in place. I didn't trust anyone from the director on up, confidential surveys were not kept that way, and confidential conversions with the regional management were shared with director. Sick children were allowed to come into the classroom and stay infecting and spreading the illness to everyone. Management was slow to react when the children were sick and action needed to be taken. I could never count of working anywhere close to the hours I was scheduled for. They would send teachers home after a second teacher would come in, just to go over ratio 20- 30 minutes later, resulting in a scramble to provide coverage.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Management, and Administrative assistance are extremely cruel and does not genuinely care about their employees and will go at all lengths to make your life worse just to get what they want. You have absolutely no freedom with this job: you stick to everything they tell you and they leave no room for leniency. They will ignore you, harass you, and make you feel like no matter what you do it is never enoughmanagement was inconsistent. There were times I was scheduled for very short shifts and sent home early, which made hours unreliable. there is some unprofessionalism and gossip at times. Furthermore, they encourage teachers to monitor and spy on each other, making teamwork impossible and creating an environment of resentment and backbiting. They also force teachers to leave their classes early to benefit another teacher who is not a class teacher, and transfer students from one class to another throughout the day.Furthermore, the administration and assistants encourage teachers to monitor and spy on each other, making teamwork impossible and creating an environment of resentment. They also force teachers to leave their classes early to benefit another teacher who is not a class teacher ..Some teachers' children pay as if they work full-time, even though their mothers don't work full-time. They are sent home early with their children as if they are working part-time.... Students of different ages are placed in one class at the beginning of the school day.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The administration creates an atmosphere rife with gossip and surveillance.

La Petite Academy indeed presents a mix of strengths and challenges, typical of many educational institutions. Here’s a summary of the main points you’ve raised:
Pros
1. Innovative Curriculum: The academy has a solid foundation of great ideas and strategies, enabling effective lesson plans that foster children's skill development.
2. Potential for Excellence: With proper management, La Petite Academy has the potential to excel as an educational institution.
 Cons
1. Management Issues: Inadequate management can undermine the implementation of effective classroom strategies, hampering the institution's overall success.
2. Teacher Support and Training: Insufficient training for teachers can lead to overworked staff, negatively impacting their ability to address student behavior and classroom dynamics.
3. Work Environment: A stressful work environment can arise from high teacher turnover, including call-outs and no-shows, causing additional strain on remaining teachers.
4. Classroom Overcrowding: Mixed-age groups and overcrowded classrooms can create challenges in managing different learning needs and behaviors effectively.
 Recommendations
1. Enhance Management Support: Involve management to ensure teachers are equipped and supported in implementing the lesson plans effectively.
2. Focused Training Programs: Provide targeted training sessions for teachers on classroom management techniques and resource utilization.
3. Address Staffing Issues: Develop strategies to minimize teacher turnover and foster a healthier work environment.

By addressing these areas, La Petite Academy can leverage its strengths to cultivate a more productive and supportive educational environment.

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