Philosophy

At St. James’ Preschool, we believe that preschool is where children form their first impressions of the world around them. It is in our playgrounds and classrooms where our attitudes toward conflict resolution, community, and a sense of our place in society are primarily developed.

We believe these first impressions are lasting, and therefore vital to the moral and social integrity of each child. Each moment has the potential for human growth and character development, and St. James’ Preschool understands the importance of our role in this stage of the child’s life.

Play is an essential skill for children to learn. Through the activity of playing, children explore their world, find out how to get along with others, test their skills and muscles, explore new ideas, and build confidence and self-esteem. Curiosity, self-esteem, language, problem solving, mathematics, cooperation, and endurance are just a few of the many benefits of learning through play. The activity of playing is an integral part of learning at this stage of development, and is an invaluable tool to prepare children for the future.

St. James’ Preschool uses play activities to foster child development and character building.

Curriculum

We believe that a sound curriculum includes empowering children to feel good about themselves, think for themselves, to have integrity and a sense of their own imaginative power.

Our age-appropriate activities are designed for children to be initiators and for teachers to support them in a process where learning is fun without rigidly defined limits. Early literacy, math awareness, science, block building, cooking, dramatic play, social studies (through anti-bias curriculum), moral education, art, music, and yoga are all incorporated in the every day life of the preschool so that each child will be ready for the inevitable transition to kindergarten. Because each child is an individual with different needs and is unique in his own way, our curriculum is thoughtfully planned, challenging, engaging, developmentally appropriate, culturally and linguistically responsive, comprehensive, and likely to promote positive outcomes for all children.

Our classroom environment actively encourages kindness, compassion, racial and cultural diversity and creates a community of learners with strong academic potential.