The William Woodward Jr. Nursery School

From the Director:

There is a definite structure to each day which provides children with a sense of security, knowing what will be happening. The children are always learning through planned activities and play and enjoy both teacher choice and free choice activities. The curriculum is well thought out and developed but is also geared to the specific interests and needs of a particular class. They are well prepared for ongoing schools both socially and academically.

Due to the background, training and expertise of our teachers and to the wonderful ratio of teacher to child, children receive a lot of individual help if needed and opportunities to further develop their strengths.

Our school is extremely nurturing and children receive a great deal
of individual attention. The staff is very professional and dedicated
to helping each child grow in every aspect of development-the emotional, social, cognitive and physical. Children are helped to develop independence, competence, good self esteem, empathy and respect for others. They are encouraged to grow as individuals and as
part of our school family. Our school is highly diverse and has about
20 nationalities represented each year.

The children have a meeting first to come together as a group and discuss what they will be working on that day. They are read to
and comment when they choose to on the book read. They then
go on to teacher choice and free choice activities. They clean up, look at books themselves and have snack, after which they go outside to our very large playground which is directly accessed from most of the classes.

Parents attend orientation evenings and curriculum nights. They have regularly scheduled parent-teacher conferences and many opportunities to further communicate with their child's teachers. They receive frequent newsletters. A parent facilitator offers workshops on such topics as positive discipline, separation, etc.
Parents are encouraged, once separation is accomplished, to visit their child's classroom. They are invited to attend all school sings and special events such as a maritime science presentation, musical storytelling presentation and others.

The staff is extremely warm and nurturing and skilled at helping children to feel more comfortable in the school environment. They work with parents to facilitate this as well. The separation is gradual and gentle and works very well. A great deal of sensitivity is shown toward those children who have a harder time separating from their parents or caretakers.