Since nursery school is usually the child’s first encounter with an unknown educational situation, it is most important the experience be shared in atmosphere of love, warmth, and care. Brookside Nursery School serves as a child’s first exposure to school. The major effort of the program is to make this a positive experience. Emphasis is placed on social adjustment and developing relationships with other children. There are three classes of eight children each. The teachers are fully aware of the main objectives of such an atmosphere, and that is to give the child a sense of security and to help the child to begin to realize some of his or her own potential as an individual.

A meeting with parent(s) will be held prior to each child’s registration, at which time the parent(s) will visit the center’s total facilities. The parent(s) will be given a written statement of purpose, services, and procedures for parent conferences, visit and input to center policy; procedures relating to children’s records; and procedures for providing emergency health care.

Ages of children accepted by the school are from 3 years to 5 years. At the present time we offer a three-day program and a two-day program.

• QUALIFICATIONS OF SCHOOL AND PERSONNEL

Licensing of the School comes under the jurisdiction of the Department of Early Education and Care. The Town Building Inspector and the Wilmington fire Department as well as the Department of Early Education and Care inspect the school building. All personnel must meet the education and health requirements as specified in the Rules and Regulations of the Department of Early Education and Care. Parents have the right to contact the Department of Early Education and Care for any back- ground checks on compliance history of the Brookside Nursery School. The licensor for the school is:

Department of Early Education and Care Michelle Haines

360 Merrimack St. Bldg. 9, 3rd Floor
Lawrence, Ma 01843
(978) 826-1311

• RECORD KEEPING AND CONFIDENTIALITY

All records kept by the School are for the use of the staff only. The records are available to the parent(s) at any time. If a parent(s) wants the records or wishes to share the records with a physician or other persons, a written request must be made to the school by the parent before copies of the record are released. If a child’s record is subpoenaed, we will notify the parent(s). There is no charge for copies made. This would include medical forms, evaluations or classroom observations, etc.

All records kept by the school will be available upon request to an authorized employee of the Department of Early Education and Care. These authorized employees shall not remove identifying case material from the center’s premises and shall maintain the confidentiality of individual records.

Parents have the right to ask information or request deletions of amendments to the child’s records. If the parent(s) are of the opinion that adding the information is not enough or if the school feels that the deletions or amendments should not be made, the parent(s) shall have the right to a conference with the school. A decision in writing will be given to the parent(s).

The staff of the school is willing to cooperate with public school personnel, physicians or social service agencies concerning the development and well being of any child attending the school.

• PROGRAM

The program is balanced between free time and group activities or between quiet and active things to do. A playtime is provided, using both indoor and outdoor facilities. A daily snack of juice or water and pretzels and graham crackers is provided. The program is planned to be fun for the children and at the same time contain many learning experiences.

Brookside is set up with two distinct programs.

• A. Tuesday – Thursday program
  

  This program runs from 8:45 – 11:30am.
  Children in this group are typically but not exclusively the age of 3 turning 4. There are some children that are summer birthdays and will turn 5 during the summer months. Most of these children will return to Brookside the following year prior to starting kindergarten. The curriculum is in place to help these children to socialize with their peers and teachers and to become accustomed to being separated from their parents during school time. The curriculum also includes letters, numbers, rhyming, coloring, cutting etc.

• B. Monday – Wednesday – Friday program
  

  This program runs from 8:45 – 12:00.
  As stated above mostly all the children from program A will transition into the three-day program. We designed our curriculum to prepare children for kindergarten the following year. Once the children have been assigned a classroom they will stay in the classroom for the entire year. While we still believe that socialization is the primary goal of preschool we also work with the children on writing, recognizing and sounding letters along with writing and recognizing their names. We work with numbers, counting, cutting and gluing. We work on math, reading and science curriculum to ensure their readiness for kindergarten.

• SCHOOL CALENDAR

School calendar will follow the Wilmington School Calendar with the following exceptions: School will open on the first Monday after Labor Day and the last day of school for summer vacation will be the Friday of the first full week of June.. A calendar with all school vacations and holidays will be sent home on the first day of school.