Preschool

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• Licensed Inclusive Preschool (10 months of the year)
• Morning and Afternoon Sessions
• Special Needs Certified Instruction

Introduction

We welcome you and your child to Hillcrest Centre Preschool. We are an inclusive centre licensed by the provincial government's Community Care Facilities Licensing Board.

Our preschool has professional, experienced and dedicated staff. The preschool has a wide variety of equipment and program supplies, allowing for quality activities in a safe and secure environment.

We combine both three and four year old children in our classes. This mixture provides for a wide range of individual abilities within the preschool classroom, proven to be beneficial for all children. Staff plan for the range of individual differences found in any group of children. Combining the age groups allows for peer tutoring and modeling by the four year olds who are able and eager to demonstrate their preschool experience.

Philosophy

We believe that a child's social, emotional, cognitive and physical skills can develop to their full potential in a high quality Early Childhood Educational setting.

We believe that a high quality setting includes:

• a warm, nurturing and caring staff
• a rich and stimulating environment
• a predictable yet flexible daily routine
• ongoing communication between a child's parents and our staff

Inclusion

Inclusion is a valued part of our program. We believe that children with extra support needs should attend Early Childhood Education settings with their peers. Extra support may include language development, emotional, behavioral, and physical delays or medical challenges.

Children with extra support needs participate in every aspect of our program according to their ability. We individualize programs in consultation with parents and professionals, such as Speech and Language Pathologists, Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists, Psychologists and Supported Child Development Consultants, to meet each child's specific needs for growth and development. We receive ongoing contract funding for extra staffing from the Ministry of Children and Families' Supported Child Care Program. This allows us to serve all our children's needs.

Being an inclusive preschool in which all children and families are welcome offers countless benefits for everyone.

Daily Activites

We vary our schedule, however, we do follow a similar routine throughout each session to provide a consistent environment. We encourage your child to explore, experiment and make friends. To help children become interested in a variety of activities, we offer a number of choices daily. There are times to observe, to play alone, to play with one or many friends and time to explore the various centers within the preschool environment.

Behaviour Management

We value and respect each child as a unique individual. Our goal in guiding children's behavior is to ensure their safety and to assist them in developing self-confidence, self-esteem, self-control, self-discipline and sensitivity in their interactions with others.

Our guidance strategies include:

• modeling
• stating clear limits and involving children in setting those limits
• having appropriate expectations for children according to their development
• teaching children to express their feelings in appropriate ways
• teaching children problem solving and conflict resolution skills and encouraging them to use those skills with their peers
• respecting children's feelings
• allowing children to experience natural consequences for their behavior

Program

Hillcrest Centre Preschool strives to provide creative opportunity for discovery, challenge and exploration as well as a safe environment for building self-confidence, self-awareness and supportive relationships with peers. To view our centre handbook click here or call 604 257-8652

We offer a diverse and exciting curriculum with many theme-based activities in a play-based environment that has a variety of learning centers for creative and discovery play. These include:

• music program
• phonics program
• numbers program
• science table
• sand and water play
• book corner
• house corner
• art center
• small and large climbing apparatus
• block corner
• table toys (puzzles, beads, etc..)

We also have a well-equipped, fenced, outdoor play area and the use of the gymnasium to incorporate into our preschool program.

Special Events

We are very proud of our special events, we look forward to Maplewood Farm, Pumpkin Patch, Chinatown, Mother's Day Tea the Father's Day BBQ and celebrating Easter and Halloween with parades and parties. Our Friends & Family skate day is always a crowd favorite along with our Christmas party and year end celebration. To view photos of these events click here 

Latest News

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