Core Philosophies

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CORE PHILOSOPHIES

🍎 Small Class Sizes | Low Ratios (seriously!)

We will always keep our classes smaller than other schools or what the state allows. Our rooms are calmer and more focused, and it's a big reason why we have much lower teacher/student turnover compared to other centers. Our low ratios foster more opportunities for individualized instruction and attention between teachers and students.

🍎 Qualified & Consistent Teachers

Our school director and many of our lead teachers have bachelors/masters degrees in early childhood education, as well as experience teaching multiple elementary grade levels. The average lead teacher tenure is over 9 years, and several have been here more than 16 years! Our director, owners, and several teachers even had multiple children graduate from PVCS. Our staff end up staying with us year after year because they are passionate about our philosophy, values, and small class sizes.

🍎 Learning Through Play

We believe that experiences are the best teaching tools at this young age, so our philosophy is centered around nurturing each child's natural curiosity, creativity, and individuality through play-based emergent learning. Such activities also keep students better engaged while also fostering growth through problem solving, following directions, cooperation with peers, and fine/gross motor control. We celebrate the individual process of learning, which encourages students to be curious and independent thinkers. Our teachers are trained and draw inspiration from the best aspects of the Creative Curriculum, Montessori, and Regio Emilia.

🍎 Educating the "Whole Child"

We focus on four areas of development including social-emotional, cognitive, physical (fine/gross), and language. Our holistic approach helps children start to understand who they are, what they are feeling, and what to expect when interacting with others. A social-emotional foundation has lifelong benefits for young humans who will all grow to be adults. Our students are able to form and sustain positive relationships, experience and express all emotions appropriately, and can confidently overcome challenges.

🍎 Schedule Flexibility

Our parents love that we give them the freedom to choose any combination of 2-5 days per week rather than forcing them to choose M-F or only having the option of T-Th or M-W-F. We also offer numerous daily schedule options to help accommodate the different needs of all families.

🍎 Classroom Stability

When our students start in a classroom in August, they will be with that same group of students and teachers for the whole 10 month school year. We don't "age kids up" to the next classroom in the middle of the school year, and we don't move kids around on a daily basis in order to meet ratios. Our goal is stability and familiarity for our students, parents, and teachers.

🍎 Family Communication & Involvement

Timely communication between our teachers and parents is essential to maximize the value you get from our programs. We leverage technology via a smart phone app that allows instant two way communication between parents, teachers, and admins. Drop off and pickup are personal experiences where parents are able to come to the classroom or playground along with their children. We also have numerous events throughout the year and all extended family are welcome too!

What makes our school special

Quality First Four Star Rated Program

Quality First helps childcare and education centers across AZ improve the quality of their programs. The process starts with a rigorous multi-day and multi-classroom evaluation. We're proud to report that our school received a 4-star rating on our very first evaluation! Programs that receive 4/5 stars receive regular coaching sessions with their dedicated school coordinator on topics such as health and safety, best practices, and professional development. We are focused on maintaining our high quality but always being willing to improve where we can. Click to learn more about Quality First

Large classrooms

All of our classrooms are large with lots of natural light, and each room features purposeful learning areas as well as plenty of stimulating and age appropriate toys/games. We have a dedicated toddler room, 2x "twos" classes, 2x "threes" classes, and our Pre-K program enjoys use of two full size classrooms for its activities. We also have a large multi-purpose room that we use for music, dance, sports, yoga, or enjoying a movie on a rainy day.

Generous outdoor playgrounds

There's much to explore on our two large playgrounds. Kids enjoy time on the swings, riding trikes around the track, climbing & swinging, digging/building, or anywhere else their imaginations take them. We find that active play in the morning is a great way to stimulate young brains, and get the wiggles out before class time.

Family Events

Parents and kids love our events throughout the year such as:

Holiday Performances, Snow Day, Pancake Breakfast, themed Movie Night on the playground, and Pumpkin Patch meet up. The Pre-K class also has a Thanksgiving Feast and a formal graduation ceremony!

Experienced School Director

Miss Debbie has been at PVCS for over 19 years, both as a teacher of multiple age groups and now as our wonderful director. She has a bachelor's and master's degree in elementary education, as well has many years spent teaching elementary school. She's a wizard at juggling both student and staff schedules, mentoring new teachers, building emergent curriculum, and just in general being the heart and soul of our school.

Both of her young-adult children graduated from PVCS and they still love to come help out around the school whenever they are able to.