Executive Summary. The Goddard School - Redmond II. Mr. Jeff Barison, Principal th Ave NE Redmond, WA

Transcription

1 Mr. Jeff Barison, Principal th Ave NE Redmond, WA Document Generated On May 16, 2013

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Description of the School 2 School's Purpose 3 Notable Achievements and Areas of Improvement 4 Additional Information 5

3 Introduction Every school has its own story to tell. The context in which teaching and learning takes place influences the processes and procedures by which the school makes decisions around curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The context also impacts the way a school stays faithful to the school's vision. Many factors contribute to the overall narrative such as an identification of stakeholders, a description of stakeholder engagement, the trends and issues affecting the school, and the kinds of programs and services that a school implements to support student learning. The purpose of the Executive Summary is to provide a school with an opportunity to describe in narrative form the strengths and challenges it encounters. By doing so, the public and members of the school community will have a more complete picture of how the school perceives itself and the process of self-reflection for continuous improvement. This summary is structured for the school to reflect on how it provides teaching and learning on a day to day basis. Page 1

4 Description of the School Describe the school's size, community/communities, location, and changes it has experienced in the last three years. Include demographic information about the students, staff, and community at large. What unique features and challenges are associated with the community/communities the school serves? The community in which our school resides is nestled between the Redmond Ridge plateau and Sammamish plateau off Highway 202 in Redmond, WA. Our school is located within a highly regarded school district, adjacent to Alcott Elementary and a Lake Washington School District S.T.E.M. high school. Our building itself has a unique historical value having previously been Redmond Fire Station #15 which has since been modified into our current preschool facility. The historical funciton of the building has fostered a natural relationship with our local fire fighters incorporating their presence into our school in a very dynamic fashion. Our school's demographics are quite diverse; the community in which we are located has a high population of East Indian and Asian families. Our school reflects that diversity by having approximately 50% East Indian Families, 25% Asian Families, 25% Caucasian. However our diversity is not excluded to our student population, our staff is a fantastic combination of Caucasians, East Indians, African American, German and Arabic professionals who collaborate to reach a broad mix of our current and future families. A unique feature of our school is the percentage of parents who work in the technology field. Approximately 85% of our families are combined with large companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, Expedia, Google and Nintendo. This feature results in a mind shift: an inherent focus on ever-evolving levels of engagement for their child(ren). Page 2

5 School's Purpose Provide the school's purpose statement and ancillary content such as mission, vision, values, and/or beliefs. Describe how the school embodies its purpose through its program offerings and expectations for young children. The Goddard School's educational goal is to incorporate fun and creativity to foster a lifelong love of learning for each child. We challenge our students by promoting inquiry and discovery through exploring the world around them. This focus instills a sense of confidence in their ability to master new situations and tasks through reasoning. Our vision is to promote appropriate developmental growth and encourage reaching our standards of excellence while striving to always improve. Our philosophy here at The Goddard School is inspired by Jean Piaget, Eric Erikson and Lev Vygotsky; these three child development philosophers focused on the inherent need for a structured setting in which children can expand their skill set by learning through play. Play, when coupled with a qualified teacher's guidance, allows children to explore, observe, and create within the world around them. Expectations for the early child hood field can be precarious at times due to the fact that our focus is on a developmentally appropriate target for each specific child. We incorporate a host of Goddard School developmental guidelines in tandem with the utilization Washington Early Childhood Standards to assist with pinpointing the area of growth needed for each child. In order to help accomplish this, we have goalsetting conferences for each child at the beginning the new school year. At this time, we are able to discuss with the parents what their goals are and how we can tie them together with our school's practices. There are additional follow-up conferences in Spring as well as ad hoc conferences throughout the year. In addition to conferences, each child has a portfolio that contains monthly assessments (PreKindergarten), CPAA(PreKindergarten Computer Assessment) quarterly observation tests (Get Set-Preschool), art examples, anecdotal notes, pictures, etc. This portfolio chronicles the life of each child through their journey at Goddard and allows our classroom teachers to get an arc of development of each child as they move from classroom to classroom. A significant way that our teachers implement our program's vision is through the daily planning of lesson plans. These plans are teacher created for their specific children and focused on the monthly building-wide theme. The lesson plans articulate the learning goals in each domain and illuminate materials needed for each activity. Plans are reviewed by the Director before implementation into the classroom to ensure proper instruction practices and use of curriculum. We strive here at The Goddard School to involve parents on a continual basis. We have an Open Door Policy for all parents if they would like to visit about the progress of their child(ren). Quarterly, we have large community events such as Summer Barbecue, Pumpkin Carving, Preschool Prom, and Graduation. These events are put on for our parents free of charge. In addition to the larger scale events, a monthly calendar is sent home with weekly events and activities to help tether parents to our planned activities. Whether large or small-scale activities we believe both are imperative to keep parents involved in their child's learning. Page 3

6 Notable Achievements and Areas of Improvement Describe the school's notable achievements and areas of improvement in the last three years. Additionally, describe areas for improvement that the school is striving to achieve in the next three years. November 1, 2011 marked the start of our school's adventure. We opened our location with only 5 classrooms out of 9 and half the staff that would soon be joining us. Since then we have grown into all 9 classrooms and over 25 staff members. The slow and steady growth has allowed us to effective manage parent perceptions and expectations one by one. The demographics of our parents and competitve nature of our school district has breed the desire for parents to want a strong academic program for their children. As a result, we adapt and modify our modes of communication to demonstrate how we are preparing our student's for Kindergarten and beyond. This has only improved our bottom line of education due to the adaptations we have made in order to prepare each child appropriately for Kindergarten while still staying true to the core of our vision. While we see this as one of our large achievements it is also considered an area of needed improvement since this is a dynamic, ever changing priority. Quality Assurance is an area that we place an inordinate amount of focus upon and continue to improve upon. We are reviewed on a semiannual basis by a Goddard QA representative to determine how effective our policies and procedures are with respect to expectations from Goddard and our State guidelines. We are then measured against all other Goddard Schools across the nation. Since our inception, we have taken the score of a 96.5 to a 99.2 (out of 100) demonstrating continuous improvement and a passion for perfection. As we look towards the future, our focus on continuous improvement functions best through the refinement of our 360 degree review of teachers practices coupled with appropriate training to help elevate their teaching to the next level. This will fortify their current skill level and eventually expand it by enriching the learning and curriculum implementation. Page 4

7 Additional Information Provide any additional information you would like to share with the public and community that were not prompted in the previous sections. The structure of our school's leadership team is unique and deserves special focus. The Goddard School is a national franchise program that requires an on-site owner at all times who partners with an Education Director to manage and run the school. This partnership allows for a strong unified front as well as a family atmosphere that is created with staff and families. The Owner and Director work together on all largescale items as well as the daily details to ensure that building materials are maintained, teachers are appreciated, families are welcomed, and children are loved. Page 5