Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten with Wrap Around

At Holy Trinity Episcopal School of Gainesville, we believe that playful experiences with materials, objects, other children, and caring adults help children develop physically, emotionally, cognitively, and socially. We instill a love of learning in each child as we believe all children can learn. Through the use of the Beyond Cribs and Rattles and Beyond Centers and Circle Time Curriculum, as well as other research-based programs, we are able to reach these goals. 
 
Our interdisciplinary program inspires the development of the whole child – socially, emotionally, physically, and cognitively. We create a rich and stimulating environment so that children may develop a love of learning; we offer activities that will enable each child to experience success; we try to encourage children to be creative and to appreciate that quality in others. The children learn to interact with one another as part of a larger, formative community.
 
Children explore, experiment, and create in areas that include Emergent Literacy, Emergent Math, Block Construction, Fluid Play, Dramatic Play, Art, Cooking, Outdoor Play, Carpentry, Gardening, and more. Children learn through their senses and by interacting with their environment—a hands-on approach to learning. The teachers have a significant role in this play of children as they introduce and guide the themed-play in each environment with quality children’s literature.
 
The children at Holy Trinity Episcopal School of Gainesville are treated with respect and encouraged to respect others. Conscious Discipline, a comprehensive self-regulation program, integrates social-emotional learning with classroom management and encourages and teaches children to work together.
 
Our goal is to provide a safe, loving, faith-based environment in which your child will value herself/himself as well as others. We strive to make the children's day an extension of their home life – a day filled with mutual respect, love, warmth, and opportunities to discover and learn about the world around them.
 

Our school has four extra curricular activities that parents can choose from at an additional fee. Once a week Fun Languages offers a Spanish class for 45 minutes for children three years of age and older. Stretch and Grown offers a 30 minute dance class once a week for three years of age and older. Soccer Shots offers a 30 minute soccer class to two years of age and older once a week. Capoeira of Gainesville offers a beginner class for three years of age and older for 30 minutes once a week.

Our school offers opportunities for children to grow spiritually. We have a 20 minute Chapel on Wednesdays at school for the children three and older. Children sing Christian songs and then listen to a short 2 minute story from the Old or New Testament. Our classes with three year olds and older also have a lesson at least twice a month using the Godly Play curriculum. This is a montessori style curriculum using wooden figurines and objects that represent different characters and stories from the Bible. Children have an opportunity to play through the stories of the Bible and ask questions from a teacher trained in using the Godly Play curriculum.

We are also happy and willing to working with outside agencies for students who may need help with speech or occupational therapies. Therapist are able to work in the classroom or in a one on one setting depending on the needs of the child.

VOLUNTARY PRE-KINDERGARTEN (VPK)

Our school offers Florida's Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten (VPK) program to families and children who qualify. To qualify for the VPK program children must be four years old by September 1st of the school year and families must be residents of Florida.

The vision of this program is to ensure that all the children are ready to succeed when they enter Kindergarten. Our program supports this vision by providing individualized education plans for the children based on a screening assessment. Our core curriculum is a research supported play based curriculum, Beyond Centers and Circle Time. In addition, the school uses two support curriculum, Phonological Awareness and Early Literacy and Growing with Mathematics. 

The staff use the Florida State Standards when preparing lesson plans to ensure the children are learning age-appropriate skills. Our free VPK hours are from 8:00-11:00. We also provide a wraparound program that allows families the opportunity for their children to come earlier in the day and/or stay later as well as attend our center on days that are non-VPK days but our center is still open.