Head Start Centers provide children with a safe, nurturing, enjoyable and secure learning environment in order to help them gain awareness, skills and confidence necessary to succeed in their present environment and to deal with later responsibilities in school and in life.
The experiences provided by the program support the children's growth and development, which includes the physical, social, emotional and cognitive development of each child. The Head Start program utilizes the Creative Curriculum; Teaching Strategies Gold is used to assess children three times a year and the Brigance is used to assess the children once each year.
Dedicated Staff to Ensure Quality Education
The Child Services Manager is responsible for ensuring that children are provided with the learning environment and opportunities that will help them develop physically, socially, cognitively, and emotionally and that parents are supported in their role as the child's primary teachers.
The education program is designed to meet the individual needs of each child with a planned curriculum of structured and non-structured activities. Both the teacher and child are active initiating this process. This provides purposeful teaching and free choice activities of the children. As a part of the curriculum, children and teachers will visit the local public library for children's story hour at a time designated by the librarian.
Children enrolled in the center for the first time are assessed by the teaching staff to determine what the children already know and what level they need to begin on. We are presently using the Brigance Diagnostic Inventory of Early Development as a screening tool and the Creative Developmental Continuum as an assessment. The children are assessed three times per year, fall, winter, and spring.
The main objective of the educational staff and the parents is to meet the needs of the children. The educational program includes experiences designed to meet the individual differences and needs of enrolled children. Through mainstreaming, children benefit as they learn to understand and respect the needs of each other.
