St Paul’s Co-Op Nursery School

St Paul’s Nursery School has been an amazing place for our three children. Our third is finishing her final year this year and she is excited to go to school every day, and even more excited to recount the stories of her adventures afterwards. Our older two children made so many great memories there and still talk about their St. Paul’s experiences. We appreciate being part of a great community of parents, and we feel so fortunate to have been able to share so many learning adventures with our children through the co-​op experience.
The faculty is adept at managing and encouraging play-​based learning. The facility is the perfect complement to that principle– it is an inviting and homelike setting, with each room full of toys and tools for creativity and learning. The children can choose their indoor pursuits from choices like the block room, art room, discovery room, and more. The outdoor facilities are filled with monkey bars, tricycles, scooters, and swings.
We are so thankful for all the great memories the school has provided our family and definitely encourage everyone in the area to visit the school. Take a tour if you can and/​or go to the Annual Halloween Fun Faire!

St. Paul’s Nursery School is a local treasure. Our third child is wrapping up his magical preschool time here, and we feel so lucky that all three of our boys were able to grow and thrive at St. Paul’s. Here are a few of the reasons why:
**Excellent teachers. St. Paul’s has a legendary group of teachers who are just so incredibly good at their jobs! They know how to create a warm, supportive, and fun environment, and have an amazing ability to get to know each child and nurture their individual selves. The teachers have years of experience in early childhood education, and as a mom of three boys, I have learned so much by watching how they handle any given situation around sharing, taking turns, hurt feelings, etc. — so many of those befuddling moments that come with parenting a 3 or 4YO!
** Creative curriculum. I am continually amazed at the magical ideas the teachers come up with for their students. Here are just a few of the highlights: trucking in a hill of «snow» (shaved ice) for the children to play with in the yard; using giant cubes of ice, rock salt and food coloring to create fantastic ice sculptures; making t-​shirts by painting real trout and imprinting the image; «planting» a January forest of Christmas trees in the sand box; watching baby chicks hatch from eggs; creating giant forts from cardboard boxes. The list goes on (and seems to get better every year!), but hopefully you can see how creative the experience is for children, and the kind of curiosity-​building learning that comes from all of the delight and questions along the way! (St. Paul’s is play-​based, which means that children have the freedom to select their own activities, with teachers helping to facilitate social skills and learning through play.)
**Parent community. There is nothing like working together in support of your child’s school to form friendships and community. As a parent co-​op, St. Paul’s families have the opportunity to volunteer in the classroom and at school (there are varying levels of commitment), and not only observe their child in their first school environment, but also get to know the teachers and parents of your child’s preschool friends. The culture of the school is very family-​oriented, and the leadership under Teacher Marisa, the new director, has deepened that trait even further.
I would highly recommend a tour of St. Paul’s if you are looking at local preschool options. Tours begin in the winter, but it’s worth calling at any time of the year to understand the admission calendar. (In general, preschool admissions begin earlier than one would expect!) We are lucky to have so many wonderful preschool options in this area. St. Paul’s belongs on the short list of not-​to-​miss schools to explore for your little one!

This is a truly magical place where the first question is ALWAYS «what is best for the child?»
We started there with our oldest son and now, 8 years later, our youngest is proud to call St. Paul’s her own. Everything, from the outstanding teachers to the caring, capable director, is geared towards making sure your child has the room they need to learn through play. Play-​based learning is more than just allowing the child to play, it requires skilled teachers to make sure the child is developing and progressing appropriately. The enriching environment at St. Paul’s had both of my older children more than prepared for Kindergarten– they absolutely hit the ground running. I credit St. Paul’s with giving them the right preparation to succeed once they got to elementary school.
In addition to my children’s experience there, my husband and I found a supportive group of families and teachers who will lend an ear if we’re having a parenting issue. St. Paul’s is just an all-​around excellent place, well worth the extra work associated with a co-​op.

We absolutely love this place!!! The minute we walked through that green gate we were surrounded by children playing and learning in the most wonderful environment. The school has mulitple rooms which allow the kids to transition between whichever activities they’re most interested in that day, from arts and crafts, to building blocks, to creative dress up. We have very active kids, and the outdoor play area is truly the best. It gives them a chance to run/​play/​climb/​explore while outside in a safe and structured environemnt. The teachers are some of the most caring people we’ve ever met and we find ourselves leaning on them for parenting advice often. We were so lucky to have found this place with our oldest who is now in Kindergarten, and cannot imagine having our 2 younger kids growing up anywhere else but St. Paul’s!

St. Paul’s is an absolute GEM of a preschool. My daughter is finishing up her «senior» year of preschool and I get misty eyed thinking about leaving until my second younger child is ready to start in the following year. My big senior girl literally RUNS to school every morning as soon as she sees the green gate entrance, behind which her loving teachers and friends are always waiting to warmly greet her. We are so lucky to have such phenomenal, experienced, creative, nurturing teachers who absolutely strive towards ensuring the well being of the whole child with specific focus on their social and emotional learning through play based learning, which I think is essential for this age. Every week brings it’s own amazing adventures. For example, this week, the teachers brought in a truckload of man made snow into the already jaw dropping AMAZING play yard for our children where they will experience sledding, safe snowball fights, building snowman and snow angels, then getting a special shave ice treat which of course they will make themselves. But what makes this school most amazing is the wonderful community of like-​minded parents who strive to be just as engaged with their child’s social and learning experience. This community feels like a second family for us and the children (and parents) who I know will have made lifelong friendships. I can’t rave enough about this program I feel so lucky to have discovered. Trust me when I say you will take a tour and never look back!

A magical school indeed. I recently joined the St Pauls Co-​op community and since beginning my son has had a seamless transition from home to preschool thanks to the co-​op setting. After touring many schools in the area including the best montessori’s, I settled on St Paul’s after my son didn’t want to leave after the school tour. The sandbox sealed the deal for him with its giant diggers with seats. He was hooked. As much as I loved the idea of a montessori, St Paul’s just felt right. I knew if he loved it then I would too.
We had loved our experience at Little Wonders (a co-​op for younger ones nearby) and aside from being highly recommended by the teachers there, a few of his classmates were moving on to St Paul’s as well. I loved the idea of my son having classmates at preschool that he already knew but I just wasn’t sure about whether I wanted to commit time to a co-​op as I was due with a second baby but I am SO glad I did.
I help out on Mondays and drop my son off Wednesdays and Fridays. As a result, my son has had NO separation/​anxiety issues and I have had a wonderful opportunity to meet new parents and become part of a loving and caring community. I love the atmosphere of the school and the teachers are loving and caring just like family. They really meet every child at their level and when they get a chance they check in with you on your work day about how your child is developing. Both teacher Cathy and teacher Gigi are just wonderful. warm, loving and respectful; all the traits you want in a teacher for a child. Recently teacher Cathy told me that every child has a key to unlocking their magic and it just goes to show how they consider each child and their individual nature. I have learnt so much by just watching them in action. It really is a wonderful experience to see your child grow, explore and create right before your eyes and by just knowing you are there on your work days gives them security and joy which I see in my sons eyes every time I am there. The school has many different rooms with different themes so the children can explore as they will. Discovery, dress up, block room, art and crafts etc. It feels like a large house which is very warm and welcoming. It is kept very clean and always and the children get a lot of attention at least 1:4 ratio.
They recently had amazing art projects over the holiday season for the children to make gingerbread houses, decorating mini christmas trees and making mini pine cone christmas trees to take home, christmas cards/​hand stamped wrapping paper and gifts for us parents (including ceramic hand prints of your little ones). The quality of art projects is breathtaking and the quality of materials the children use is so varied it makes for a wonderful experience for the children. The backyard is a sight to behold with its huge array of outdoor vehicles, sand pit and wonderful structures, zipline, blocks and corn/​seed pit where children can pour and sort to their hearts content. I love that they have a lot of outdoor time which I feel is important for children too.
Giving up a few hours per week in addition to a school job you can choose based on your schedule/​preferences is a small price to pay to see your child grow, develop, make friends, connect with the very best teachers and gain the skills necessary for kindergarten in a warm and loving and nurturing environment. St Paul’s also has a very popular annual Halloween Fun Faire which is a hoot for the kids with train rides and face tattoo’s. The school also has a wonderful parent library and many resources for parent learning which has been very helpful. Lastly it is a NAYEC accredited school which is very important to me and has a stellar reputation in the community with many parents returning for all their children. I highly recommend it and can’t wait to get back after the holidays and watch my son in his element.

We really loved St Paul’s and will be back in 2014 with our youngest child. It’s such a special school and wonderful community. It’s play-​based, which I preferred over montessori, and despite the name, it’s not religiously affiliated (important to me). The teachers are top notch and do a great job of teaching the «whole» child – i.e., not only did my kids go into kinder well-​prepared academically, but they were also well-​prepared socially and developmentally.
The school building is unique because it feels like a house – I think my kids felt really comfortable there right from the start because of that. They have a really huge yard complete with two separate bike/​trike/​vehicle tracks. And, lots of really cool art projects and opportunities to create.
It is a co-​op so a parent needs to work a shift either once a week or every other week depending on which class you’re in. My second reason for loving the school is that I met a lot of other moms /​parents and got to know them from working our shifts at the school together. It was a nice way to meet like-​minded families when we were new to the area.

My second child currently attends St. Paul’s, and loves it. It is such an amazing environment where every child is truly loved and cherished by the staff. Because it is co-​op, the child-​adult ratio is approx 4 – 1. Having this many adults around, they are able to do so many more activities than a traditional preschool. For example, last week, they created a «store» in one of the rooms where kids went «shopping» for groceries, got to be checkers, etc. They had a blast with it. They have a table that has carpenter tools where kids can actually hammer real nails, under close adult supervision. The sandbox is bigger than my living room, and they are encouraged to use different «tools” – buckets, pipes, trenches, the hose is always on. The conflict resolution is amazing. I have never seen teachers able to diffuse situations so easily that there really aren’t any conflicts on the playground – it’s because they’ve been doing it for years. The staff is amazing. You come home from your «work day» with more patience for your child and more empathy and understanding because it was modeled to you as a parent! It is truly everything you would ever want in a preschool. -