Children's Center
Welcome to the Williston Northampton Children’s Center. Our center is designed to provide quality care and early education to children aged 15 months to five years old.
The Williston Northampton School Children’s Center strives to provide a stimulating, nurturing, developmentally appropriate learning environment for young children. It is designed to allow children a safe opportunity to explore, question, and discover through play. Through such play the children develop cognitive, social, literacy communication, and motor and language skills. They are encouraged to make choices and create an environment that is comfortably their own in order to support their self esteem, foster their self awareness, and build their social skills.
We have four classrooms: two toddler rooms and two preschool rooms. The capacity of the center is 44 children. There are a total of 11 staff members, plus the director, who are certified through the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care (EEC), our licensing agency. Children and families who attend our center come from both the Williston Northampton School community and the surrounding towns.
2023-24 Children’s Center Rates
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How to Apply
Priority for placement is given to children of the Williston Northampton School’s employees. After the deadline for this group has passed, enrollment will be open to the general community. Applications received will be put on the waiting list.
Non-employee children are contracted for a one year placement and re-enrollment is not guaranteed. Once a space becomes available, the decisions for placement are made based on the following criteria:
- Children of Williston employees;
- Returning children in same classroom;
- Returning children moving up to next classroom;
- Placement on waiting list;
- Sibling of currently enrolled student;
- Scheduling needs of child/family vs. slot available;
- Diversity, age, gender.
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Curriculum
Philosophy
Our rich learning community is made up of children, teachers, and families. Through continued communication and observation, we learn about each other as individuals and as a group. Together, we nurture our skills and interests to create a positive learning environment.
The environment and curriculum at the Children’s Center are developed through close observation of the children’s interests and individual needs with respect to family backgrounds and cultural diversity. The activities and core curriculum are generated from the children’s interests and supported by the teachers. This emergent curriculum provides each child with the opportunity to take ownership of the classroom and their own learning.
Classrooms
We have four classrooms in our center: two toddler rooms and two pre-school rooms. Each of these rooms will have its own schedule and regular routines. These will be built around the children, teachers, and families in that particular classroom. The daily schedule will be posted in each room. The curriculum will be created based on the individual needs, development, and interests of its participants. More information and feedback about the curriculum development will be provided during the open house and parent orientation sessions.
StaffOur center follows a team teaching approach in the classrooms. Each room has a team of teachers who share the same responsibility of curriculum development, parent communication, and creating the classroom environment. We also have assistant teachers who support the teachers in whatever they need. All teachers have planning time outside the classroom. This time is dedicated to planning activities, talking with parents, networking with other teachers, and thinking about their practice as teachers.
All of our teachers are certified by EEC and have First Aid and CPR certificates. They participate in on-going in-service training to ensure their commitment to learning.
Throughout the year, students from the Williston Northampton School volunteer in our classrooms through their community service program. These students are oriented by the director and are supervised by the classroom teachers.
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Tuition + Fees
For information about tuition and fees, please contact Keira Durrett, director, at
(413) 529-3422.
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