Campus School
Sister Mary Fraser, RSM, Director
Phone (518) 482-3631
E-mail: cschool8@nycap.rr.com
First Experiences
At the Campus School we believe learning is all about discovery. Young
children are naturally curious, and they need to explore and be creative
in the learning process.
Because adults are facilitators of their children's development, we
encourage parents to join with teachers to create a safe and trusting
atmosphere where children are encouraged to make choices and decisions
and experiment with new ideas.
Children’s first experiences can have a major impact on they
view the world around them years later. Our goal is to make the Campus
School a meaningful "first experience" for those entrusted
to our care – a first step on the road to formal learning that
will benefit them throughout their educational journey.
A Learning Community
The Campus School environment encourages children from three to six
years old to become active learners. The school is an arena for learning
that stimulates natural curiosity and supports investigations into the
unfamiliar and unknown. The process is one that to adults may seem to
be play, yet for the young it is their work, their preparation for the
more structured learning that will take place in the years that lie
ahead.
Preschool
Social skills are learned in the early years through interactions
with both peers and adults; this is also when mastery of problem solving
and constructive conflict resolution begin. Supportive and caring teachers
make possible a safe and trusting setting in which these processes can
flourish. Children are encouraged to take risks in making choices and
decisions and trying out new ideas, and when they share the results
with others the art of communication is born. This is how children learn
their ideas matter, and develop feelings of competency and self-worth.
Kindergarten
While
for older children the importance of play as a learning medium continues, in
kindergarten the curriculum is characterized by more formalized instruction.
A strong language arts program that stresses each child's language skills becomes
the curriculum's focus.
Instruction in specific reading skills is accompanied by a rich literature
program, and opportunities for creative expression in oral, written
and dramatic forms abound. Exposure to a broad range of the creative
arts reinforces the young child’s awareness that the art of communication
is not limited to the printed or spoken word.
The development of logical thinking is encouraged through approaches
to both mathematics and science that utilize concrete materials drawn
from the child's ever-expanding world; it is at this point the child
is introduced to symbolic representations as key elements of logical
thinking.
Older children are offered a wide variety of choices within a structure
designed to foster responsible decision making, independence, creative
thinking and social problem solving.
While it is a program designed to provide the young child with a solid
background for entrance into public or private elementary school settings,
from another prospective it can be viewed quite legitimately as a college
preparatory program that begins in the kindergarten year.
A Laboratory
The
Campus School stands out among kindergartens and pre-kindergartens in the Capital
Region because it is a laboratory school dedicated to training degree candidates
enrolled in Maria’s early childhood education program.
The core faculty of the school is made up of experienced professionals
who serve as master teachers in each division and section. During their
first year, college students work with these master teachers as classroom
aides. In the course of their second year, the students serve as classroom
assistants for an intensive eight-week (Monday - Friday) field experience.
During this time, they work closely with master teachers in planning,
evaluating and implementing curricula objectives.
The benefits this laboratory setting has for the children who attend
the Campus School and their families are fourfold:
- Student/teacher ratios are reduced to levels approaching 5:1.
- Student interns develop teaching competence from experienced classroom
professionals, first by observation and later by sharing in designing,
implementing and evaluating teaching plans and methods.
- Campus School students become silent partners in the training of
teaching professionals whose future service in other early childhood
environments will enrich the field.
- Because it is continually exposed to early childhood education literature
and methodology, the Campus School will continue to be structured
around the most current knowledge and practices in the field.
As a "laboratory school", the Campus School is committed
not only to excellence in teaching the children who attend the school,
but to the field of early childhood education as well. If it is the
true that the first steps on the path of learning are critical to the
steps that follow, then how exciting a journey lies before us –
students, parents and teachers.
Admission Information
Eligibility for admission to the Campus School divisions is determined
by date of birth.
Preschool |
|
|
| Three year olds |
Tuesday / Thursday |
9:00 am – 11:15 am |
| Four year olds |
Monday, Wednesday, Friday |
9:00 am – 11:30 am |
Pre-K* |
Monday - Friday |
12:30 pm – 3:00 pm |
Kindergarten* |
Monday - Friday |
9:00 am – 3:00 pm |
* Monday afternoon classes are dismissed at 2:30
Requests for Information
If you would like more information about the Campus School, please
contact us by mail, phone or e-mail as follows:
The Campus School
Maria College
700 New Scotland Avenue
Albany, New York 12208
Sister Mary Fraser, RSM, Director
Phone (518) 482-3631
E-mail: cschool8@nycap.rr.com
700 New Scotland Avenue Albany, NY 12208 518.438.3111 © 2008 Maria College. All Rights Reserved.