Maria College: Campus School

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 how 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 that their ideas matter, and develop feelings of competency and self-worth.

A Laboratory

The Campus School stands out among Pre-K and Preschool programs 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.

Options:
Three year old classes	2 Days: Tuesday, Thursday	9:00 am – 12:00 pm
	3 Days: Monday, Wednesday, Friday	9:00 am – 12:00 pm
Four year old classes	3 Days: Monday, Wednesday, Friday	9:00 am – 12:00 pm
	5 Days: Monday - Friday	9:00 am – 12:00 pm
Pre-K:	Monday - Friday	9:00 am – 12:00 pm

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 Maria College 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

Campus School

Campus School Sister Mary Fraser, RSM, Director Phone (518) 482-3631 E-mail: cschool8@nycap.rr.com