Mission & Philosophy

Believing that the Church can provide an environment in which the child may grow “in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man”, Saint Anne’s offers children’s programs consistent with the highest standards of early childhood education.

In an atmosphere of love and respect, each child is given the opportunity to expand his/her concept of the world. Our well-rounded programs provide for developmentally appropriate growth emotionally, cognitively, socially, physically, and spiritually. Children learn to initiate choices of activities, as well as having educator-initiated instruction times.

Our goals include increasing each child’s capacity to reason and encouraging a spirit of inquiry in a creative learning environment. Most of all, Saint Anne’s wants your child to know that he/she is a worthy person, acceptable and lovable just as God made him/her. Having a good self-concept and the opportunity to learn are gifts that last a lifetime.

Our Mission

A ministry of Saint Anne’s Episcopal Church, the Day School strives to cultivate a nurturing, enriching environment for children, families, and educators, promoting a collaborative learning community of creative inquiry and loving relationships. Each child is a unique gift from God, full of infinite potential and loved for who they are and who they will become.

The following statements reflect continuing and evolving efforts to articulate the principles that guide our practice. We seek to integrate all domains of learning in enriched, varied experiences with children to create a holistic approach to early childhood education.

We value:

Relationships as the foundation of learning
Giving time and space for children and adults to embrace their wonder of the natural world and we seek opportunities to encounter and explore nature together
Curiosity, exploration and discovery
Nurturing, supportive, warm, inviting environments for learning
Time as a resource rather than a limiting schedule
Flexibility and taking risks
Organization and intentionality
Participation of children, family, educators and community
Process over product
The process of welcoming children and families and recognize that it is a critical time to support transition, begin building relationships, and create a sense of belonging within our school community
Working in small groups and this is motivation to explore, find, and build more opportunities to do so
Creating opportunities for children to have mixed-age experiences and encounters
Seeking to build more depth in our work with children through full use of all resources
The benefit children gain from multiple interactions with different adults for a multitude of reasons
Individual strengths of all adults in our community and seek to maximize those contributions with the children
Professional collaboration as essential to our work and agree to build time for it into the schedule
Respect for intentionality of the work of our community and routines needed to support that work
Short- and long-range projections to support research-based learning

We believe:

Children are strong, curious, capable human beings
Experiences in and with nature inspire such feelings as freedom, peace and connectedness that support overall well being
Trust and respect are essential
Children have the right to beautiful, complex environments rich in materials and possibilities
By making thinking processes visible, we can support continuity of experience and connections in learning for children and adults
Play is the work of young children
All values are genetically linked to action
School is a place of joy!

Reggio Emilia Philosophy & Approach

At Saint Anne’s Day School, we are inspired by the world renowned preschool and infant/toddler centers of Reggio Emilia, Italy.

What is the Reggio Emilia Approach?

The Reggio Emilia philosophy and approach to early childhood education has developed and continues to evolve as a result of over 50 years of experience within a system of municipal infant-toddler centers and preschools in Reggio Emilia, Italy. Parents, who started the schools in the 1940s, continue to participate to ensure the schools reflect the values of the community.

From the beginning, the late Loris Malaguzzi, leader, philosopher, and innovator in education, who was then a young educator, guided and directed the energies of those parents and several educators. Through many years of work with them, he developed an education based on relationship, which has become widely known and valued. The Reggio Emilia approach is built upon a solid foundation of connected philosophical principles and extensive experience. Educators in Reggio Emilia have been inspired by many early childhood psychologists and philosophers, such as Dewey, Piaget, Vygotsky, Gardner, and Bruner.

Distinguishing features of the education of young children that have made the Reggio Emilia approach so notable include:

The image of the child
All children have preparedness, potential, curiosity; they have interest in relationship, in constructing their own learning, and in negotiating with everything the environment brings to them. Children should be considered as active citizens with rights, as contributing members, with their families, of their local community. Children with special rights (rather than using the term special needs) have precedence in becoming part of an infant/toddler center or a preschool.

Children’s relationships and interactions within a system
Education has to focus on each child, not considered in isolation, but seen in relation with the family, with other children, with the educators, with the environment of the school, with the community, and with the wider society. Each school is viewed as a system in which all these relationships, which are all interconnected and reciprocal, are activated and supported.

The role of parents
Parents are an essential component of the program; a competent and active part of their children’s learning experience. They are not considered consumers but co-responsible partners. Their right to participation is expected and supported; it takes many forms, and can help ensure the welfare of all children in the program.

The role of space: amiable schools
The infant-toddler centers and preschools convey many messages, of which the most immediate is: this is a place where adults have thought about the quality and the instructive power of space. The lay-out of physical space fosters encounters, communication, and relationships. Children learn a great deal in exchanges and negotiations with their peers; therefore educators organize spaces that support the engagement of small groups.

Educators and children as partners in learning
A strong image of the child has to correspond to a strong image of the educator. Educators are not considered protective baby-sitters, teaching basic skills to children but rather they are seen as learners along with the children. They are supported, valued for their experience and their ideas, and seen as researchers. Cooperation at all levels in the schools is the powerful mode of working that makes possible the achievement of the complex goals that Reggio educators have set for themselves

Not a pre-set curriculum but a process of inviting and sustaining learning
Once educators have prepared an environment rich in materials and possibilities, they observe and listen to the children in order to know how to proceed with their work. Educators use the understanding they gain thereby to act as a resource for them. They ask questions and thus discover the children’s ideas, hypotheses, and theories. They see learning not as a linear process but as a spiral progression and consider themselves to be partners in this process of learning. After observing children in action, they compare, discuss, and interpret together with other educators their observations, recorded in different ways, to leave traces of what has been observed. They use their interpretations and discussions to make choices that they share with the children.

The power of documentation
Transcriptions of children’s remarks and discussions, photographs of their activity, and representations of their thinking and learning are traces that are carefully studied. These documents have several functions. The most important among them is to be tools for making hypotheses (to project) about the direction in which the work and experiences with the children will go. Once these documents are organized and displayed they help to make parents aware of their children’s experience and maintain their involvement. They make it possible for educators to understand the children better and to evaluate the educators’ own work, thus promoting their professional growth; they make children aware that their effort is valued; and furthermore, they create an archive that traces the history of the school.

The many languages of children
Atelierista and atelier. An educator who is usually prepared in the visual arts (but also in other expressive arts) works closely with the other educators and the children in every preprimary school and visits the infant-toddler centers. This educator, who works in a special workshop or studio known as an “atelier”, is called an “atelierista”. The atelier contains a great variety of tools and resource materials, along with records of past projects and experiences. What is done with materials and media is not regarded as art per se, because in the view of Reggio educators the children’s use of many media is not a separate part of the curriculum but an inseparable, integral part of the whole cognitive/symbolic expression involved in the process of learning. Through time the materials and work of the “atelier” has entered into all the classrooms through the setting up of “mini-ateliers” and through the learning on the part of educators and atelierista to work in very connected ways.

Projects
Projects provide the narrative and structure to the children’s and educators’ learning experiences. They are based on the strong conviction that learning by doing is of great importance and that to discuss in groups and to revisit ideas and experiences is essential to gain better understanding and to learn. Projects may start either from a chance event, an idea or a problem posed by one or more children, or an experience initiated directly by educators. They can last from a few days to several months.

*Content adapted from North American Reggio Emilia Alliance

To learn more, visit the Reggio Children website