Monday, November 30, 2015

2016-2017 Enrollment

Here at Coastal Day School we are working hard to prepare everything for our 2016-2017 school year and will start enrolling new students soon! We are so excited to meet all the new families that will soon join our sweet, little community! We know there are many options for preschool and kindergarten out there but we feel like CDS is a great choice with lots to offer your child. We hope that you will join us for our Open House for new families on Wednesday, January 20th from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. You will have the opportunity to see our facility, meet our staff, and see if CDS is the perfect fit for your child and family. We will not offer registration at our Open House in order to give everyone time to look around and ask questions.

We will offer registration for new families starting on Thursday, January 21st. We will start enrolling students at 10:30am at our facility. We will not take phone registration that day, it must be done in person on the 21st. Registration will be first come, first serve. We ask that you do not arrive prior to 9:30 that morning to give our current families adequet time to drop off their child for school. Parking is very limited so anyone in the parking lot prior to 9:30 will be asked to leave and return after 9:30. Anyone arriving between 9:30 and 10:30 a.m. will be asked to form a line in front of the door on the right side of the front of our building, not our main enterence.

If you would like to look over our Handbook and print our enrollment forms, you can find them here.

If you would like to enroll your child on January 21st you will need to turn in a completed enrollment packet along with the New Student Fee of $125.00 which is non-refundable.

Again, we are looking forward to meeting our new families and growing and learning together next year! See you at the Open House :)

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Our Mission at Coastal Day School

If you've followed this blog for any length of time, you know that my FAVORITE TIME OF THE YEAR is quickly approaching!!! I am counting down the days until school begins (In case you are wondering-15 and 16 days until New Family Orientation, 21 days until our Open House, and 26 days until the First Day of School!!!) Around this time each year, I begin compiling all of our information for our various staff and parent meetings. Each year I tweak the information to reflect any changes that has happened over the course of the last year. I seriously feel like everything changes every year. As we grow as a company, we realize the way we have been doing things is no longer going to work for us and we have to develop a new, better way. Year after year, we work hard to adapt to the changes in staff, families, curriculum, etc. Throughout the last nine years, we have learned a lot and applied what we have learned to how we operate. However, there is one thing that will always remain the same.

Why I do this.

What I hope to accomplish.

My mission.

Our mission here at CDS is to provide a learning environment where students feel loved, safe, and respected, and where teachers provide a broad range of activities to help each child learn to the best of their abilities. We work hard to foster independence, growth, and friendships. We also strive to provide parents and staff with a community of adults that care for their family and will support them.

We have this amazing family here at CDS and we will always do whatever we need to to keep that the same! Only 26 more days! I hope you are as excited as I am!!

-Ashley

Sunday, May 24, 2015

Another School Year Comes to an End

This time every year I am in disbelief at how quickly our school year flew by. It feels like just yesterday we were so excited for the first day of school and we couldn't wait to show off our new added space. As another year closes, I'd like to take time to reflect on everything that happened this year.

We added a few new amazing teachers this year. I am so happy that we have teachers who love what they do and go above and beyond on a daily basis. Natalie, Autumn, Stephanie and Melissa have been more than I could have ever dreamed of. They have helped us grow in so many ways. Their dedication has been so appreciated and I am grateful for each one of them. They made an amazing addition to our group of rock star staff!!!

The beginning of the year started out so smooth. The year before we experienced a lot of growing pains that made me feel like I was going crazy. This year was a piece of cake in comparison. Even our pick-up line was great during the first week of school. I'm so thankful for gracious parents that give us time to work out the kinks and find what works best for us. Our school truly is a community where everyone plays a part in making it successful.

We had lots of fun during amazing parties, events, field trips, and programs!! Our parents threw unbelievable classroom holiday parties with lovely decorations and awesome food!! I swear a few of them could be so successful in a party planning business!! As always, our Fall Festival and Book Fair were fun with a great turnout and lots of support from our families! Our Christmas program was great with our sweet, little kiddos singing their hearts out. Gosh they have grown so much this year!


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I had the pleasure of witnessing so much learning this year. I got to hear many students sound out their first word, read their first book, and count to 100 for the first time! What an honor it is that I get to be present during these monumental times in their lives. Thank you parents for allowing us to experience some of your child's "firsts"! We love cheering them on!!

My favorite thing about the year was getting to know so many amazing families, many that have become dear friends. What a wonderful feeling it is waking up each morning, excited to go to work because I get to talk to wonderful moms and dads and hang out with the coolest kids and teachers around. We are truly blessed at CDS.

It's hard to believe that graduation is just 11 days away. Our students have been practicing and are going to blow your socks off!! Please join us on Thursday, June 4th at 6pm at Life Community Church for a wonderful program celebrating all of our student’s hard work this year!

Thank you again for an amazing year. I am very much looking forward to next school year and all the memories and friends that will be created inside our little school.

-Ashley

 

 

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Coastal Day School

It's that time of year when we are gearing up for new enrollment for the next school year, giving tours, and holding our Open House. I know parents are faced with the tough decision of where they should send their child to preschool (or kindergarten.) There are so many amazing options out there with lots to offer your child. I feel like it's important to share why I feel like CDS is among those amazing options and why you should join our family. I have to say, it's a little awkward writing this post. I'm not one to brag so bear with me while I give it my best shot.

We are family at CDS. We care about your child, their siblings, and you! We want to partner with you to help your child reach their fullest potential in every aspect of their life. We want to know what's going on in their lives and how that could be impacting them. We care about their successes, failures, and feelings. Our teachers call their students their "kids" and that's exactly what they are! We work hard to include families in our school year with fun events and parties. We love our little CDS community.

ALL of our lead teachers (and some of our assistants) have their degree in education. It might not mean that much to you when you are thinking about who is teaching your two year old, but our teachers have been educated on how your two year old thinks and behaves, what's normal behavior or what behaviors you should be concerned about, and what are realistic expectations for their age range. And when they are four years old and ready to read, our teachers have been taught what process needs to happened and what skills they need to know before they advance to the next level. We also believe that classroom experience is important so we look for teachers that have "been there, done that" :) Our staff is amazing and truly care about building a strong, educational foundation for our students.

One of my favorite parts, our staff consider each other friends. We live life together. Our families know each other. We are there for each other. Again, maybe this doesn't seem important when choosing a school, but it is. Our teachers support each other and help out wherever they are needed. They share ideas and resources. They encourage each other and lift each other up. Our work environment is pleasant and fun. Everyone enjoys coming to work. As most of you know, that's pretty special and hard to find. Another great thing about our staff is that everyone is passionate about teaching and are excited to do their jobs. We get to work along side women that LOVE what they do each day!

We put people before policy. We focus on what is best for our students over numbers, money, or success. If I'm being completely honest, every single month is a struggle for us financially. We use every resource we have to provide the very best program we can. Curriculum trumps savings every time. I'm sure all the finance people out there are rolling their eyes but I'm an educator at heart, not an accountant. What matters most to me is that we are providing everything we possibly can to make our teacher's jobs easy and enjoyable, and our students successful.

I hope you will come see for yourself what makes CDS special and give us the honor of teaching and loving your child. We promise to take the responsibility very seriously.

Ashley Danko