Saint Lawrence Catholic Preschool
“Where Lifetime Learning Begins”
Family Handbook
2016-2017 School Year
319 Grayson Highway
770-962-1676
St. Lawrence Preschool Family Handbook
Table of Contents
Letter from the Director …………………………………………..3
Letter from the Pastor …………………………………………….4
Goals ……………………………………………………………...5
Exemption from Licensure ……………………………………….5
Office Hours and Contact Information …………………………...6
Our Curriculum……………………………………………………6
Arrival …………………………………………………………….6
Dismissal ………………………………………………………….7
Our Daily Preschool Routine ……………………………………..8
Birthdays and Class Parties ……………………………………….9
Registration and Enrollment ………………………………………9
Tuition ……………………………………………………………..9
Activity Fee ...... …...10
Communication and Correspondence ……………………………..10
Social Media ………………………………………………………10
Health ……………………………………………………………...11
Immunizations ……………………………………………………..11
Preschool Attire ……………………………………………………12
Behavior and Bullying …………………………………………….12
Safety and Emergency Procedures ………………………………..12
Parent Involvement ………………………………………………..13
Parent/Teacher Advisory Board …………………………………..13
Conferences and Assessments …………………………………….14
Important Dates …………………………………………………...15
Dear Parents,
Welcome to St. Lawrence Catholic Preschool. We are pleased to have your family at our preschool. We are very excited about our program, our staff and our wonderful church community. This handbook is meant to acquaint you with our preschool policies and procedures.
You have entrusted your child to our care during these upcoming months, and we consider this a responsibility and a privilege. We plan to help your child grow and develop spiritually, intellectually, physically, and socially. We hope to provide a warm, loving environment where your child can continue to discover God’s world.
The preschool program falls under the direction and guidance of the pastor of St. Lawrence Catholic Church. The primary goal of Saint Lawrence Preschool is to provide a physically safe and emotionally secure setting where all children can explore and experiment with a variety of materials and experiences while growing socially and academically. Our professional staff is responsible for planning and implementing a developmentally appropriate lesson plan based upon your child’s academic growth. To accomplish this, our curriculum features a monthly theme, Bible stories, and a variety of activities specifically designed for each age group. The Seeds curriculum will be used for the children’s spiritual growth. We teach our Catholic Faith and traditions in an everyday setting at St. Lawrence Preschool.
The staff of St. Lawrence Preschool is dedicated and talented. I am pleased to have the opportunity to direct this quality program that we continue to build. I am looking forward to getting to know both you and your child. Please contact me with any questions or concerns you may have regarding our program.
Sincerely,
Wendy Guillory
Preschool Director
September 1, 2016
Dear St. Lawrence Preschool families:
Greetings in the Lord! It is a pleasure to welcome you and your children to a new year of growth and learning in our Preschool.
As a Roman Catholic parish, we at St. Lawrence envision a world filled with the joyful practice of the commandments to love God with our whole being, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. In the service of that vision, our Preschool is a safe haven where truth, beauty and the love of God are cultivated in children’s earliest formative years.
The summer months create a slight lull in activity here at St. Lawrence. And so it is with eager expectation that we look forward to the return of the children’s joyful voices. Please know that you and your family and all the Preschool community are very much in my thoughts and prayers, asking God’s blessing upon you with every grace and happiness in this new school year.
Sincerely yours in Christ Risen,
Rev. Father John T. Howren
Pastor
GOALS
The goal of the St. Lawrence Preschool is to offer a loving environment that will enable each child to grow spiritually, emotionally, socially, cognitively and physically. Through the guidance of our teachers and staff, the children will learn about respecting themselves and others, sharing, listening and experiencing God’s love. Our program is designed to build on the child’s learning and experiences at home as well as to expose them to learning in group situations.
It may look like play, but we are learning to:
· work and play together
· respect the rights of others
· express ourselves creatively
· develop self-control
· grow from dependence to independence
· listen to directions and follow them
· develop good work habits
· clean up after work time
· participate in group activities
· enjoy using a variety of materials and medium/media
· share toys, equipment and experiences
· develop an interest in the world around us
· improve motor coordination
· develop new interests and extend old ones
· learn about God’s love for us
· be happy
EXEMPTION FROM LICENSURE
St Lawrence Preschool operates under the supervision of the Archdiocese of Atlanta, Office of Catholic Schools. The Office of Catholic Schools ensures that this program follows the prescribed guidelines for parish early childhood programs and the preschool receives two Quality Assurance visits each year. This preschool holds a Certificate of Exemption from licensure from the State of Georgia (Bright from the Start).
OFFICE HOURS AND CONTACT INFORMATION
The hours of operation for St. Lawrence Preschool office are: 9 am to 2 pm, Monday-Friday.
· The St. Lawrence Preschool phone number is: (770) 962-1676. Messages left after 2:00 p.m. will not be checked until the following workday.
· The St. Lawrence Preschool fax number is (770) 963-1710.
· The email address is
· Information about St. Lawrence Preschool is also located on the web site www.saintlaw.org. Preschool can be found in the Faith Formation tab at the top of the page.
OUR CURRICULUM
St. Lawrence Preschool implements a play-based curriculum. This means that our skilled teachers know that play is an integral part of young children’s lives and that young children are deeply curious and learn a great deal through self-directed exploration. Being able to play, both alone and with others enhances children’s physical, social/emotional, and creative growth. Play is also critical to a child’s cognitive development, and therefore is useful in supporting the development of science, math, language and literacy skills. Part of our day consists of free play so that children get to choose from a variety of planned and prepared activities that they can engage in with little direction from teachers. A smaller part of our day is spent in large group settings where all of the children meet together for group games, music, movement, stories, discussions and mini-lessons. Small groups are used so that children are engaged in activities that require more individualized attention.
Following this ideology, our religion curriculum is a complete liturgy-based catechesis, called Seeds (published by Pflaum Gospel Weeklies). The Seeds program presents the Catechism of the Catholic Church in age-appropriate, lively, and relevant ways. Jesus’ story forms the heart of every Seeds lesson. Each lesson is built around the Sunday Gospel. Every week, the children hear Jesus speaking and see him acting in the Gospel for the upcoming Sunday. This reflection prepares them to join their parish community each weekend to listen and to live the Word of God and to become the Body of Christ for our world.
ARRIVAL
Our day will begin at 9:30. There are two options for bringing your child to school. One option is to park in the designated area and walk you child into school and down the hall to his/her classroom. If you choose this option, we ask that you please be respectful of the teacher’s need to greet all students and help them to prepare for the day. If you have questions or concerns about your child, we ask that you schedule a conference rather than speaking with the teacher during arrival. The other option is to pull your vehicle into the line that forms at the Preschool entrance. Our staff will begin taking children out of cars at 9:25 and stop taking children out of cars at 9:40 so that we may begin the preschool day. It is imperative for the safety of our preschool children that cell phones not be used during carpool (both in the morning and afternoon) while children are loading or unloading or while the line is moving.
Anyone dropping their child off after arrival time will be asked to stop at the front office and allow a staff member to walk your child to their class. This will cause less disruption for the child and their class. Your cooperation is appreciated in bringing your child to school on time. Activities in the classroom will begin promptly at 9:30.
DISMISSAL
Our school day ends at 1:30. Please form a line at the drive-through by the preschool entrance. Parents will be given a carpool sign with their child’s name and their teacher’s name on it. This is to be placed in the front window of your car during dismissal. Please remember to display this sign for easy visibility throughout the school year. To help make dismissal run as smoothly as possible, we ask that you do not get out of your cars to come into the building between 1:15 and 1:30. Teachers are involved in the dismissal procedure and will need to have their full attention on this task. We will put your child into your car at the drive-through. We then ask that you drive to the next covered area to safely buckle your child into their car seat. Staff may not buckle a child in.
If you need to pick up your child early, please sign in at the front office and a staff member will go get your child for you. The child may not always be in their classroom. No parent may take a child from the playground at any time without signing their child out in the front office. All early sign outs have to be done before 1:15. The children are starting to cleanup and line up in the front lobby at 1:15 and teachers and staff need to be conscious of safety issues at this time. Thank you for your cooperation.
Dismissal for all classes is at 1:30. Parents who pick up their child(ren) at 1:40 or later without making prior arrangements will be subject to an initial $5.00 late fee per child with an additional $5.00 charged for every 5 minutes they are late. This fee is imposed at the discretion of the director and emergency situations will, of course, be taken into consideration. If you are going to be delayed, please call the preschool office and let us know. The director reserves the right to dismiss from the program any child that is continually picked up late.
Please note: The preschool staff attend a monthly staff development meeting that is usually held on the next-to-last Tuesday of every month. We will dismiss children at 12:30 on days when the meetings are held. Please check your monthly calendar to make note of these days. Late fees will apply for late pick up.
OUR DAILY PRESCHOOL ROUTINE
Children do well when activities and schedules are consistent. A routine will be followed each day in order to provide a sense of security. Because we also cherish “teachable moments”, the schedule is flexible.
ARRIVAL: Children will go directly to their classrooms. Teachers will remain in the classrooms at this time. The assistant teachers will be getting the children from their cars. When the child arrives in the classroom, they will remove their jackets and hand their book bag or backpack to the teacher. Their bags will be checked at this time for notes, tuition, etc. They learn to put up their own coats and book bags. The classroom is set up for centers with many choices for the child to choose from: puzzles, books, play dough, blocks, manipulatives, art, housekeeping, etc.
GROUP TIME: One or two group times a day are used to teach curriculum, practice a skill, read stories or learn and recite songs and finger plays. Our children participate in Music and Kids in Motion class where music is incorporated with movement to promote fitness. Other group times include: community helper visits, mystery reader and snack/cooking times.
OUTDOOR PLAY: Children have highly supervised but usually unstructured playtime. They learn to share, take turns, and follow the safety rules playing on the outside equipment. Alternate activities are planned during inclement weather.
CLEAN UP: There is a place for everything and the children learn the importance of keeping things clean and returned to the proper place. Everyone will participate in clean up. It teaches the child to move from one activity to another. We label our containers and shelves with shapes and pictures so children learn to match, classify and count while cleaning.
LUNCH TIME: Parents will need to send in a healthy lunch with their child each class day that their child attends preschool.
Please note: The following foods can be choking hazards and should not be given to children younger than 4 years of age unless it is completely chopped. Round, firm foods are common choking dangers. When infants and young children don’t grind or chew their food well, they may attempt to swallow it whole.
Chunks of peanut butter Nuts Popcorn
Chunks of meat or cheese Whole grapes Raw carrots