Programs and Tuition for the ‘24/’25 School Year
Our preschool runs from 9am to 2pm, five days a week, and typically follows the New York City public schools calendar. Parents may choose from a variety of attendance options for their children, with the following general guidelines (tuition is reviewed annually):
Twos/Threes
Tues, Thurs: 9am - 12pm ($665 / month)
Mon, WED, FRI: 9am - 12pm ($835 / month)
Mon, WED, FRI: 9am - 2pm ($1,210 / month)
Threes/Fours
Mon, Wed, Fri: 9am - 12pm ($760 / month)
Mon, Wed, Fri: 9am - 2pm ($1,100 / month)
Mon Thru FRI: 9am - 12pm ($1,500 / month)
Mon THRU FRI: 9am - 2pm ($2,050 / month)
Sample Schedule
Parents drop off their children at 9am, and they immediately begin their school day with supervised free-play. Activities in the classroom include: arts, music, block building, dramatic play, cooking, sand and water play, puzzle making, game playing, free and structured physical activity, reading, and going on local field trips. After clean-up, we have circle time. A mid-morning snack ensures that everyone has energy for the second half of the morning, when we do music and movement or extended outdoor time. Then it's off to the playground for outdoor play until the children get picked up at noon. For the children in the extended 9am-2pm program, after the playground we return to the classroom for lunch and rest, followed by a fun group activity.
9:00 - 9:15 DROP OFF
9:00 - 10:00 Free-play Time
10:00 - 10:15 Clean-Up
10:15 - 10:30 Circle Time
10:30 - 10:45 Snack Time
10:45 - 11:30 Music/Dance
11:30 - 12:00 Outdoor Time
DISMISSAL MORNING GROUP
12:00 - 12:30 Lunch Time
12:30- 1:00 Rest with Music and Stories
1:00 - 1:45 Activity Time
1:45 - 2:00 Circle Time
DISMISSAL
A Day at Downing Street Playgroup
Preschool Philosophy
We develop our curriculum to enable children to learn to communicate, cooperate, problem solve, respect, and celebrate differences. We want the children in our program to learn through discovery and exploration in order to build a life-long motivation to learn. At Downing Street Playgroup, preschool children are instilled with the sense of being important, competent, wonderful and loved human beings.
We employ a mixed ages classroom dynamic, with benefits seen in both the younger and older children. The younger children learn by examples set by the older children, and the older children feel a sense of accomplishment and pride by teaching the younger children what they already know. It is something very special to see an older child take interest in the well-being of a younger classmate, an opportunity that may not be readily available to only children or youngest siblings within a family.
At our school, children learn to socialize with their classmates, have fun, and express themselves through play, creativity and the arts. They are encouraged to voice their own feelings and opinions, as well as to respect the feelings and rights of others. As the children learn more self-help skills, their self-esteem and sense of personal responsibility grow. Sharing their own experiences and observations, as well as listening to those of others, helps children become active members of their school community.
We teach through a non-biased, experiential, developmentally appropriate, constructive and theme-based curriculum through which children's cognitive, social, emotional and physical needs are met. Themes might include music, family, pets, seasons, our neighborhood and the environment. We offer a language-based program that is intended to meet the needs of the individual child within the group context.
Parent participation is an integral part of our program. Our aim is to create a nurturing environment in which everyone supports and is supported by everyone else. We focus on learning as something to be enjoyed, valued, and shared.
Teachers
We have two full time certified teachers as well as a rotating parent of the day, with a maximum of 15 children in the classroom at any given time.
Our head teacher, Nancy, is a warm and creative educator with a Master's degree and New York State certification in Early Childhood Education. She has been teaching in early childhood classrooms since 2007, and in addition has over six years' experience schooling young children in dance, including three years as Director of a dancing school. She is passionate about the lifelong benefits of play in the early childhood classroom and a teacher's role in providing rich opportunities in exploration and discovery. Nancy began teaching at Downing Street in 2009.
Our co-teacher Emily has a Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts and Master’s in Early Childhood and Childhood Education from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY. She is New York State certified in Early Childhood and Childhood Education. Prior to working at Downing Street, she taught 2’s at Beanstalk Academy in the Bronx. On Sundays, she teaches Hebrew school to kindergarten through fourth graders in Westchester county. Emily hopes to create a classroom community where kindness reigns and every child feels accepted and valued for the unique and special person that they are.
Parent Participation
We are a true cooperative, which means that parents have responsibilities in running the school. This cooperative structure has two important results: parents are deeply involved and empowered in their child's education, and our costs are very low, allowing our tuition to be considerably below that of comparable programs. Additionally, this allows for a gentle separation experience as a child learns to master independence from their caregivers.
One parent from every family works in the classroom on average one day a month as parent-of-the-day (POD). The parent’s responsibilities on workdays at the playgroup are to assist in the classroom, help coordinate the mealtimes and outdoor play, and clean up after the day has ended. Parents are welcomed to arrange special activities with the children and encouraged to use classroom supplies. The teachers provide guidance, especially for new parents, to insure an enjoyable and productive experience for the children as well as the POD.
Involved parents insure that the school is run well. Parental responsibilities also include: mandatory monthly meetings, set-up at the start of the school year, mid-year clean, and end of year put-away. Administrative and financial duties are split among the parents as well. Example jobs include chairperson, secretary, treasurer, registrar, web-master, social media outreach, and gardener.
We depend on one another’s generosity and positive contributions to maintain the atmosphere that makes Downing Street such a unique and wonderful place. But please be aware that joining our co-op is a binding commitment to fulfill your responsibilities. The parents in our school are part of this co-op because we feel that the rewards of involvement are well worth the investment of time and energy; yet we are well aware of how busy we all are! We are flexible and want to employ everyone’s strengths to make your contributions as painless as possible while creating a warm and thriving community for our children.
School Placement of our Graduates
Graduates of Downing Street Playgroup go on to do well in both the public and private sectors, and are accepted to attend a wide range of schools downtown and beyond, including: PS3 and PS 41, Little Red Schoolhouse, Saint Luke’s, First Presbyterian, Grace Church and Corlears, among others.