Good evening everyone and welcome to the Preschool Family Centre.
It's really good to see so many parents here and I hope this talk will help you to find out more about what we do here and how the centre works so you can decide if this sounds the right sort of place for your child.
OK, so first of all, what is the Preschool Family Centre?
Well, basically it's a childhood education centre for children from 3 months up to 5 years old.
But we're different from a lot of other organisations for preschool children.
We believe that the first educators of a child are their parents and so the Preschool Family Centre is organised as a cooperative by the parents which means it is the parents themselves who are responsible for running the centre and also for running each session.
So this means that we ask parents to attend the centre with their children on a regular basis.
In order to make this work, we offer training for parents teaching them the skills they need to work with children and run the sessions.
The children do all sorts of different activities art, music, singing and games and these are all done in groups of mixed ages because we believe that by learning to play together children learn how to make choices and how to respect people and things.
Now, some factual information.
Sessions run each morning from 9.30 to 12.30 and we have an extra session on Thursday afternoons which is solely for older children where we do some activities to help prepare them for reading before they start school.
We feel this is really important and can make a big difference when they get to school.
And now, before you enroll your child in the centre you need to make at least five visits with your child.
This is so you are fully aware of how the centre works before you enrol.
The centres are recognised as official pre-schools and so each centre is entitled to funding from the government.
The centre is a really wonderful experience but does require some work so I'd just like to talk about some of the commitments you will need to make if you decide to go ahead and enrol your child.
A couple of points first.
Once you and your child have settled into the centre and are familiar with how things work you will be asked to choose a particular job like secretary or gardener or librarian or something to be responsible for.
And we have a meeting which we use to plan the program and each parent is expected to attend this.
Now, just before we move on to answer any questions you have I'd just quickly like to mention some of the ways you and your child are able to get the most out of the centre.
It's important that you attend regularly.
This way you'll get to know other parents well and your child will develop confidence while he or she is here.
Younger children might need to leave early.
It's better to leave early than to go home with an overtired child.
We do provide drinks for the children but we ask you to make sure your child has a snack to eat during the morning.
No crisps or chocolate, please.
Right, I think I'll stop there and ask if anyone's got any questions.
