A quality preschool program

PreSchool Partners is an outreach program of Saint Luke’s Episcopal Church in Birmingham, Alabama. PreSchool Partners was founded in 1995 on the belief that every child deserves access to a quality preschool program. Research shows that early education leads to later success. Our mission is to equip families of at risk and under-served preschool children with the skills necessary to achieve school readiness. Since the purpose of this program is to teach the basic skills necessary for school, no religious doctrine is taught.

We provide classroom activities for the three and four year old children each Monday through Friday where they learn numbers, letters, shapes, colors, and general classroom behavior and social skills. The children also have enrichment classes that include computer training, music, dance, and art instruction. The children in our program receive over 800 hours of instruction.

A partnership with parents and community

One component that is unique to PreSchool Partners and sets it apart from other preschools is that the program requires the parents to attend school one morning a week with their child. PreSchool Partners strongly believes that in order for a child to be successful in school, there must be parental involvement. The parents attend class each Monday on a variety of subjects such as stress and anger management, nutrition, child development, family literacy, and money management. The parents in our program receive over 100 hours of instruction.

• Target Schools: We target Norwood and Whatley Schools in north Birmingham which are neighborhoods considered to be at risk and lower income.
• People Served: We serve 136 people every year – 68 children and 68 parents.
• Small Classes: We have a pupil/teacher ratio of 5 to 1 in our three year old classes and 6 to 1 in our four year old classes.
• Family Literacy Program: We provide the families with over 25 books to help establish a home library, while also training the parents how to read to their children and support their reading readiness skills.
• Health Screenings: We provide screenings for vision, hearing, dental and speech and language for the children so that any barriers to learning may be detected and corrected before the child starts school.
• Field Trips: We take several field trips during the school year to help expose the families to new experiences.
  
• Bus Transportation: We provide bus transportation daily to help ensure consistent attendance since so many families do not have reliable transportation.