Program

Basic Info - Hours, Staffing, and Enrollment

Each Early School begins its day at 8:30 AM, five days a week, from the end of August through early June, with occasional breaks for vacations and work days. Departure times are 12:30, 3:15, or 5:15. Carolina Friends School offers a summer program for Early School age children. (Contact the Director of Summer Programs at CFS for more information.)

Our experience and research in the field of early childhood education suggest that small group size and low child-to-teacher ratios are related to positive outcomes for children. According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the group size and ratio of children to teachers should be limited to enable individualized and age-appropriate programming.

CES has a class of 18 children, taught by two teachers with the help of Upper School community service students. At DES, 19 children are taught by two teachers who are assisted by work-study students from Duke University. CHES enrolls 29 children, who are taught by three teachers with the help of work-study students from UNC. The configuration of groups may differ in each unit, but all three Early Schools provide time for large-and small-group activities, as well as opportunities for interaction with each age group. Each Early School is directed by a Head Teacher.

Daily Schedule

The Early School program recognizes the need of young children to participate in active and quiet play as well as in larger and smaller groups. The School's conviction that young children need to make choices for themselves is reflected throughout the daily program. Supplies, equipment, and other materials are available to the children for exploring the worlds of art, puppets, puzzles, manipulatives, sand and water, blocks, music, drama, games, science and nature, books, numbers, writing, etc. Also, each day children gather in small groups for settling in, reading, singing, storytelling, and other activities planned by the teachers.

The daily schedule includes ample time for snacks and for outside play. Music, movement, short plays, and field trips are included in the overall program too.

Family Grouping

In the Early Schools, children work and play together in mixed-age “family” groups. Such grouping, whether organized by teachers or naturally occurring in play, offers several advantages, including the following: 

1. It is easier for a child to make the transition from home to school because the school environment more closely resembles the structure of a family. It is the most stable and least stressful of structures because of the continuity of teachers and children from year to year.

2. Family grouping is especially well suited to the needs of three-year olds because the older members of the group, having already mastered the routines and rituals of the school environment, tend to care for the younger children and take great enjoyment in teaching them. Thus, a three-year-old in a family-grouped class has many “teachers” to help her make the home-to-school adjustment. 

3. Family grouping is well suited to the needs to four-year-olds because the mixed-age factor of the group beautifully supports the uneven, highly charged growth pattern of this period in development. Four-year-olds can easily, without shame, regress to the level of a three-year-old on one day and bound ahead to the more complex level of five-year-old the next day. 

4. Family grouping is well suited to five-and six-year-olds because it affords them the opportunity to be among the most able and socially responsible members of the school. Helping younger children to master skills that the older child has at least partially mastered is good reinforcement of his own learning. 

5. Teachers function better in family-grouped classes because of the stimulation and variety offered by the mixed ages. They enjoy the satisfactions of following each child's growth during a three-year period. Finally, the range of abilities which the children exhibit reminds the teacher that a child cannot be treated as merely typical of an age but must be considered as a unique individual with her own timetable of development.