School Readiness
What is School Readiness?
School Readiness is children being ready for school; families being ready to support their children’s learning; and schools being ready for children. School Readiness is viewed as children possessing the skills, knowledge and attitudes necessary for success in school and later learning in life.
Our School Readiness Mission Statement
Our mission is to improve the lives of low-income children by providing training and technical assistance to center staff that is family-focused and inclusive of education, health, nutrition, mental health and disability services through the integration of all systems in an intentional effort to support school readiness.
School Readiness Core Values
- Children must be valued.
- Treat others with respect and dignity.
- Promote honesty and trust.
- Value others and embrace cooperation and collaboration.
- Remain committed to quality work.
- View change as an opportunity for growth.
- Take personal responsibility for actions and behaviors.
School Readiness Program Goals
School readiness goals articulate our program’s expectations of our children’s status and progress across the five essential domains of child development and early learning. They are broad statements that articulate the highest developmental achievement children should attain as a result of Head Start services. They are the expectations of children’s status and progress across the five identified essential domains. Progress within these domains will improve readiness for kindergarten goals and that appropriately reflect the ages of children, birth to five, participating in the program.
Head Start/Early Head Start School Readiness Goals
HEAD START
Children will use and comprehend an increasingly complex and varied vocabulary. Dual language learners may demonstrate these increasing abilities in their home language.
EARLY HEAD START
Infants and Toddlers will understand and begin to use oral language for conversation and communication (English or other languages).
HEAD START
Children will understand that print is connected to oral and written communication.
EARLY HEAD START
Infants and Toddlers will engage with stories and books.
HEAD START
Children will participate in activities that initiate active explorations and ignite questions, manipulate and make predictions, prompting a sense of their surroundings.
EARLY HEAD START
Infants and Toddlers will use all their senses to explore, investigate, and manipulate their environment to gain knowledge of how things work, occur, and happen in their physical environment.
HEAD START
Children will demonstrate persistence and flexibility by developing an increased ability to find more than one solution to a question or problem.
EARLY HEAD START
Infants and Toddlers will demonstrate an interest in learning and discovering.
HEAD START
Children will identify and practice healthy and safe habits.
EARLY HEAD START
Infants and Toddlers will learn and begin to demonstrate healthy and safe habits.
HEAD START
Children will develop positive relationships with peers and adults that will display levels of appropriate emotional regulation.
EARLY HEAD START
Infants and Toddlers will demonstrate control over some of their feeling and behaviors (self-regulation).