Portland St. Patrick Catholic School

Even though the snow is flying and temperatures are hovering around the freezing mark, this is the time of year people begin to inquire about pre-school and developmental kindergarten for next school year.

In June of 2006, St. Patrick School acquired Miss Laura’s Wee People, a pre-school which had a long and successful history in Portland.  This acquisition gave us the distinction of being the only school in the Diocese to operate a complete educational program – pre-school through high school graduation.

Our pre-school director is Mrs.Carol Kahn, former owner of Miss Laura’s Wee People.  She brings more than 16 years of early childhood teaching experience to the school. Mrs. Kahn and her staff strive to help the children grow developmentally, in a Christian environment, preparing them well for developmental kindergarten or kindergarten. The students in the pre-school classes are included in some activities at St. Patrick School, so they become more comfortable with the building as well as the transition into elementary school.

St. Patrick School offers a three-year-old and four-year-old pre-school program.  Three-year-olds attend on Tuesday and Thursday.  Four-year-olds attend on Monday and Wednesday with an option to attend on Friday.  Both the three and four-year-old programs run from 8:30 – 11:00 a.m.  The four-year-old program also offers an afternoon session from 12:30 – 3:00 p.m.

The major elements of our pre-school program focus on cognitive skills, social interaction, and language development. These skills are developed through the use of art projects, field trips,music/finger plays, holiday activities, and using sign language.  The activities for each month are centered on a Christian theme.

The question that I am asked most frequently is, “Should I put my child in the four-year-old pre-school program or in developmental kindergarten? “   A large part of the answer is dependent onthe parent.  Some parents choose pre-school because they feel their child isn’t quite ready to go to school everyday.  Some parents prefer pre-school because it has more of a focus on social interaction and not as much on academics.  Other parents prefer DK because they feel that going to school every day prepares their child better for kindergarten.  Our recommendation is to have your child screened on the kindergarten screening date and the parents,along with our experienced staff, can work together to make an informed decision.

Any child who enters our developmental kindergarten program should attend  the kindergarten screening and the child must be four years of age or older and should turn five before the end of the school year.

Research indicates that the early years of education are crucial to a child’sdevelopment.  If you have questions, we would love to have you attend our pre-school, developmental kindergarten, and kindergartenopen house scheduled for Thursday, February 25, at 6:30 p.m. in the St. PatrickParish Hall.