It’s spring, and in preschools all over the country, teachers are pulling out their buckets of spring-themed activities.
But not at the Belmont Cooperative Nursery School.
Here, spring could bring lessons on telephones, boats, buildings, or sea creatures. It all depends on what the children are interested in.
“That’s what makes it exciting as a teacher and for the children,” said classroom teacher Brenna Banister. “The children really guide the learning.”
It’s the 50th anniversary of BCNS, which started as a playgroup for parents and grew over the years. At its heart is child-centered learning, modeled on the Reggio Emilia method, an Italian education philosophy that emphasizes learning through play with teachers as guides.
Classrooms at BCNS are small and comfortable, with neutral walls and furniture designed to make the children’s artwork and projects the focus. Parents serve on the school’s board and assist in the classrooms, which allows parents to know the children and each other, building an inclusive and supportive BCNS community.
“There is the underlying belief that children are born as unique and capable and curious individuals, and that we as their teachers are more their guides in their learning, so we study them and find out what they are interested in, and then implement that into the curriculum,” said Director Krissy Waters, who attended the school as a child herself. At the same time, her mother was the director of admissions. “Our curriculum changes every year, based on the children in our class.”
This year, the children are interested in boats, so they built model vessels. That led to an interest in sea creatures, so they visited the New England Aquarium. When they got back to class, they created paper mâché fish to hang from the ceiling, an octopus with tentacles made from paper chains, and cardboard shark teeth surrounding a doorway, simulating a walk into the maw of the fierce creature.
The goal is to instill a joy of learning in children, Waters said. Teachers build in lessons on math, science, and literacy, but the curriculum is led by the passions of four to six-year-olds.
“Because they are so excited, they will retain the information,” Waters said.
“As teachers, we are in partnership with the parents in a way that I haven’t always experienced at other schools,” Banister said. “At BCNS, there is such a sense of community and working together. Teachers are the experts on children in general, but each kid is unique, so we all work together to provide that child with the best that we can.”
Emily Kennerley agrees. Her son, Noah, is in his third year at BCNS, and she serves as co-chair of the executive board. She said Noah experienced a speech delay due to COVID-19 restrictions on in-person learning, and the programming at BCNS has been a boon to his development.
“He’s had the best experience there, and it’s just a fabulous program,” she said. “We’ve really loved meeting all of the parents and the teachers there are just extraordinary.”
Many of the teachers are former students or parents of students, which also contributes to the school’s sense of community.
“Every month, we have a big social event which ties into the co-op model because parents are in charge of organizing and running those, so they know each other and each other’s kids,” Waters said. “It creates a community for families where kids are just entering school for the first time, and it’s a nice kind of fit.”
There have been challenges over the years. The pandemic saw preschoolers in masks and banned parent volunteers, but the school managed to maintain a sense of normalcy while providing a supportive environment for children to learn and grow.
“I feel like COVID changed who came here because as a cooperative school where we had parents here every day, they couldn’t work full time,” Waters said. “Now, we’ve expanded our hours, and some parents work from home, allowing some families to come here that wouldn’t have been able to before. We’ve kept it flexible for parent help. They used to have to come 12 times during the school year; now it is four, so it makes it a bit more flexible for families.”
The rising use of technology is another challenge, Waters said, as it is changing the way children assimilate information. The school is a “tech-free zone,” and teachers intentionally avoid using their phones in class.
“We try to keep our environment as free of that as we can, knowing that they’re going to get it absolutely, but the longer you wait to give it to them, the better,” Waters said.
In celebration of their 50th anniversary, BCNS will hold a 1970s-themed gala and an art show later this spring. Waters is reaching out to alumni to remind them of the school’s continued presence and achievements.
“We’re hoping to have photos from the early days,” Waters said. “I’ve reached out to a couple of friends I went to preschool with, so we can go back as far as we can.”
Banister said the primary appeal of BCNS remains the strong community ties that are so meaningful to parents of very young children.
“This is what parents are seeking, you know? They need other parents where they can go and say, ‘I’m struggling with something,’ and they need a group of people to be able to share that with and have those conversations with,” Banister said. “That is ultimately what all the teachers and parents are working toward, and that creates a community where everybody feels like we’re working toward the same thing.”
Kennerley added, “With all of the negative things in the world, it’s been a big ray of sunshine for our family, and we want to do everything we can to support it.”
For more information about the Belmont Cooperative Nursery School visit their website at belmontcoop.org.
