Serendipity Preschool was established in 1981 by a family whose history in Monterey goes back to 1801. It was founded by a mother and daughter team who had a dream to educate and prepare young children in an environment rich in art, music, science and history.
To this day, Serendipity continues to offer a high quality program with age appropriate activities that develop good reading and math readiness skills and thematic units rich in music, art, science and history . Serendipity offers a quality and stimulating learning environment that provides materials, experiences, guidance and encouragement that help children to become curious explorers of their world.
Activities in our program also foster children's physical, social, cognitive and emotional development. We focus on the individual needs of each child and enhancing children's self-esteem and self-discipline.
Fun American traditions are celebrated at Serendipity. October includes our Halloween Party (no scary costumes), November is our school's Thanksgiving Feast, December we present our Holiday Pageant, February is our Valentine's Day Party, and in July we conclude the school year with our "End of the Year Celebration" and "Graduation Ceremony" for our pre-kindergarten students.
Our program offers a variety of sessions. Our doors open at 7:45am and close at 5:30pm. We offer a morning educational program ( 9:00am -12:00pm) and an afternoon educational program (12:30pm-3:30pm). Additional hours beyond our educational program are offered to accommodate working parents. Our program offers a 2,3,4 or 5 days per week schedule and tuition is paid on a monthly basis.
Serendipity Preschool is open to all children, regardless of race, nationality or creed; The child must be at least three years of age, toilet trained and must not be over kindergarten age.
Serendipity has a year round program. Our school year begins the first week in August and ends in mid July. Calendars for the school year are issued each August to inform parents of school breaks, observed holidays, and special school events.
Our facility is a unique Victorian style building, rich in color, warmth and character. Serendipity offers a safe, nurturing, and creative learning environment for all of its students.
Teachers
Teachers at Serendipity are skilled, enthusiastic and highly qualified . Our staff is college trained in early child development and early childhood education. Each teacher's formal education, work related and personal references are checked and a full criminal background check is performed. Teachers are also required to maintain a current American Red Cross Card in pediatric CPR and First Aid.
Our class sizes include one teacher to approximately 6 students allowing for personalized attention and individualized instruction.
Maintaining good communication between teachers and parents and performing ongoing assessments of each student is paramount to the staff at Serendipity.
To keep parents informed of the school's events and their child's developmental progress our program includes the following :
- A monthly newsletter highlighting the themes, letters, children's literature and special events of the month.
- Ongoing dialogue between parents and teachers at drop off and pick up times.
- Weekly "Activity Cards" that are sent home describing the child's daily educational activities and assessments.
- A personal assessment file is issued to each student. This file records the student's daily progress in all of the areas of our curriculum. With daily assessments, the teachers are better able to monitor learning and meet the individual needs of each student.
- In addition to the child's daily assessment, a Social Emotional Assessment is completed by the child's teachers twice a year. This assessment gives the parents a good understanding of how their child copes and interacts with their peers and teachers in the school environment.
- Parent/Teacher conferences are scheduled throughout the school year at the parent's request or when a teacher feels it is beneficial to the student's progress and development.
Enrollment
Students are admitted to our school without regard to race, color, religion, nationality or ethnic origin. Priority enrollment for the following school year is given to students who are currently enrolled. The majority of our openings occur in the beginning of the school year but we will accept new students throughout the year if spaces become available.
If you would like to be on our waiting list, please download the waiting list form and return to us. We will do our best to enroll your child as close to the "desired starting date" as possible.