Navarre United Methodist Church Pre-School

My experience with the Volunteer Pre-​Kindergarten program at the Navarre United Methodist Church is far different from the experience of Amanda H. I came to Navarre from Hawaii due to a permanent change of station with the USAF. On learning that Florida provided a free VPK program, we looked into providers (my wife is a certified teacher specializing in special education) and elected the half day program at the Methodist church rather than the full day programs at the intermediate school. Both my youngest daughter and son were enrolled in the program. My daughter was an older pre-​schooler and my son was a very young pre-​schooler because his birthday was 9 days before the cut-​off date and as its written, he had to attend when he was first eligible or forfeit the free VPK and we would have had to pay for the program the following year. Both my children made a very easy transition to going to school and actually looked forward to their classes which began at 0900 and was over at 1200hrs. The school was on the same schedule as the Santa Rosa School District which made vacation planning easy since we had children in the West Navarre primary, West Navarre intermediate, Woodlawn middle and/​or Navarre high schools.
The VPK program is monitored and certified by the state and my understanding is, like any other school receiving public funds, they are inspected on a regular basis and also receive unannounced inspections. The VPK program teaches and is evaluated on how well they teach and how well the students learn the required standards similar to the common core state standards initiatives that Florida executes next school year and we endured in Hawaii. I am not a fan of these standards because they seem to be overly subjective and reminiscent of the grading scheme used in pilot training where you want to show progress through the school year with no regression so kids usually start low and meet or exceed expectations at the end of the school year. I personally like the normal A, B, C, D and F grading scheme to this new touchy feely scheme but that is a state and national initiative and not one created by the school. By the way, the goal of these standard based programs is for the children to meet expectations though they would love for all the kids to exceed them.
The student to teacher ratio at this school is much lower than what is required by the state and that was another plus for us. The low ratio allows kids to receive more personalized attention and if needed, more one on one instruction. At least more than the maximum 8 minutes Amanda’s child can receive during his or her class day. I know my children’s teacher and her assistant knew my children’s name and they spent sufficient time with them to create a special bond/​friendship that made our children’s experience a happy and memorable one.
Speaking with my children and reviewing their work showed they were provided a wide cross section of enrichment activities (music, Godly play (its a preschool run by a church therefore, not unexpected), etc), learning center time, arts and craft, introduction to letters, number, shape, etc. The learning center time, to my understanding, is learning through interaction with other kids and everyday objects in order to teach the required standards of learning through play (active learning) rather than rote memorization or sitting at a desk regurgitating what the teacher says or instructs. My children flourished in this type of teaching environment which is more like the Montissori educational approach but with a little more structure than the Montessori approach utilizes.
As you can see by the preceding paragraph, my children had a full schedule packed into a three hour day. I don’t think they had sufficient time to spend an hour on the playground and thirty minutes to get marshalled to and from the playground which is connected to the rear of the school building. I wonder where Amanda got her figures from because it seems a bit unrealistic. Furthermore, every parent I had the pleasure of speaking with in the hallway while waiting to drop off or pick up my children seemed pleased and thrilled to have their kids in this program. In fact, I know of a two or three parents who transferred their kids into the methodist church VPK program from other programs when they were called up from the waiting list. They were all ecstatic about the methodist church’s program and gave it glowing reviews in comparison to the programs they left. I’m sure the parent who was given the opportunity to enroll their child into this program to fill the vacancy Amanda’s child left would love to thank her for moving her child to another school.
No one can please everyone ans some can not be satisified no matter how much you try. I’d recommend the school from my kid’s positive experiences and since Amanda’s review is the first negative experience I’ve heard from past and current parents of this VPK program.