It’s been an amazing year thanks to you!

Dear Friends of Wonderspring,
 
As we close out 2022, I just wanted to take a moment to wish you all a joyous holiday season and a happy and healthy New Year. I am so grateful to all the staff, families, and stakeholders who make up the Wonderspring community and wanted to share some of the incredible things that we were able to accomplish with your support. We’re also thrilled to announce that this year, we embarked on the development of 5-year plan, designed to make Wonderspring an even more incredible place in the coming years. Take a look at all we’ve achieved this year and please consider making an end-of-year tax deductible donation to support our future work.
 
With best wishes for the New Year,
Zakiyyah Boone
 

We upgraded our facilities

Thanks to the generosity of funders including PNC, Truist Foundation, Pottstown Area Health and Wellness Foundation, and McLean Contributionship, Wonderspring was able to make several upgrades at our centers. Our Powelton Village center was painted inside and out and received new flooring and cabinets, our Pottsown center received a grant to purchase indoor and outdoor gross-motor equipment, and our Narberth center received new furniture. At our New Market West Center, we added a cozy reading area and upgraded the outdoor play environment.

We invested in teacher quality

If there is one thing that sets Wonderspring apart, it is our absolute commitment to providing the highest quality education and care to the children and families we serve. Our staff includes two quality managers who stay abreast of best practices in early childhood education and provide ongoing coaching and professional development to staff. This year, in addition to countless hours of coaching, Wonderspring held three organization-wide, full-day professional development events covering topics such as curriculum implementation, assessment and progress monitoring, managing challenging behaviors and CPR. To ensure teachers have ongoing access to training, we also purchased professional development subscriptions with access to recorded webinars and live events for all lead teachers and assistant directors. Additionally, our quality Quality Coach and Senior Director of Programs participated in a Train-the-Trainer FLIP IT Course through the Devereux Center for Resilient Children. FLIP IT is a strategy that offers a simple, kind, strength-based, commonsense and effective process to address children’s day-to-day challenging behavior.

We added more tuition-free slots

Our vision is for all children and their families to have equitable access to high-quality Early Childhood Education and Out-of-School Time programs regardless of family income. This year the PHLpreK program at our Powelton Village center was recognized by the Mayor and we were able to to offer 10 additional slots. Additionally our New Market West Center was able to offer 20 PreK Counts slots.

We demonstrated our quality

Our New Market West site was awarded a STAR 4 rating (the highest available rating) from Keystone STARS, Pennsylvania’s Quality Rating and Improvement System. Additionally, the center is now participating In NAECY Accreditation Initiative through First Up, NAEYC accreditation is a multi-year process that involves both staff and parents to demonstrate the highest level of excellence in ten areas of good early childhood practice. Standards are defined as: 1. Relationships, 2. Areas of Development: Social-Emotional Development, Physical Development, Language Development, and Curriculum Content, 3. Teaching, 4. Assessment of Child Progress, 5. Health, 6. Teachers, 7. Families, 8. Community Relationships, 9. Physical Environment, and 10. Leadership and Management.

We began work on an actionable DEI plan

At Wonderspring we celebrate the wide array of culture, ethnicity, history and experience of our children, families and staff. we believe that our organization is strengthened and enriched by our diversity. we aim to create an inclusive and equitable environment for learning and working where everyone feels welcomed, valued and respected.
 
This year, Wonderspring began work on developing a formal plan aimed at ensuring diversity, equity and inclusion is embedded in every aspect of our operation. We applied for and were accepted into the Bucks-Mont Racial Equity Learning Community, a cross-county multi-sector initiative for organizations to come together to learn, build relationships and take action that deepens organizational and collective capacity to advance racial equity and justice in our region. Leaders from throughout our organization will participate in this intesive year-long process that will enable Wonderspring to develop an actionable equity plan.

Written by Wonderspring Early Learning on . Posted in Organizational News & Announcements