Early School (12 months-4 years)

Where joyful learning begins

The Early School (ES) at Stuart Country Day School of the Sacred Heart is a hands-on, play-based preschool environment where children build foundations in literacy, math, and science while developing a strong sense of community. Boys and girls learn to express and manage emotions, share ideas and materials, embrace new challenges, and practice what it means to care for and contribute to their classroom community in a faith-filled environment.

The ES meets each child where they are and helps them soar. Children are seen, heard, and included in all aspects of our preschool program. We spark children’s curiosity by inviting them to ask questions, explore, wonder, observe, and record. Their learning takes root through doing: dancing, sharing, crafting, jumping, drawing, singing, or building.  

In all ES classrooms, children experience developmentally appropriate small-group activities and learning centers that foster wonder and learning. From “cooking” a culinary feast and “treating” a furry friend in the animal hospital, to measuring volume in a rotating sensory table filled with rice, beans or pom poms, children expand their imaginations while strengthening fine motor and problem-solving skills. The classes build off of each other to support emergent literacy, developing numeracy, deepening vocabulary and ability to express oneself, and the autonomy of self through growing fine and gross motor skills. 

Community is central to the Early School at Stuart. This work is foundational, much like the words Madeleine Sophie Barat spoke when she founded the Society of the Sacred Heart in 1800: "For the sake of one child, I would have founded the Society." That same devotion to the individual child lives on in every ES classroom today. This is a place where children are seen and heard as they learn to see and listen to others. Each class grows into a caring community: they volunteer to help others, approach challenges together and seek out support, and include each other. These daily experiences allow children to experience what it means to belong.

"The preschool program at Stuart is truly magical. The themed units and learning activities are incredibly well thought-out and curated. The students learn and develop skills with daily new, exciting and purposeful activities. The conscientiousness and enthusiasm of the teachers is evident. Their warmheartedness as well as that of the entire Stuart staff and student body makes the school an extraordinary place for any student to start their educational journey. We cannot speak highly enough about the program or our daughter's experience" - Current Parent