Parents of preschoolers are about to have new option for year-round private schooling. Local residents Trey and Elizabeth Scott will be opening the Greater Jacksonville area’s fourth location for The Goddard School For Early Childhood Development. The school will be located in the former Childtime daycare building at 45 Executive Way.
The preschool will have a year-round program Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. open to children ages six weeks through pre-K.
The school is part of The Goddard School, Inc. franchise. GSI was founded over 25 years ago with the first school location in southeastern Pennsylvania and has grown to more than 400 locations nationwide.
For the Scotts, who are parents of three young children themselves — a three-year-old son, Cade, and one-year-old twins, Mary and Lilly — early childhood education is something they are very passionate about. The family has lived in the area for about three years and their son has been enrolled in a Goddard School for the past two years.
“We realized when we moved here, we realized the demand for a full-time preschool program,” Elizabeth Scott said. “As a parent, that’s kind of where my decision for that came into play. I fell in love with the curriculum and the program; it’s just incredibly high quality. My son has been going to a Goddard School for the last two years, so I have personal experience with it as a parent,” she said.
The Goddard School incorporates the “F.L.E.X. Learning Program” structured around the pillars of developmental guidelines, a creative and fun learning environment, child-focused lesson plans and child-centered teachable moments with customized programs based on the child’s age, progress and needs.
“The teachers are one of the things that sets the school apart,” Scott said. “One teacher in every single classroom has to have a credential in early childhood development for education and a lot of schools don’t have that. The teachers that we’re employing, that’s their career and their passion is to be working with young, early childhood-aged children.”
Beyond the teachers and the curriculum, Scott said they wanted to make the building aesthetics bright and open to create an engaging learning atmosphere for the children.
They hired an interior design firm, KAH Architecture, based in Austin, Texas, and specializing in preschools. Additionally, they are using environmentally sustainable design elements as they relate to building materials such as environmentally sustainable green products from the floors to the paint, and air quality control systems.
Registration is now open. Pre-enrollment events are planned in late February, where parents can come and meet Scott, the school director, take a virtual tour and learn a little bit more about the school.
Construction progress has the school on target to open in early summer.
The school will have a 145 full-time student capacity.
For more information or to register, visit the school’s webpage at http://goddardschool.com/jacksonville/ponte-vedra-beach-executive-way-fl and fill out the online forms or call the school at (904) 373-6600.
