Thank you for considering Ashburn Village Country Day School, a locally and family owned childcare center with an educational orientation. We strive to provide a high quality child care program in a learning and loving environment. Parents and guardians deserve safe nurturing, challenging and innovative programs that demonstrate a strong commitment toward excellence and a lasting desire to make improvements. The importance of how the quality of care affects children's development cannot be underscored. research indicates that high quality childcare promotes higher language, cognitive, social, and emotional development. Unfortunately, programs in which "quality" is prevalently poor can be detrimental to a child's well being.

The degree of quality in childcare varies among centers. If given an affordable choice, I believe parents and guardians will support advocacy for better quality day care. But what defines high quality as it relates to Ashburn Village Country Day School? Quality is an ongoing process in which we continuously evaluate our effectiveness with children and pursue higher standards. Safety is where it begins and is viewed as our number one priority by far. Our building features a video monitoring system with cameras in each room. Each classroom has pinch guards on the inside and outside entrance door hinges to prevent potentially serious injuries. We also have a full time Registered Nurse to oversee the medical health, safety, and nutritional aspects of the school. Many of our staff members are trained in CPS and First Aid.

Our program is child-focused. We recognize the essential role we have in providing each child with a warm, loving and caring relationship. Each child is special to us and deserves a lot of interaction and individual attention from teachers who understand him.

Our classrooms are organized to enhance our quality. They are child-friendly, warm and inviting. Each room features carefully created, developmentally appropriate interest areas for children and is designed to facilitate language development and socialization. Our attention to quality extends to outdoors as well. There are a wide variety of simple and complex play areas including a dynamic sports court and soccer field situated on four acres. Computer skills are offered in our computer lab by experienced staff weekly.

We selected teachers who demonstrate patience, warmth, and empathy. Staff development is an ongoing process, stressing safety, stages of child development, components of developmentally appropriate care and education, positive discipline approaches, and screening for illnesses and developmental delays. To encourage continuous enhancement of strategies that support children at their particular levels of development, we provide training sessions, workshops, and a reimbursement plan for all direct care staff members taking relevant classes. research supports a strong relationship between professional qualifications of teachers and better outcomes with children.

Creating a favorable and positive work environment has been demonstrated through research to affect the quality of a childcare program in a positive way. In addition to placing emphasis on professional growth opportunities, we attempt to reward our staff for their commitment to their work.

For parents and guardians, we provide bi-annual assessments, progress reports, and parent-teacher conferences. Through the various dialogues and exchanges, we hope to have a better sensitivity and responsiveness to each child's communications.

Research on brain development underscores the importance of high quality early childhood programs on a child's development. Those of us who provide childcare have a window of opportunity wide open to us. We need to provide better access to quality. Let us all realize a simple, well-researched fact. Particularly in terms of language and cognitive development... QUALITY MATTERS. High quality - that's what we are constantly striving for. We believe we have achieved it. But our rates will remain competitive.

In conclusion, let us share a few other goals surrounding our philosophy. We expect to foster the promotion of each and every child's growth in a creative, constructive, and productive direction. We know the parents and guardians share that same expectation. We will provide a learning and loving environment which identifies and meets the various needs of all children through a comprehensive program of child care services. Our child care center is committed to benefiting all of its children by encouraging exploration, understanding, expression, and a true desire for learning.

Please let us know if you ever have any question, comments, or recommendations. Your feedback is appreciated as it assists us in measuring the quality of our work.

Sincerely,

Stephanie L. Dolan, R.N.

Owner, Administrator