Our Award Winning Preschool!
Preschool of the Arts is delighted to welcome many returning and new families to school for our seventh year! We are so proud of how far we have come in these past seven years and how we have grown from a fledgling preschool to the top-quality program with over one hundred students that we have today. Over the summer we were deeply honored to learn that we won Gold in the 2017 Champion Choice awards in three categories – Best local Childcare, Preschool, and Educational Services. This is the sixth year in a row that our growing preschool has won this prestigious award. We are honored to be voted in again and again by local Naples' parents and are grateful for this recognition. Achieving this exceptional level of performance as judged by everyday families in our community does not happen by chance. It takes intentional effort to achieve this level of success and we are so proud of our staff and teachers who continue to raise the bar for excellence in early childhood education!
Our preschool strives to foster a safe, healthy and green environment for our children by offering nutritious foods and plenty of opportunity for physical activity, as well as eliminating potentially hazardous environmental factors. POTA is proud to be a Blue Zones certified school and a certified green Eco-Healthy Child Care (EHCC) program. Blue Zones is an NCH-sponsored program that recognizes places that support a healthy and environmentally friendly lifestyle and EHCC is a national program that seeks to improve the environmental health of children by eliminating or reducing environmental health hazards found in childcare facilities.
Our state-of-the-art outdoor playground allows children to develop physical strength, coordination and balance. In yoga, my gym, music and more, children have fun as they gain strength, balance, coordination, agility and flexibility while also developing social skills, confidence and self-esteem. Our professionally landscaped Garden of the Arts a offers a natural outdoor space that lets children play an active role in planting our vegetable and sensory garden.
This past summer, we strengthened and expanded our already strong arts curriculum with a brand new state-of-the-art creative arts studio. At POTA we know that introducing children to the vast world of fine art sparks their imaginations and inspires their creativity. Our dedicated art instructors work with the children to expose them to different artists and their artistic styles and provide ample open-ended opportunities to create using a wide array of art media.
This year we have also introduced the first ever Cheery Chagall class, where we give young babies, ages 12 to 18 months, a bright beginning to their educational journey! Our school has developed a top-notch program for encouraging young toddlers’ learning through hands-on experiences and opportunities for multi-sensory exploration. This new, expertly designed program for tiny tots and busy toddlers is the perfect first transition for young children as they enter our warm and loving preschool setting, where they are able to expand their young worlds with stimulating and enriching experiences.
Our program has expanded not only the ages we serve, but the length of the school day, with new extended care options available as early as 7:30am until 5:30pm. These additions to our program are designed to serve our community’s needs and provide working parents with the best possible care and education for their children. Our ultimate goal is for all our children to emerge from our program as independent and curious thinkers. We are very excited about the upcoming school year and anticipate a journey filled with academic and creative growth and discovery!