Transition to Consistent Classroom Communities

In response to feedback from our parents, we embarked on a very significant change in how children move through our classrooms as they mature. Our parents let us know that having a consistent classroom community where children’s friendships and family friendships could be maintained over a full year without disruption was highly desirable.

In the past, as openings in classrooms arose, children from younger classrooms would be moved into them. That created another opening, and so on down through the school. One child leaving the school could result in the disruption of as many as seven classroom communities. In order to avoid these disruptions, we needed to have all the children change classrooms at the same time, in September. When a child left the school, that space would be filled from the community without disrupting other classrooms. Accomplishing this change required more careful planning of each child’s path through the school and better consultation with families as the September classrooms were planned.

We have now completed our first September of having all the children in the Junior and Senior Preschool change classrooms together. We worked through the spring to enter data that would help us plan for these changes well. In May, we circulated our plan for September class composition to teachers and parents, received their feedback, made adjustments, and arrived at our fall projections. In July we started holding the new classroom meetings between parents and their new teachers. There were group classroom meetings and over 100 individual parent/teacher conferences held during July and August. The final week of August was a visiting week to help the children transition. Then in September, our new classrooms were ready to go!

Now, our new classrooms are in full swing. And after gathering feedback from around 40 parents across the school, we are ready to declare this significant program change a resounding success! The children transitioned to their new classrooms very happily. Parents appreciated the more transparent classroom change process that included their input and kept them informed. The meetings with new teachers before the change happened helped parents feel connected to their new classrooms and their new teachers before their child’s first day. Teachers are happy with how the process went for everyone.

The transition to this new system has required hard work from CPSC teachers and administrators and both involvement and communication from parents. While there remain some unsolved challenges in maintaining classroom learning communities year over year, the success we experienced adds to our confidence that we can tackle ambitious projects with successful results!