The 2 and 3 year olds have 1 head teacher and 3 Assistants. The 4 year olds have 1 head teacher and 2 assistants. Our head teachers have a master’s degree in early childhood education and state certification.  Our assistant teachers are usually working their way through school with a goal of one day becoming head teachers themselves, although we have some career assistant teachers on staff.

We believe that children do best with peers when it comes to organized group activities and projects.  When children are grouped with peers (both developmentally and chronologically) we can ensure that all the children benefit from the activity. 

That means that the teachers plan activities for the children to engage in and that there is a daily schedule, as well as monthly themes.  Every day children have the opportunity to have free play, circle time, story time, activity time, and meet with some of our specialists.  What being teacher-directed means at Claremont is that the children do not engage in free play all morning.  We believe that children like structure and like having adults plan activities for them to engage in.

The specialists teach our special activities, such as art, music, gymnastics, library, computers, science, woodwork and yoga.  Children travel from their classrooms to meet with the specialists.

The classroom activities are based on monthly themes.  Each day is broken up into half-hour segments.  Classroom activities include circle time, snack time, cooking, free play, as well as projects that relate to the monthly themes.

The focus of the twos' curriculum is social development and language development.  Children separate from their parents or caregivers, become comfortable in the classroom and develop friendships. 

The focus of the threes' curriculum continues to be social and language development, but we add to that skill development.  More time is spent in the threes' classes working on letters and numbers, as well as visual and fine motor skills. The threes do projects related to the letter of the week, and engage in different kinds of puzzles and games.

By the time the children are four the curriculum becomes pre-academic as the children prepare to move on to kindergarten.

Donna Cohen, the director of the school, helps families with exmissions.  The exmissions process starts in the Spring of the threes' program.  Parents meet individually with Donna to discuss the schools they want to apply to.  As well as frequent individual parent meetings throughout that Spring and the following Fall and Winter, Donna also hosts a number of group meetings for parents applying to on-going schools.  Additionally, Claremont is an ERB testing site, so children are tested at the school.

Following is the list of schools students have been accepted to:

We serve a healthy snack every day.  Snack consists of some form of carbohydrate (i.e., Wheat Thins, Cheerios, Saltines, pretzels), fruit and cheese.  If there are any dairy allergies in the classroom, cheese is not served.  We also serve apple juice and water.  Children in the full-day program bring their own lunch to school. Claremont is a nut and seed free school.

Michael Koffler is the executive director of Claremont Children's School.  He is the CEO and owner of Metschools, the parent company of Claremont Children's School and seven other schools.

Claremont Children's School is a privately owned school, and therefore is has for-profit status.  The school is tuition-run.  Parent-driven fundraising is limited and is usually done to benefit our scholarship fund and staff development.

Both schools are part of Metschools.  As sister schools, children attending Claremont Children's School can be given priority admissions status at Claremont Preparatory School.

Siblings represent our top priority.  Sometimes a sibling is asked to wait a year if they are not ready to start school, and occasionally we see a sibling who might need to attend a different type of school, but overall we try to accommodate all siblings.  Sibling applicants receive early notification.

After siblings, priority is given to first choice families.  We believe that it is very important that families with children attending Claremont really like the school and believe in our philosophy.  We see so many children and families every year that we extend priority to the families who state that Claremont Children's School is their first choice for their child's preschool education.  First choice applicants receive early notification, as do our sibling applicants.  All other applicants are notified on the ISAAGNY notification dates.

Although the school day doesn't start until either 8:45AM for the two and three-year-olds, and 8:30AM for the four-year-olds, children can be dropped off at the school as early as 8:00AM. 

Every morning a group of teachers is available in our gym at 8:00AM in order to supervise children whose parents need to bring them to school early.  Parents may either drop the children off and leave, or remain to  watch them engaging in free play.  This service is free of charge and  parents are welcome to take advantage of it on an as-needed basis.

We believe that by gently introducing computers to two-year-olds in a way that is appropriate to their age, we can ensure that their first encounter with computers is positive.  Two-year-olds and three-year-olds have computer class once a week for thirty minutes.  Four-year-olds have computer class twice a week. All the software used is age appropriate and interactive.  The youngest children begin by using a touch-screen.  Later they progress to a large trackball, and finally to a small mouse.