Our School

 

Our Mission

The Mission of KLA Schools is to provide a safe, innovative environment and high quality education for the students of our communities inspired by the Reggio Emilia Approach to education.

 

Vision & Values

IndividualityIndividuality
All children are honored as individuals who are intrinsically motivated and are active participants in their learning.

RelationshipsRelationships
Relationships are at the core of our educational approach and are built with our surroundings: people, materials, and environments.

CollaborationCollaboration
Families, educators and children are partners in learning and research.

ProcessProcess
Through documentation, the learning process of teachers and children is made visible for furthering understanding, expanding on concepts, and celebrating ideas.

IntentionalityIntentionality
Environments are safe, nurturing, and designed to promote experiences that invite children and adults to enter into meaningful dialogues that foster children’s innate curiosity, creativity, and thinking.

Vision & Values

Individuality
Individuality
All children are honored as individuals who are intrinsically motivated and are active participants in their learning.

Relationships
Relationships
Relationships are at the core of our educational approach and are built with our surroundings: people, materials, and environments.

Collaboration
Collaboration
Families, educators and children are partners in learning and research.

Process
Process
Through documentation, the learning process of teachers and children is made visible for furthering understanding, expanding on concepts, and celebrating ideas.

Intentionality
Intentionality
Environments are safe, nurturing, and designed to promote experiences that invite children and adults to enter into meaningful dialogues that foster children’s innate curiosity, creativity, and thinking.

Our Leadership Team

Patricia De Santis

Director

A Letter from the Director

Dear Families,

It is with sincere pleasure that I welcome you and your family to KLA Schools of North Bay Village.

My name is Patricia De Santis and as of June 2019, I have been given the honor and opportunity to become the director for KLA Schools of North Bay Village. I feel both enthusiastic and excited to begin this new journey with you. My goal is to establish a strong connection with both, the children and the parents, and to provide a welcoming environment for all. KLA is a community in which diversity is valued and is used as a tool to promote growth in our school environment.

As Loris Malaguzzi said, “Learning and teaching should not stand on opposite banks and just watch the river flow by; instead, they should embark together on a journey down the water.” This quote has impacted my professional experience and I look forward to transmitting the message to you.

I invite you to come and visit our school to see the interaction and the passion for early childhood education that our teachers advocate.

Warm Regards,
Patricia De Santis

Our Educators

KLA Schools are staffed with caring, fun, and dedicated professionals. Participating regularly in professional development experiences, our teachers are constantly learning about the best ways to teach our students. Observations of each child are taken throughout the day in addition to notes reflecting on weekly projections. Our educators are continually analyzing which ways children learn best, as well as which teaching styles are most effective.

Facilitators in their interactions with children, our educators work to align children’s interests with the learning domains in loving, nurturing, and positive ways. They support students in feeling safe, loved, and valued. Our curriculum addresses the whole child, including academic, physical, social and emotional domains.

We encourage children to think deeper and ask questions as they research different theories. Teachers and children alike invest in researching and collaborating together in order to be a part of each other’s learning process.

Our Educators

KLA Schools are staffed with caring, fun, and dedicated professionals. Participating regularly in professional development experiences, our teachers are constantly learning about the best ways to teach our students. Observations of each child are taken throughout the day in addition to notes reflecting on weekly projections. Our educators are continually analyzing which ways children learn best, as well as which teaching styles are most effective.

Facilitators in their interactions with children, our educators work to align children’s interests with the learning domains in loving, nurturing, and positive ways. They support students in feeling safe, loved, and valued. Our curriculum addresses the whole child, including academic, physical, social and emotional domains.

We encourage children to think deeper and ask questions as they research different theories. Teachers and children alike invest in researching and collaborating together in order to be a part of each other’s learning process.

Parents as Our Partners

Parents are a crucial factor in our program. In fact, parents are our partners. Our teachers understand and respect that parents are their children’s first teacher. Parental involvement in the school gives their children a sense of security and is deeply appreciated. We recognize that stable, quality relationships during the early years are crucial for developmental outcomes in the future.

Collaboration between teachers, parents and the children is an integral part of the educational experience at KLA Schools. Our goal is not simply to build a strong, warm and nurturing connection with each child, but to extend that connection to our community of parents. By working in a collaborative group setting, children learn life skills such as compromise, reasoning, respect for others’ opinions and enhancement of their sense of community. Children benefit from experiencing many of the same principles at home that they do in school, and they thrive with this consistency. Teachers also offer frequent support for our families and our communities through transparency and by being a source of information about childhood education and development.

Safety and Security

KLA Schools of North Bay Village is safe and secure by design. We work diligently to maintain the cleanliness of our facility, the safety of our furnishings, and the overall health of our children and their environment.

Parents log their children in at the reception area, where no outsiders are allowed. All doors leading outside of the KLA Schools of North Bay Village grounds are kept locked and can only be opened through sophisticated technology. Our school includes an outdoor play area designed with age-appropriate materials, protective fences, and well-maintained grounds to ensure the children’s safety.

The entire school is continually monitored utilizing closed-circuit cameras in all classrooms, as well as hallways and outdoor spaces.

Staff members qualified to respond to life-threatening emergencies are always in attendance. Staff members are trained in pediatric first aid and CPR, and are always available to respond to a variety of emergency medical situations. In addition to our regularly instituted health and safety plan, emergency care procedures are also put in place for both minor and major incidents.

Our staff is confident and qualified to keep your most prized possession safe at all times.

Safety and Security

KLA Schools of North Bay Village is safe and secure by design. We work diligently to maintain the cleanliness of our facility, the safety of our furnishings, and the overall health of our children and their environment.

Parents log their children in at the reception area, where no outsiders are allowed. All doors leading outside of the KLA Schools of North Bay Village grounds are kept locked and can only be opened through sophisticated technology. Our school includes an outdoor play area designed with age-appropriate materials, protective fences, and well-maintained grounds to ensure the children’s safety.

The entire school is continually monitored utilizing closed-circuit cameras in all classrooms, as well as hallways and outdoor spaces.

Staff members qualified to respond to life-threatening emergencies are always in attendance. Staff members are trained in pediatric first aid and CPR, and are always available to respond to a variety of emergency medical situations. In addition to our regularly instituted health and safety plan, emergency care procedures are also put in place for both minor and major incidents.

Our staff is confident and qualified to keep your most prized possession safe at all times.

Community Service

As part of our philosophy and educational approach, we believe it is essential to make visible that fact that each child knows and understands that we are all different and can co-exist peacefully. We have different ways of thinking, a fact we embrace. In fulfilling this vision, KLA Schools has formed relationships with charitable organizations within each of the communities it exists. Read more about our involvement with the following foundations:

His House

His House Children’s Home is a private, faith-based non-profit organization dedication to restoring joy to the lives of children from newborn to 18 years of age. Since it was established in 1989, His House has been offering safe, caring homes to abused, abandoned and neglected children in South Florida.

CBC – Children Battling Cancer

Camillus House

Serving the South Florida community since 1960, the Camillus House Organization is a non-profit organization that provides humanitarian services to men, women and children who are poor and homeless. We ask our families to help us by providing basic non-perishable necessities to these people in our community.

Nicklaus Children’s Hospital

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