Frequently Asked Questions

At St. Paul's Preschool, we believe in a child-centered approach to teaching and learning. Our teachers focus on individual student needs and interests, and use a variety of teaching methods to engage and challenge our students. We are a play-based and nature-based preschool rooted by the Reggio-Emilia approach. To learn more about our philosophies, click here. 

All of our teachers are highly qualified and experienced professionals with at least 12 ECE units in Early Childhood Development as required by the State of California. The majority of our teachers have gone above and beyond this requirement and hold Bachelor's and Master's Degrees in Early Childhood Education. We even have mentor teachers on our staff. All of our teachers and staff undergo regular professional development and training to stay up-to-date with the latest teaching practices and methods. All are CPR and First Aid trained. 

Reggio Emilia focuses on community, emergent curriculum from children's interests, and collaboration, viewing the environment as the "third teacher" with open-ended materials, while Montessori emphasizes independence, structured activities with specific materials (like self-correcting tools) in a prepared environment, and individual mastery, though both value child-centered learning and view children as capable individuals. 

Key differences lie in teacher roles (co-learner in Reggio vs. observer in Montessori), curriculum (emergent vs. pre-designed), and learning style (collaborative projects vs. independent work). 

We provide a nutritious snack for our morning, afternoon, and nature classes. Students with special allergies may bring their own snack. Our monthly snack menu is posted on our Snack Menu page of this website. 

Students may bring a packed lunch if they join us for extended care such as Sonshine Club or Kids Adventure Club. Please keep in mind that we are a nut-free school. 

We are a half-day preschool. A nap time is not provided in our morning and afternoon preschool classes. If your child is staying at school for more than 5 hours including their class plus extended care, a rest period will be provided. 

Please call or visit our office for more information regarding enrollment in one of our preschool classes. Priority enrollment for returning families and siblings ends January 30th, 2026. We reach out to families on the Call List at the beginning of February to begin their registration process. At this point, New Family enrollment begins. If the class you are interested in is full, please add your name to our waitlist and we will call you as soon as a spot opens up. 

You may find our Registration Information and Enrollment Forms on the Enrollment Forms page of this website. 

Our school year runs from the end of August to the end of May. We offer summer camp sessions during certain weeks of the summer as well. 

Our school and office are open from 8:30am to 3:30pm Monday through Friday. Our core preschool programs run for 2.5 hours with extended care options before and afterwards. 

We adhere to the California State licensing requirements for preschools regarding our teacher to student ratios. Our maximum ratio is one fully-qualified teacher to 12 students. But most of our classes have a smaller ratio of 1:6 or 1:7.  

Our main form of communication with parents is through an app called BrightWheel. Through this app, our main office and your child's teachers can send newsletters, upcoming event information, photos, messages, and incident reports. We schedule parent/teacher conferences in November. You may also request a conference with your child's teachers at any time throughout the year to discuss progress, concerns, future placements, etc. 

Yes, you will need to provide an immunization record from your child's pediatrician before the first week of school. Our licensing requires that all students be up-to-date on immunizations. Please see California's Required Immunizations for Pre-Kindergarten students.