The Medical Center Nursery School
Preschool in New York, NY 10032
The Mission of The Medical Center Nursery School an early childhood school affiliated with and supported by Columbia University is to provide a secure nurturing developmentally appropriate educational setting for children aged two to six.
The school serves children from the following communities: Columbia University; New York Presbyterian Hospital; the New York State Psychiatric Institute; and northern Manhattan specifically the Washington Heights and Inwood neighborhoods.
The school with expansive views of the Hudson River and the George Washington Bridge is on Floor B1 of Bard-Haven Tower a residence/office building located at the Columbia University Medical Center in Washington Heights.
- Child Ages:
- 2 years - 6 years
- Licenses & Accreditations:
- New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
- Preschool:
- Yes
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The school provides a secure educational setting in which young children can participate in a wide range of learning activities investigate a large number of developmentally appropriate materials and experiment with a variety of stimulating creative media outside their own home with their peers and with experienced and caring non-parental adults. Early childhood education is based upon a child’s beginning to understand and appreciate himself and herself and interacting and communicating comfortably with others. The school philosophy is that these developments can be encouraged most effectively in a warm intimate environment where young children play interact and learn with nurturing well-trained and experienced teachers.
Young children learn by exploring working with materials engaging themselves with challenging problems which interest them trying things and then trying again. They learn by interacting with other children and adults. They learn by using their senses and by experimenting and exploring. The classroom is their laboratory; and teachers are both guides and facilitators in their learning process. In addition young children typically integrate what is meaningful to them. They understand and remember new concepts and ideas which relate to their experiences knowledge and the skills they already have internalized. The school’s conviction of the value of play in the lives of young children is absolute. It therefore provides its youngsters with a great variety of materials and activities to stimulate their play knowing that young children learn naturally because they are motivated by their own desire to make sense of the world.
MCNS also provides a setting in which diversity is a given and highly respected. The school’s staff reflects the rich diversity of New York City. The children come from a variety of ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds with a range of abilities and developmental levels and from a wide selection of neighborhoods and areas to interact and learn together.
Finally it should be understood that the school does permit carefully screened research projects frequent visitations by people from outside the school and regular observation of well normal young children in group settings. The children and the staff perceive and accept these activities as normal and routine parts of the program
