The vision and mission of Running Brook Children’s Nursery is to provide a high quality early education program for preschoolers, which is focused on support for families, responsive and sensitive to the interests and needs of the local community, supportive of social, cultural and linguistic diversity, mindful of creating and sustaining community connections, and dedicated to welcoming, encouraging, and supporting the full engagement of the families its serves in every possible way.

    All children, including those with special needs, deserve safe, nurturing, and developmentally appropriate care. We welcome all children into our program, and work cooperatively with community support agencies to offer appropriate care and education.

Our program fosters a sense of belonging. We believe that children learn best when they have a strong sense of belonging and are provided an atmosphere in which to discover the world on their own, in their own time, according to their own abilities and interests. Our families and staff members work cooperatively to create a safe, loving environment.

Our program is play based. It provides a child centered curriculum, based upon developmentally and age appropriate early childhood standards, supported by research and aligned with current best practices in the field.

We believe PLAY is a child’s work, and that the sprit of play must be present in all aspects of early childhood learning.

We are committed to developmentally appropriate, research based best practices in all aspects of our program. These include attention to health and safety, social & emotional development, developmentally appropriate curriculum, careful program administration, staff development, community involvement, and maintaining a supportive, nurturing environment for all of the families in our care.

We have a strong commitment to professional development for our staff. A quality program depends upon a high level of professional training. We support our teachers in activities which advance their skills, knowledge and professional credentialing in the field of early care and education.

We believe in fostering active engagement of families in our program. Parents volunteer in classroom on a regular basis as members of a co-operative school. They serve as primary administrators, help to develop policy, conduct ongoing evaluations of the program, and serve as committee members to ensure the smooth functioning of the program as a whole.

We promote and maintain strong ties with community agencies and resources. We recognize that community connections are vital to providing support to families and increasing the strength of our program. We have well established links throughout the broader community in Howard County and promote partnerships that strengthen our families.

We are committed to ongoing program evaluation and self improvement. We strive to continuously improve the program though rigorous annual self-evaluation using the standards established by the MSDE accreditation instrument.