Our mission at Ravinia Nursery School is to provide a quality preschool education to the children and families with whom we work. Because we view children in the context of their family, we view our relationship with our families as a partnership between home and school.

Ravinia Nursery School is a developmental preschool for children ages three, four and five years old. We provide a safe, warm and nurturing environment that allows the children to move at their own pace in a self-directed manner. It is important that children feel good about themselves and school.

We want the children to discover that school is a place where they will be welcomed and accepted by warm and caring adults and find classrooms that are filled with opportunities to learn about the world in which they live. We support their growth and a continuing desire to learn. We believe that through play children are encouraged to interact with peers and to develop a respect for themselves and for others. We see children as family members and serve families accordingly.

Ravinia Nursery School feels strongly that there is power in a child's  ability to play.  Children permitted to play freely with their peers develop skills for seeing another person's point of view by cooperating, helping, sharing, and solving problems. In addition to indoor free play, outdoor play is an important component of all our programs. When the children arrive at school each day, we take them outside, weather permitting, to our playground so that they can exercise their large muscles. Whether a child is trying to make his/her way across the monkey bars, ride tricycles, pull someone in a wagon, walk across the balance beam, pump on the swings or dig in the sand areas, they are attempting behaviors that involve motor planning, balance and strength. It is a widely held view that unstructured physical play helps to reduce stress in children's lives that comes with having to achieve or needing to learn and research has shown that physical activity improves children's attentiveness and decreases restlessness. In addition, outdoor play gives children the opportunity to expand their imagination beyond the constraints of the classroom.