The Forsyth County School Readiness Project

Quality preschool can boost child outcomes, and highly-trained teachers and staff can be a big contributor to a student’s cognitive and physical development.

Every preschool wants highly qualified teachers and staff but some of the biggest obstacles to providing continuing education for staff center around time and cost.

Luckily, in Forsyth County, there is a resource for daycares and preschools at no cost to the center or its staff, and much of the program takes place in the teacher’s own classroom.

The Forsyth County School Readiness Project, also known as The Incredible Years Project, is an intervention that is intended to improve low-income preschool children’s school readiness by increasing their emotional and behavioral adjustment.

The project began six years ago in Family Services’ Head Start-funded classrooms, but today, the successful program has expanded to offer private-pay daycare centers the same services and training, and Family Services wants to share this program with your daycare center.

FCSRP at a Glance

• A social and emotion-centered program to better prepare 3-5-year-olds for kindergarten.
• The program comes at no cost to your center.
• Your teachers receive 30 hours of off-site social and emotional-based curriculum training in the fall.
• The curriculum focuses on improving classroom management, verbal skills, emotion regulation, and social skills.
• A mental health coach will come to your classroom to work with the teachers once a week for most of the day to help them implement the new strategies.
• The in-class coach is there to encourage, help problem-solve, provide an extra pair of “hands” and offer suggestions.
• Teachers will also participate in stress management training in January.
• The coach is able to provide traditional therapy services for students and their families who need extra support.

Testimonials

“The children in my class are vocal in their feelings now. They are more able to verbalize to their peers their likes/dislikes as opposed to coming to ‘tattle.’”

“Having one-on-one help with some of the children has improved communication skills between staff and children. It’s given some children the opportunity to get the additional assistance they need to cope with their feelings and learn how to manage them.”

“One of my students started off being distant from the other students; now, he’s actually playing along with other friends.”

“Children have been nicer to each other and the room somewhat calmer.”

“They learned how to deal with and ignore difficult behavior in the class.”

“They learned how to control emotional outbursts and to separate easier from their parents at the start of the day.”

“It has positively improved the teacher’s tone and word choice in the classroom. Students are modeling the teacher’s behaviors.”

“A nonverbal child that used to throw fits in the classroom is starting to let us know what she needs through talking and gestures.”

“The coach gives us different strategies to use that we are not implementing to see if they will work and they always seem to work!”

“As a teacher, I’m more in tune with how that child feels … (they) taught me to listen to them.”

“The coaches have really been great with advice and extra help in the classroom. Any questions I had, the coach had advice and answers.”

“(They have) given me confidence in my teaching style.”

Collaborative Mental Health Partnerships Presentation

Download the presentation here.