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Why a Co-Op/History

Parents play an integral part in the CCNS experience, and the parent/school partnership is one reason CCNS has been successful for over 60 years.

Whether working with the teachers in their child’s classroom once a month, sharing their talents to enhance or extend a project or area of study, or helping shape the school’s future with a position on the Board of Directors or on a committee like marketing, fundraising or enrichment, CCNS parents have a unique opportunity to actively engage in their child’s preschool experience and foster a deep bond with their child as they learn and discover together. When we as parents take those first steps from home to school with our children we not only help smooth the transition, we also create a more enriching experience for them.

What We Believe/The Fundamentals of CCNS

We, the parents and teachers of young children, unite to build the Community Cooperative Nursery School, Inc. We hold the following purposes as fundamental to our school:

  • To provide a living experience in democracy for our children, with a varied inter-racial, multi-cultural student body, with mutual respect for individual contribution and with a healthy emphasis upon cooperative group life.
  • To provide a secure, relaxed, happy and creative atmosphere in which the individual child, each according to his or her own capacities and with evident emotional satisfaction, can expand his or her eagerness to learn, can build an elementary knowledge of the immediate environment, develop the physical and intellectual skills appropriate to young individual needs and can mature socially among peers.
  • To provide adequate materials and equipment, trained guidance and a well-balanced and flexible program that will ensure an optimal learning experience.
  • To provide for us, as parents and teachers, a growing understanding of our children, and to provide guidance in our care of our children. To this end we are formed into a nonprofit cooperative where, by fundraising and scholarships and by planned parent work in and for the nursery, a low tuition school with high educational standards can be made accessible for families of widely ranged incomes, regardless of race, color, creed, religion or national origin.

History

CCNS was founded in 1953 by a group of parents who wanted to give their children a creative environment with professional guidance where they could know all racial, religious and economic groups. CCNS proudly remains one of the few cooperative preschools in Connecticut. It serves children from ages two to five with a unique passion and vision combining creativity, play, the child and their family. Centered on a cooperative spirit, the parents own and care for our school and in doing so embrace the qualities we strive to instill in our children. The school is licensed by the State of Connecticut.