Kiddiwinks Garden Playschool in West Bay is set to welcome its first pupils in a few weeks’ time after it was officially opened by Premier André Ebanks on Friday.
Ebanks cut the ribbon on the new school in a ceremony also attended by West Bay Central MP Katherine Ebanks-Wilks and staff from the Ministry of Education before getting a tour of the purpose-built facility.
Second garden school
Kiddiwinks is the second school from sisters Jennifer Stein and Carrie Chaloner, who also own Sprogs Garden Playschool located on Walkers Road in George Town.
Eight children will be starting at the school on 1 Sept. and more will be joining throughout the year. The catchment area is anywhere in Grand Cayman north of George Town and there are three teachers to start with.
“As we grow, we will see what the requirements are and hire accordingly,” said Chaloner, who, along with her sister, decided several years ago that there was a gap in early schooling.
“I decided that there was definitely a need for more, higher end, large group care in Cayman when I got pregnant with my first child 12 years ago,” said Chaloner. “We ended up buying the old Sunny Smiles site on Walkers Road, completely gutting that, converting it and opening Sprogs almost nine years ago.”
Cayman’s first Eco-School
Like Sprogs, Kiddiwinks will be run on a ‘play-based’ philosophy and is Cayman’s first certified Eco-School, meaning children run their own projects along themes including sustainability, community and charity.
The school, which was purpose-built on site where there was once a home on Birch Tree Hill Road, has six classrooms and a multi-purpose room used for occupational therapy, teacher training and parent workshops.
The playschool features indoor spaces with natural timber finishes, plants and soft ambient lighting. As is the case in its sister school in George Town, Kiddiwinks will have a lot of emphasis on outside activities. On the nearly one acre of outside space, there’s a pirate ship climbing frame, a sand pit and an organic vegetable garden, and there are plans for a area to raise rabbits.
“In Sprogs, they spend so much time outside and a lot of the learning takes place outside,” said Stein, “so we call that our second classroom as they spend so much time out there.”
Kiddiwinks is initially taking children aged 1 to 4 years old and will expand to children aged up to 6 and 7 in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 classes using the Forest School curriculum, with children then entering mainstream schooling.
“We’re very much hoping that we’ll be able to take some government students as well,” said Stein. “Carrie and I are really big on integration. We both went to school here and we’ve finding that everything seems to be a little more divided now.”
“I think it is a tremendous project for the district,” said Ebanks, who has been following the school’s plans from the start, “and to see it come to fruition is astounding. They have added to the district [and] from the educational perspective, they plan for the initial cohort to be integrated where they will offer government-sponsored pupils to come.”
He added, “They’re starting at a very early age, so early education is hugely important and something that the government is really eager to support.”
About the school’s design, he said, “I love how it’s calm, the colours that are chosen, the space that’s available, how it’s designed, the bathrooms – it’s very thoughtfully designed.”
Kiddiewinks will also offer flexible programme options including full-day, half-day morning, and school-day schedules.
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