Tiger Beat

Somerset VPK prepares students for success in kindergarten and beyond

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Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, education researchers and policymakers worldwide have been concerned about learning losses and increased achievement gaps. However, there is timely good news for local families: Florida’s Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK) Program at Jefferson Somerset Academy in Monticello is currently accepting students. VPK is a free research-based education program that helps young children prepare for kindergarten and the school years beyond.
The website for the state’s Office of Early Learning provides this program description: “Florida was one of the first states in the country to offer free prekindergarten for all four-year-olds regardless of family income. The Voluntary Prekindergarten Education Program -- or VPK -- prepares early learners for success in kindergarten and beyond. VPK helps build a strong foundation for school using educational material corresponding to various stages in a child's development.”

Jessica McGale, VPK teacher at Jefferson Somerset, praises Somerset’s curriculum and works academic concepts and terms into nearly every interaction with her class of young students. School days are not comprised of meaningless play and silly songs—though activities are fun and play-based because these are, after all, tiny tots who start the semester at age four. McGale is a master at keeping them engaged, singing and dancing along with her little charges, never missing a chance to review or highlight a theme they have learned. Often, students are the ones who notice and get excited about what they have learned.

“Our curriculum is wonderful. The Early Literacy and Learning Model (ELLM) was created by the Florida Institute of Education at the University of North Florida and adopted by Somerset. Each month we have a new theme that has weekly vocabulary, interactive read-alouds, theme exploration, letter and sound knowledge, phonological awareness, writing and math activities,” she said. “All that, plus activities for individual center time and outside time.”

During a color by numbers sheet activity just before the holiday break, one student said the ribbon on the gift they were decorating looked like a rainbow.

“That’s a compound word!” shouted Preston, the only boy in McGale’s group of five VPK students.
His classmate Reba expounded on the coloring sheet to an astonished visitor. “In January we’ll do 3D shapes. Now we’re just doing 2D shapes,” she said. Other key concepts they reviewed were sorting (when Preston dropped his crayons), counting and patterns (during calendar time), fine motor skills development (while threading jingle bells onto bracelets) and the elements of a book—front and back covers, spine, who wrote it and who drew the pictures, all reviewed during story time.
McGale, originally from South Florida, is perfectly suited for teaching such young students. She holds a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education and was a nanny for a few years. She has taught for nine years, six of those in VPK. This school year is her fourth at Somerset.

In normal years McGale has 20 students in her class. Somerset has mandated a maximum of 11 students in her classroom for health safety reasons during COVID, and Remote Live Instruction (RLI) is not an option for VPK students. Families must provide transportation. “My littles can’t ride the bus,” she said.

McGale’s class has six seats open now and she wants to fill them soon, noting that her young students benefit from being in a group—they learn from each other and develop social skills—and McGale works diligently to maintain a safe environment during this seemingly unending pandemic.

“I have to remind them to keep a safe distance from each other all the time,” she said, a constant challenge for this loving cohort who like to hug, dance and encourage each other. And, McGale has changed how she structures some activities because of COVID to work to her and the students’ advantage. “Now I use centers for individual work or play, where they do something by themselves, and I can pull others for one-on-one work or individual testing.”

In addition to helping identify learning problems or special needs at an early stage in a student’s academic career—children as young as three years old can be screened and, if they qualify, join the Pre-K exceptional student education (ESE) class at Somerset, which also has space available—McGale cites a long list of the advantages of VPK programs listed on the Early Learning web site: Kindergarten screenings show that children who complete VPK are more prepared for kindergarten than those who do not; they perform better on tests and have better attendance rates, and are less likely to drop out of school later; they develop lifelong social and emotional skills.

Stephanie Prevatt, middle school science teacher at Jefferson Somerset and mother to Reba, one of McGale’s students, has seen up close the benefits of Florida’s VPK program. She says her older child, son Zaxyn, entered kindergarten exceeding expectations for grade level success after just a few months in McGale’s class.

“From February to May, he went from not meeting kindergarten readiness skills to exceeding them. VPK helped him be more than ready for kindergarten. When we saw that, my husband (a coach and teacher in Leon County) and I pulled Reba from her prep program and enrolled her here, with Mrs. McGale,” Prevatt said. “I see a difference for both of my children—socially, making friends, playing with others and communicating well, and of course developing academic skills.”

McGale is impressed each year by her little ones. “They come in not knowing letters, numbers, colors or shapes and they leave knowing all those things, plus reading sight words, writing letters and words,” she said. “My English language learners come in not knowing the language, but most of them leave communicating with their friends and me in English.”
Prevatt said Reba’s class is like a little family, and that is precisely how Jessica McGale wants it to stay—but with six more students.

For more information about VPK at Jefferson Somerset, contact Elementary Assistant Principal Courtney Oliver at cloliver@somersetjefferson.org or (850) 997-3555, ext. 203.

For information about Pre-K ESE screening, contact ESE Director Shirrie Barany at sbarany@somersetjefferson.org or (850) 997-3555, ext. 602.
Visit floridaearlylearning.com/vpk/floridas-vpk-program for information about Florida’s VPK programs.