Safety & Transparency

We at Garden Grove strive to ensure that no child will ever experience any mistreatment by staff members or avoidable injury while at our school.  It is our goal that parents who entrust their children to our care at Garden Grove will be free of worry that their child will come to any mental, emotional, or physical harm at the hands of our staff, and that they will be genuinely valued, respected and cared for by all staff members similar to the way family members care for their own.  This is reflected in our judicious staff selection & vetting process, the presence of cameras (monitored by administrative staff) in every classroom and recreational space in the building and on our grounds.  We also place heavy emphasis on parent involvement and communication (including communication throughout each day about children’s basic needs AND socio-emotional state) as well as building relationships with parents.  This comes from our founder’s work with children who have been abused and neglected and is central to Garden Grove’s philosophy.

Socio-emotional Health, Growth, & Development

Notice this value is listed before academics.  Garden Grove holds children’s socio-emotional health, growth, and development in slightly higher regard than academics.  This is based on the knowledge that if children do not “feel” well emotionally (internally, with their classmates, or in their environment), then they will not develop or learn well.  This is why at Garden Grove we are aware of, and intentionally care for children’s emotional health, and nurture their emotional intelligence.  To do so, our staff teach and model kindness, empathy, effective communication skills, resilience, emotional expression, and conflict resolution to equip children for the social and emotional challenges that life may bring. 

We also highly value our staff members’ socio-emotional health.  We place heavy emphasis on staff well-being, team-building & bonding.  Garden Grove’s warm family environment starts with our staff.  Our staff can and are encouraged to seek support from our director and our school owner at any time.  Each of them has an “open door policy,” meaning any staff member in any role at Garden Grove should feel free to approach or contact them at any time with any comments, concerns, suggestions, needs, wants, or wishes. We want our staff members to feel valued, respected, and heard, and we want to make sure their time with us is as satisfying and rewarding as possible.  We ask our staff to please let us know however we can help them, and not to wait to do it!

Commitment to Excellence

Walt Disney once said, “You can dream, create, design, and build the most wonderful place in the world…but it requires people to make the dream a reality.”  Garden Grove takes great pride in, and is committed to its staff.  We work very hard to find and offer positions to the best and brightest early childhood professionals to come and work with us, giving preference to prospective applicants who have degrees in early childhood education and related fields and previous experience. We keep our child to staff ratios lower than state requirements in order to maximize staff effectiveness and prevent burnout.  Our aim is to promote long-term staff retention & job satisfaction. We also want our staff to continuously improve and reach their personal and professional goals, and we are committed to providing whatever support we can to make them possible.

In addition to our staff, we make sure that every part of each child & parent/guardian’s experience at Garden Grove is high quality, including the cleanliness and offerings of our facilities and grounds, the unique enrichment and parent-child bonding opportunities we offer, and the parent-staff communication & relationships that are intentionally formed.

Staff as Cultivators

At Garden Grove, we are aware that all children grow and develop differently and at different rates.  We like to view ourselves and staff members as cultivators; like a gardener tends a garden of rare flowers, it is our duty to determine what each child needs in order to thrive and bloom.  We recognize that, like plants in a garden whose needs differ daily depending on the weather, the condition of the soil, etc., children need adults like us in their lives to consistently care for and care ABOUT them.  We also believe it is our privilege to assist them to grow, and watch them bloom.  We want our staff to appreciate, value and enjoy the magic of early childhood as much as we do. 

Learning through Doing

At Garden Grove, we are aware that all children grow and develop differently and at different rates.  We like to view ourselves and staff members as cultivators; like a gardener tends a garden of rare flowers, it is our duty to determine what each child needs in order to thrive and bloom.  We recognize that, like plants in a garden whose needs differ daily depending on the weather, the condition of the soil, etc., children need adults like us in their lives to consistently care for and care ABOUT them.  We also believe it is our privilege to assist them to grow, and watch them bloom.  We want our staff to appreciate, value and enjoy the magic of early childhood as much as we do.