Harbor City School

Harbor City School is a non-profit independent preschool located in the heart of East Boston. Created by a small group of dedicated local parents in 2010, HCS aims to provide a year-round nurturing and stimulating environment for up to twenty children at a time, aged 2 years 9 months to 5 years old. While traditional preschools are only half day, HCS also offers a full day option in order to suit the needs of fulltime working families in our community. For families who wish to actively participate in their child’s preschool experience we are also a co-op model school, with responsibilities for families both in and out of the classroom. Families have the option to choose to pay a non-participation fee. HCS does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, sex, political beliefs, family structure, or potty training status.

HCS is excited to celebrate the diversity of our neighborhood. Just two stops from downtown by MBTA, we are thrilled to be steps away from vast green spaces with playgrounds, sprinkler parks, a community garden plot, the future library site, and bike trail just outside our door. We anticipate forming connections between students, families, and our community that will extend well beyond the preschool years.

HCS believes in providing a nurturing, safe, creative, and educationally appropriate environment for all children. We use an emergent curriculum and follow the developmental model of education, encouraging academic and social growth through exploration, cooperative problem solving, and critical thinking. Children develop social and educational relationships with supportive adults. Activities are age appropriate and with consistent guidance, designed to foster the cognitive, emotional, social, and physical development of all children while still meeting the individual needs of children. Teachers use the MA state frameworks as a guide.