Civil Municipal Magazine - Dec 2023

324 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 12 partners with Head Start, the national child development program for children from birth to age five, as well as with the Virginia Preschool Initiative, which provides funding for quality preschool programs for at-risk four-year-olds. “Preschool experience is really important for their success in subsequent grades,” Denny notes. “Obviously, kindergarten is here to get our kids ready, but we want our students to be ready when they hit that grade, so we can propel them forward and not play the catch-up game.” The district also partners with the United Way’s Kinder Camp initiative, a three-week program designed to bring at-risk preschoolers, who did not have the opportunity to attend preschool, into a school setting, providing them a chance to learn basic skills before their first day of kindergarten. Kinder Camp students participate in a variety of learning opportunities focused on increasing skills in math, literacy, social interactions, problem-solving, and cause-and-effect. “It’s been very successful because it gives kids who qualify an opportunity to meet the teachers and experience what the school day is going to look like prior to the school’s official opening,” Denny explains. “They’re not there with the older students and because of that, can be provided individual attention and a much more personal experience. Teachers are able to accomplish a lot with these littles in a small amount of time.” It’s not your parents’ grade school anymore Once children progress to primary school in Radford, they become exposed to a whole new way of thinking and how they learn best. “One thing we’ve recognized in education is that learning does not have to happen in isolation,” says Cole Wilder, Principal at Belle Heth Elementary School, named after one of Radford’s leading citizens, Isabella Hammet Heth, who donated the parcel of land for the town’s original academy in the 1880s. “The days of only teaching math in math, or only teaching technology skills in a technology classroom, is outdated. We try to immerse everything within every program. This year we entered our fourth year as a ‘Project Lead the Way’ school which offers us a