Introducing EQIs and Purposeful Routines

Much like your child, our schools are always learning and growing. Continuous improvement means we’re constantly looking for ways to invest in and elevate your child’s early learning experience. Doing so helps to ensure our teachers provide the best, most enriching foundation for their development. When we strengthen our classroom environment—positive benefits follow!

Education Quality Indicators

EQI stands for Education Quality Indicator. Over the next few months, we’re going to share ideas that support each key indicator to help families understand their importance in the classroom. By intentionally putting these practices into place with consistency, we aim to support positive growth and cultivate collaborative relationships between children, parents, and teachers in our school community.

Our five key EQIs are:

• Purposeful Routines
• Learning Environment
• Child/Adult Interactions
• Language Rich
• Evidence of Learning

Purposeful Routines

Let’s begin the conversation by focusing on Purposeful Routines. These are actions of daily life in the classroom. They provide a strong foundation and give structure to the day. Routines become purposeful when they are:

Planned | Predictable | Consistent

Creating purposeful routines helps to support your child’s development and the learning process by creating a safe, calm, comfortable environment where they know what to expect. This looks like:

• Welcoming morning and afternoon routines
• Well-organized learning spaces to foster independence
• Tools to create structure and support expectations
• An inclusive environment where everyone contributes
• Friendly reminders to build confidence
• Establishing a culture of respect and trust
• Teachers who lead by example

The Benefits

Purposeful routines ensure children feel emotionally and physically secure to explore new interests. Routines and flexible structures also provide the predictability and consistency every child needs to thrive. This approach improves classroom management and the overall flow of the day.

Remember, our teachers will always remain responsive to your child’s individual needs. Adopting daily routines is also proven to keep children safe during common high-risk moments such as transitions, eating, and napping. With structure, safety hazards become predictable, and therefore, avoidable.

We encourage our families to get involved too. Early learning is a group effort. We keep parents connected to the classroom by posting daily schedules, events, and activities. Purposeful routines also inform our clear, straightforward processes for check-in and check-out.

Try developing your own intentional routines at home to experience similar benefits!