Four members of the Village Community Presbyterian Church of Rancho Santa Fe opened the Village Church Preschool (VCP) on January 29, 1962 with 14 children. These 4 moms wanted to create a safe, nurturing place for their young preschool age children to play. Little did they know that the little preschool would grow to educate thousands of children and become a pillar in the Rancho Santa Fe community.

Many teachers have been teaching at VCP for over 25 years and are now seeing the next generation come through the school. Alumni have attended many different colleges and universities across the world pursuing numerous fields of study.

Today, VCP offers a high quality, dynamic early childhood education program designed for the “Whole Child”; emphasizing the development of essential cognitive, social, emotional, physical and spiritual foundations. Our endeavor is to create and foster independent, critical and creative thinkers and problem solvers. We are dedicated to providing a well-balanced curriculum where children have the opportunity to explore and discover the world around them.

We embrace a new generation of families and children and continue to build a community of learners rooted in God’s story, centered on Christ, and sent to love God – as we seek to Follow Jesus for life.

The school’s mission, philosophy and practices are inspired by the developmental theories of Piaget, Dewey, Montessori, Erikson, Bruner, Vygotsky and Malaguzzi. We are also, inspired by the Reggio-Emilia approach to education.

Based on the studies of these individuals and methods, we are more concerned with the process of learning than specific products. A young child is constantly learning through experimentation, exploration and having the need to solve problems. Our goal is to help foster the development of a child’s critical thinking skills and the ability to communicate by providing meaningful opportunities to experiment, explore, question and PLAY.