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School Year 2010-11

Afternoon Program
(All Saints Church, 317 Chapel Street)

Bettye Hyde third annual art show. From Susan Burgess, Associate Producer, CBC Radio Ottawa. Click here QuickTime or here Flash and listen to the CBC Radio clip.

Welcome to Bettye Hyde Co-operative Nursery School
A great school for your terrific child

The Bettye Hyde Cooperative Nursery School has been in continuous operation for more than 60 years. It grew out of the original Neighbourhood Nursery School, begun in the early forties by two energetic mothers of young families, Polly McKay-Smith, now Hill, and Jo Adams.

The nursery school was an idea whose time had come. It began as a little group of neighbourhood families cooperating to provide their children with an education. Before the first year was out, the families sought the assistance of Bettye Hyde, an outstanding educator who developed and ran the school’s program for more than 20 years and subsequently established the Early Childhood Education Program at Algonquin College.

After a number of moves, the school found its present home at All Saints Anglican Church. For over 60 years, the cooperative impulse has remained strong. Parents have done everything from painting the walls and ceilings, laundering dolls’ clothes and building equipment, to dealing with skeptical bank managers. They have always been involved in the planning of the school and the education of their children.

Bettye Hyde and Polly Hill joined parents, children, alumni and staff (past and present) to celebrate the school’s 50th and 60th birthdays. Stories were exchanged, memorabilia collected, and a tree was planted in the schoolyard at Chapel and Blackburn to celebrate the first 60 years of this very special and enduring nursery school.

How to enroll your child

Call the school at 613-236-3108 and arrange for a visit with your child. The staff will be glad to answer your questions and provide you with the forms necessary for registration, together with a list of volunteer activities (download the forms here). Return the completed forms with a non-refundable registration fee of $60 and a place will be kept for your child.

Copies of the school’s philosophy, the parents’ handbook and the most recent newsletter are available on this site.

Post-dated cheques for monthly fees are due at the school’s Annual General Meeting which all families are required to attend. The school has a withdrawal policy, outlined in the Parents’ Handbook. Subsidized places exist; information on how to apply for one can be obtained from the Registrar or the Director.

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