The Jacaranda Tree

What it is named for

Arts and expression

A jacaranda gives a street six weeks of colour and then goes quiet for the rest of the year, and everyone waits for it anyway. This centre is named for the arts: the part of early childhood that gets cut first and is remembered longest.

Music, movement and making treated as core, not as enrichment
Children's work displayed at child height, not adult height
A yearly showing that families are actually invited to

Meet the director

Director — to be appointed

This centre is still choosing the person who will lead it. We would rather say that plainly than put a name here for the sake of it. If you have run a room, held a licence, or spent years doing this well and quietly, we would like to hear from you.

Talk to us about leading it

At a glance

The shape of it

Infant–PreK

Ages served

Planned capacity

Shift & gig

Schedule built for

In formation

Current status

Status, stated plainly. This centre is in formation. It is not open, it is not enrolling, and nothing on this page should be read as an offer of care or as a representation about a licence. The page exists so the people building the network can see what each centre is meant to be.

A day here

What your child’s day is shaped like

Nothing here is running yet. This is the day the centre is being built to have, written down so you can hold us to it.

Arriving

Instruments and materials out and reachable before the first child walks in.

Making

Music, movement and making treated as the core of the day, not as the reward for finishing something else.

On the walls

Children’s work hung at child height, where the children can see it, which is the only height that matters.

Process, not product

Nobody takes over a painting to make it presentable for a parent.

The showing

A yearly showing that families are actually invited to and that the children actually run.

A story for the name

The Plainest Street in Town

It was, everybody agreed, the plainest street in town. Grey road, grey fences, grey sky for a good part of the year.

Somebody had planted a tree in it once, a long time ago, and it had grown up thin and bare and nobody could remember what kind it was supposed to be.

“It has never done anything,” said the man at number four.

“Give it another year,” said the woman at number nine, who said that every year.

And then one morning in the spring, the whole street woke up purple.

Not a few flowers. Not a branch or two. The entire tree, every twig of it, roaring with purple from the pavement to the very top, and more of it coming down like confetti every time the wind moved, until the grey road was purple too and you could not walk to the shops without walking through it.

It lasted six weeks. Then the flowers went, and the tree was a plain green tree again, and the street was a plain street.

Nobody minded at all. They had seen what it had in it.

Every spring since, the whole street watches that tree. And every spring, it does it again.

About ninety seconds out loud. Ours to tell, yours to borrow at bedtime.

Questions parents ask

Straight answers

When does it open?

There is no opening date, and we would rather say that than invent one. The chip at the top of this page says “in formation” for exactly that reason. If you want to be told when there is real news, email us and we will tell you.

Does it hold a licence?

No, and this page does not suggest otherwise. Nothing here is an offer of care. If and when there is one, its number will be printed on this page — and not a day before.

What ages?

It is being planned for infants through pre-kindergarten.

Can I look round?

Not yet — there is no building to look round. When there is, you will be able to stand in it before you decide anything, which is the only way to judge one of these.

How do I ask a question?

Email info@theopportunitytree.com. A person reads it.

Ask about The Jacaranda Tree