Providing quality early childhood education has been a top priority for Primrose Schools, ever since the national early education and care provider was founded in 1982.

This quality education is what drove Jerry Gillies to purchase Primrose Schools at Round Rock, located at 15925 Great Oaks Drive, in 2013. Both of his daughters attended Primrose School of Round Rock , and Gilles found he needed a change after his wife passed away in 2012.

“My brother-in-law and I were both working in corporate America, and we both went through some very big changes at that time and were reevaluating what we wanted in our lives,” Gillies said. “Certainly corporate America provided a nice living and a job but in terms of an opportunity to do something meaningful for our lives and for the community, and something that you felt proud to do every day, it just wasn't delivering for us. We went on a journey at that point to try and figure out what we wanted to do.”

There are currently 17 Primrose Schools throughout the Austin area that operate on different schedules, to help accommodate parents no matter what.

The school uses an exclusive, research-informed “balanced learning curriculum,” which combines the best thinking from early learning theorists with modern research to help nurture a love of learning in every child.

While many preschools use off-the-shelf curricula, Primrose Schools partnered with experts in early education to design an exclusive learning approach. It combines purposeful play with nurturing guidance from teachers to tap into the ways that children learn best.

“Primrose is considerably above the competition in the fact that they have a proprietary, "balanced learning curriculum,” Gillies said. “We're not only teaching the basics of education, but there's a whole host of education that comes from purposeful play and nurturing guidance. There's nothing more important than developing those social and emotional skills.”

The schools serve infants, toddlers and offer private Preschool and Pre-Kindergarten programs, while some schools offer a Kindergarten program. Most schools also offer after school care and summer programs.

The summer program, called The Summer Adventure Club, usually starts in June and runs through August, though the dates vary by location. The program aims to develop three things: active minds, healthy bodies and happy hearts. It is more than a summer camp, providing a fun, full-day experience for grade level children in kindergarten through fifth grade.

Each week, children try a variety of hands-on activities including sports, robotics and arts that help build skills around literacy, creative problem solving, STEM and more

The summer program, along with normal day-to-day care has been popular with the children, which makes running the business extra rewarding for the franchise owners.

“By far it's just the engagement that you have with families, and the change that you see in children. A lot of our children start with us in the infant room, and they grow throughout our program,” Gillies said. “When you graduate those children and many of them we've known them since they were infants, it's almost like your children are personally graduating and moving on to the next phases in life.”

In fact, the same teacher that taught Gilles daughters over 25 years ago still teaches at Primrose School of Round Rock today.

High-quality early childhood education has lasting benefits for children. By partnering with parents to support each child’s individual needs, Primrose makes the most of a child’s first five years and helps set them up for success in future classrooms and beyond.

To learn more about enrollment opportunities at Primrose schools in Austin, visit the website.

The above story was produced by Community Impact's Senior Multi Platform Journalist Sierra Rozen with information solely provided by the local business as part of its "sponsored content" purchase through our advertising team.