With a thriving headquarters in Glen Mills, The Malvern School for Early Childhood Education is teaching franchise preschools how childhood education ought to be done.

The Malvern School co-founder Kristen Waterfield broke the mold of traditional franchise preschools to create one that puts children at the center of the business model, according to a sponsored Philadelphia Magazine article.

“I really felt like, if I was going to get behind something as strongly as I was behind that business, that I could certainly do it on my own, and I could do it with more consistency and without compromise,” Waterfield said.

Waterfield brought an elementary education degree to the venture when she started in 1998, and now The Malvern School has grown to 24 locations. The secret to success remains that focus on children, though exceeding expectations with state-of-the-art security systems and clean health and safety records also plays a role.

“We come back to it all the time — it’s a constant process of coming back to the children and providing the best program, best facility, excellent teachers, and administrators,” she said.

Read more about The Malvern School in Philadelphia Magazine here.