A Note from the Proprietress

Greetings. It is a pleasure to welcome you all to the 2014/2015 academic year. This academic session spanning a period of thirteen (13) weeks, promises to be a very busy one. However, I wish to assure you all that we have a great corp of educators to help guide your child through the year ahead.

We appreciate your support, however this cannot be complete without due acknowledgement of the Almighty God’s continued grace upon us for giving us the opportunity to make our humble contribution towards establishing a solid educational foundation for our pupils.

As a corollary to the above, we have a solemn responsibility to continue to provide a safe and secure learning space for our pupils. In this connection therefore, I thought I should share some thoughts with you on what we have done and shall be doing to keep a safe environment in Prime Montessori School in light of the prevailing unfortunate health and security challenges, particularly the nascent EBOLA virus pandemic.

Ebola virus is not active until it gains access into a person’s mucous membrane. Mucous membranes are those pink fleshy places in the opening of the body like the eyes, nose, inner ears, mouth, anus, opening of the male and female private parts or any wound on any part of the body. So, if the virus is on the skin of the hand, it is easy for the virus to enter the mucous membrane because people touch these parts of the body with their fingers. The hands are therefore potential agents through which this virus can be transmitted and this is why people should wash their hands as often as necessary and use sanitizers. This limits the possibility of being infected.

In creating a robust road map for a safe learning space and environment, the Management of Prime Montessori School has therefore designed a framework of activities through this can be realised. Some details of which are as follows:

• Emphasis on basic hygiene skills in the use of water/soap for hand washing, use of sanitizers, safe toileting habits etc.
• Installation of WHO-Recommended hand rub formulation, hand sanitizers in all class rooms, toilets and the security access gate.
• Screening of all students, staff, parents and visitors with non-contact infrared thermometer.
• Organization of preventive sessions with all our teachers, cleaners and other support staff.
• Assignment of cleaners on a daily basis to wipe down door handles, hand rails, light switches and other such common installations in the school.
• Emphasis on the need for all teachers to share awareness of safe procedures, that is, washing of hands often, non-sharing of foods by pupils etc.
• Organisation of dummy/practise sessions by application of the infrared thermometers on all staff of the school through the controlled gate.
• Procurement of preventive accessories such as hand gloves and face masks.
• Detailed attention to each child to detect any form of sickness including vomiting, diarrhoea etc. for immediate action.

This framework of activities emphasizing strict basic hygiene skills in order to secure learning space in Prime Montessori School as highlighted above will be strictly enforced and continually improved upon throughout the new academic year.

REVIEW OF OUTGONE YEAR
Permit me to present a short score card of our last School Year’s (2013/2014) commendable achievements in both academics and extra-curricular activities. In the area of academic activities, Prime Montessori School has been able to graduate Five Hundred and Thirty (530) Basic Six students since its inception twenty (20) years ago. Most of the early graduands of our Basic Six students are now qualified Accountants, Lawyers, Medical Doctors, Engineers etc. The latest set of Twentieth (20th) graduands (Fifty-four of them) indeed has done the school very proud. I am quite pleased to announce that not only four (4) of our male graduands secured admission into Kings College, Lagos but one of them, Master Ifode Wisdom came first at the admission interview scoring an aggregate of 96% overall. Master Ifode is therefore No. 1 on the national merit list as computed by the Federal Government. He has been able to achieve this envious position by successfully out-performing well over 100,000 other candidates. Kings College is reputed to be not only the best in the country but one of the top five (5) in the entire African continent. Kings College is over a hundred years old.

Similarly, our female graduands have also done excellently well by securing a number of admissions into Queens College which is also a premier Female Secondary institution not only in this country but also ranks among the best ten (10) in the whole of the African continent. Queens College is eighty seven (87) having been established in 1927.

Apart from these two premier institutions in which Prime Montessori School graduands have secured impressive admissions, there are other Federal Government Colleges and private secondary schools that our 2013/2014 Basic Six graduands have secured admissions.

In the extra-curriculum sphere, the year under review has shown that Prime Montessori School has done very well. A cultural outing was organised by the school around a theme on “Cultural Heritage”. Other attractive side shows included cultural dances from the six (6) geopolitical zones of the country, Cultural Fashion Parade etc. The event was presided over by a first class Oba, supported by other traditional chiefs and title holders from Igbo land, Benue, while the core north was represented by the Hausawa of Yoruba land.

Prime Montessori School has very active clubs with membership made up of all our pupils. These clubs are Boys Scout, Red Cross, Girls Guide, Brownies, Literary and Debating Society, Press Club, French Club, Computer Club etc. The school also has a good Football Academy and through this Academy, a number of talented budding footballers have been identified and raised. The School has also taken part in State and National Football Competitions among Primary Schools. Our last outing at the State level was in May, 2014 when the school qualified for the State organised Football tourney among Primary Schools in Lagos State.

One of the areas in which the school has also excelled is in music where the school has procured several Clarinets, Auto and Tenor Saxophones, Violins, Flutes, Guitars, Trumpets and a Cello. With the acquisition of these musical instruments, the school has been able to raise a very active Mass Choir of about One Hundred and Twenty (120) pupils, in addition to a number of budding stars that have specialised so easily in some of these instrument like the Guitar, Violin, Tenor and Auto Saxophone, Trumpet, Piano etc. In fact, the youngest member of our musical instrumentalists is a prodigious Seven (7) year old Basic Two (2) Auto Saxophonist who has featured in a number of solo performances during a number of the school’s official ceremonies.

In the year under review, other notable areas of extra-curricular activities of this school were Children’s Day/Fun Day which took place 27th May, 2014, Children’s Maths Drill Competition and guided Educational Tours to the following:

• The famous Olumo Rock at Abeokuta which is now a notable international tourism centre;
• Olusegun Obasanjo’s Presidential Library (OOPL) at Abeokuta;
• The famous Nike Art Gallery at Lekki Peninsula, Lagos;
• SOS Village, where inmates who are primarily orphans were visited and given material gifts in various forms by the school and individually by our pupils and some of the parents/guardians that also accompanied them on this visit.

For the new school year ahead, we are adopting a theme central to our main focus for teaching and learning processes in the school. The theme: “No child should be left behind” becomes more profound when we situate this in the context of Alvin Toffler’s assertion that “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write; but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn”. I therefore humbly wish to commend adoption and spirit of the above as a guiding tool in life always.

WORK PROGRAMME FOR THE FIRST TERM:
Our school’s 2014/2015 Work Activities Programme is as designed and displayed on our website: www.pmsnigeria.com. We therefore commend all our parents/guardians and other stakeholders to study and familiarize themselves with details of the Work Programme for the First Term of the 2014/2015 school year. This can be downloaded if so desired.

PMS Work Programme

ADMISSION FORMS:
Our admissions forms are available online and these can be downloaded, completed and submitted in the School Office. This is in addition to the fact that hard copies of the Admission Forms are also available in the School Office.

CONCLUSION
To conclude, may I on behalf of the Board of Governors of Prime Montessori School once again, welcome you all to the beginning of another academic year and wish all our parents/guardians, friends of the school and other stakeholders of a blessed and fruitful year.

Mrs O. A. Agun
Proprietress
30th August, 2014.