City school earns coveted rating

By FULLER ROYAL

Whiteville Primary School’s pre-kindergarten (pre-K) program has been licensed by the state and given a five-star rating, the highest possible score.

That news, delivered by Exceptional Children’s Program Director Glenda Phillips at the board’s January meeting, is the culmination of work by Phillips, Whiteville Primary School Principal Hope Kennedy High and the school’s pre-K staff.

“One of the first things on my agenda when I got here was preschool licensing,” Phillips told the board. “All preschools in the public schools of North Carolina must be licensed. I wanted to make sure we met the standards plus we wanted a top rating.”

Whiteville Primary is the only school-based preschool in the county with a five-star rating and is one of only a few local preschools to ever achieve this status.

“It is wonderful to get the news of a five-star rating,” High said. “We are all so proud of the roles the teachers have taken. They owned this process. They absolutely embraced the whole process.”

There are five pre-school classes at Primary including one for 3-year-olds, which has eight students, and four classes of 4-year-olds, with about 14 students in each.

Pre-K teacher Julie Graves said that among the skills taught preschoolers are how to be students and interact socially with other students.

‘We do introductions to letters and numbers, usually through songs,” she said. “We teach coloring skills and cutting (scissors) skills.”

Preschoolers are also introduced, when they are ready, to higher-level skills such as writing their names.

Graves said the students learn how to play fairly and how to handle conflict without hitting.

“They are learning how to treat others who are different,” she said. “They are learning how to ‘do school.’ Most of it is child-centered.”

“I love this,” said pre-K teacher Anne Benton. “It’s very rewarding.”

Benton was supervising snack time with fresh apples, tangerines and bananas. In the background, soft, classical music was playing, a common theme through the pre-K rooms.
“It’s exciting to have these kids at this age,” she said. “It’s a golden opportunity with all those little synapses forming in their brains.”

Benton said she has been amazed at the level of academics the students have been able to achieve.

“I have fallen in love with pre-K,” said teacher Jeanette Watson. “The children all stay so busy. They get to explore and we give them so many chances to be creative. They’re learning so many social skills and they’re working together.”

Watson said pre-K students have real advantages when they enter kindergarten.

“Each child has a different mind,” she said. “It’s amazing what comes out of their little minds. They come up with things I have never even though about.”

“I really enjoy it, I especially like the way the children make their own choices on the work they do,” said pre-K teacher Karen Clark. “During the work period today, I was sitting on the floor helping with individual lessons when I thought “I don’t have to be here anymore.’ They are so into choosing their work.”

Clark said the students are learning to do some emergent writing. Earlier this week, one student created and printed her own book, reading to the other students during reading circle.

“They’re just really excited about reading and writing and learning all these concepts,” she said. “It’s great to see them have that kind of love of learning. I like pre-K because we get them before they decide they don’t like school or have a bad experience.”

Clark said that the exceptional children in the program have blended in well.

“The other children are very nurturing to those children,” she said.

Debbie Simmons, who teachers the 3-year-olds, said she wouldn’t be happy teaching anyone else.

“I love seeing them so happy as they learn,” she said.

Two of Simmons children recently turned four and will move into the next class level.

“We really do need to get all of the children in this,” Clark said. “The children benefit from this and they are so much more successful when they get to kindergarten.”

Clark said kindergarten has become much more structured with kindergartners reading sooner and identifying sight words earlier.

High said that the teachers and staff of the pre-school had shared professional knowledge with each other and that Primary had played host to numerous visitors from the Department of Public Instruction, regional pre-K consultants and early preschool consultants.

“They have all come to my office after their visits and said the same thing – ‘You have a strong staff who are very open to suggestions brought to them.’”

Last spring, DPI selected Primary’s pre-K program as a model for other such programs statewide.

Phillips said that the numerous DPI consultants who had visited had good things to say about the classrooms, materials and playground.”

High said the inspectors saw a child-centered program with research-based practices and connections between pre-K and the family literacy program from Southeastern Community College.

Primary is one of 12 in the state with the next closest model to be found in Cumberland County.