Admissions
Hopefully you've looked around and The Grove School feels like a great place for your child. Fantastic! We’d love to meet up with you in person, answer your questions and tell you more first hand. Shoot us an e-mail or give us a call and we’ll get back to you shortly.
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Careers
We're looking for rare individuals. Teachers with degrees in early childhood or environmental education and a fire in the belly to make a difference. Administrators with a head for business and a heart for helping children reach their full potential. People who are so invested that they'll stay with us for years, growing and developing our educational community. Is that you?
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Let's play
Kids learn through play, but what about the grown ups? The Grove School is a playground for everyone. Join the fun!
(Psst, you can move the colored circles with your mouse.)
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  • our head of school

    our staff

    local families

    work with us

  • Lorrie Schelkle - Head of School at the Grove School of Cary

    Lorrie has been a Knowledge Universe employee for 16 years in various roles including Assistant Director, Director and Executive Administrator. Lorrie served in a "best of class" role as an Early Childhood leader where she lead her school and center team through the process of accreditation with the distinctive early education voluntary accreditation system, NAEYC. Lorrie is from Ohio and moved to North Carolina in 2011 with her husband and two children. They reside in Morrisville, NC.

  • our head of school

    our staff

    local families

    work with us

  • At The Grove School, children spend this crucial learning time with highly qualified educators. Our teachers are required to have degrees and credentials in early childhood or environmental education. They bring deep expertise into the classroom to make the first taste of subjects like math and solar energy fun and memorable. Connecting regularly with parents is also part of their job. Emails and tweets replace paper updates on each child’s progress and activities.

  • our head of school

    our staff

    local families

    work with us

  • The families who send their children to The Grove School are your friends and neighbors. They're the people you see on the playground, run into at the library and wave at out the window. We're all about being your local school and building a tight-knit community that reflects what's important to you.

  • our head of school

    our staff

    local families

    work with us

  • What if you worked at a preschool where you can use your education, creativity and passion to actually teach? Where you’re expected to bring an innovative curriculum to life? And where you build lifelong relationships with parents and children? It’s an amazing opportunity to make a positive impact on children’s lives at a school with a unique sense of purpose. Learn more about careers at The Grove School.

 
 
 

We are thrilled to welcome Ms. Wendy to our Grove School family!  Ms. Wendy is our newest Pre-K teacher.  Here is a bit about her!

Wendy was born and raised in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. She moved to Charlotte, North Carolina her senior year of high school and has been in the south ever since. Wendy was the youngest of five children and spent her childhood building forts, camping, and bike riding with her older brothers and sisters.Wendy received her degree in Psychology with concentration in child psychology. She has been teaching Pre-K ever since she graduated from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro in May of 2010.

In addition to education, Wendy was a competitive cheerleader for 10 years, winning state championships four years in a row. She enjoys cooking vegan food and spending her free time at the park with her big golden retriever, Tucker.

 
Let’s all give Ms. Wendy a big Grove welcome!
 
 

 

 

Last week the Grove School of Cary started optional Mandarin classes through Lango Kids! (http://www.langokids.com/)

Classes take place every Tuesday morning with Ms. Sunny and the kids love all of her energy! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contact us if you are interested in enrolling your child today!

 

 

We are thrilled to welcome Ms. Emily to our Grove School family!  Ms. Emily is our second Strands teacher.  Here is a bit about her!

My name is Emily Formicola, and I am thrilled to be a part of The Grove School of Cary!  I  was born in Raleigh, and lived in Cary for a few years after that.  My family relocated to Detroit when I was little, and I spent the majority of my childhood there until returning to Raleigh to attend NC State University.  My childhood was spent outdoors, as I was encouraged to play and express myself through play and discovering nature. I have been back in NC since 1999, and while I do miss family in MI, I do not miss the cold weather!

 Most weekends I enjoy relaxing with movies and music.  I enjoy traveling with my family, and I also love the beach in any type of weather.  I love board games, and can play them with friends and family for hours at a time.  Other things I enjoy are spending time with those I love, dining out, catching up on television shows, dancing, and animals.

 I earned my Associate of Arts degree from Wake Tech in 2004, and I earned my B.S. in Education from North Carolina State University in 2007.  I also hold a NC teaching certificate in grades K-9, as well as a Level 9 Early Educator Certification.  I have worked with children from a wide range of age groups from infants to middle school.  I have been working with preschool aged children for the past 6 years, and I love the curiosity and the enthusiasm of young children.  Their spunk and cheerful attitude is something I look forward to each and every day!

 “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” –William Butler Yeats

 

 

The Grove School of Cary would like to welcome Ms. Andrea to the Grove School family!  Ms. Andrea is a teacher in our Peach Grove classroom and our Mommy and Me teacher as well.  We are so happy to have her with us!  Let’s all give her a big Grove welcome!

Hi, my name is Andrea Montgomery! I am from Flint, Michigan, but I migrated to North Carolina in June 2008 and I have a BHS degree in Human Services.  I love children and helping individuals go after the best goals for their life!

I teach in the Early Preschool classroom here at The Grove School.  I am also the Mommy and Me teacher as well! I have been working in child care for over four years but I started working with children in the public school system in 2004.

I enjoy crafts, cooking, nature, reading and hanging out with my friends and family.  Three fun facts about me: I have a twin brother, I love the winter season, and I am a college football fan for Michigan (Go Blue)!!  I am so grateful to be working here at the Grove School and I look forward to meeting you!

 

 

Look at all the stuffed animal friends we collected to donate to children in hospitals through The Comfort Project! (http://www.thecomfortprojectnc.org/) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you to everyone who donated in order to provide comfort to others!

 

 

What fun we had at the Cary Christmas Parade this past weekend!  It was a beautiful day and we saw lots of familiar faces in the crowd!  Thank you to all our Grove families that came out to support us!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are very happy to announce a new teacher at The Grove School of Cary.  Her name is Ms. Stephanie.  She is from Germany and has lived in NC for the last 13 years.  She has over 20 years of experience teaching children in both Germany and the United States.

She will be busy at The Grove School!  She is teaching our Mommy and Me! program, teaching German, cooking and coordinating our outdoor grove projects.

We are fortunate to have her with us!  Please take a moment to stop in and say hello and to welcome her to our school.  Also take a moment to watch her bilingual video.

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We are thrilled to have Ms. Deedra as part of The Grove School of Cary team.  Ms. Deedra has worked with students from 12 months up to 10 years old.  She has served as a lead teacher for the past for years.  She has a Bachelor’s in Psychology.

Ms. Deedra will be working with Ms. Katie in our Early Preschool classroom.

Enjoy her video below.

Please join us in welcoming her to our Grove family.

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In any organization, company, team, group, etc., the difference between being just good and being GREAT always boils down to people.  In support of this, a CEO of a major company once said when asked to name the top five factors that led to his company’s success, replied with the following (as told in Jim Collins’ book Good to Great):

  1. “One would be people.
  2. Two would be people.
  3. Three would be people.
  4. Four would be people.
  5. And five would be people.”

As you know, our school is growing.  As a result, we are going through the process of looking for the best and the brightest teachers to grow with us.

And it is not an easy task!

Because our standards and expectations are so high and our program is so unique, it takes a very talented and unique teacher for our students and our school.  In the past month, we have received hundreds of resumes to review from all over the country.  We are honored to have so much interest from folks wanting to be a part of our school.  While that is a blessing, it is also a curse.  It does take a lot of our time, both Sarah (our Education Manager) and I, to review the incoming resumes and decide who should go forward in the selection process.

I would estimate that about 20% of the applicants move forward to the next phase which is a screening interview.  While I was doing my doctoral research at the University of Georgia, one of the professors I worked with published a study on hiring the right people.  Unfortunately, he found that even the best predictor of whether an employee would be a good fit for your organization was only correct about 21% of the time.  Starting with 100 applicants and by merging those two numbers, the 20% of applicants that move forward and the best predictor of a good fit being about 21%, that brings us to about 4 applicants out of 100 that are likely to be a good fit.

We cannot and will not settle for mediocre or average.  We must have exceptional talent.  For that reason, we have adopted the approach that Collins outlines in his book: “When in doubt, don’t hire and keep looking.”  As we rapidly grow and the pressure to hire staff to meet the demands of our incoming families increases, this approach can be quite scary!

The corollary to that is that we may need to limit our growth based upon our ability to find enough of the right people.  In a business sense, this corollary is equally scary.  No business would ever want to turn away customers, especially in today’s economy.  Naturally, we want every customer possible.

I am thrilled to report that our efforts and patience are paying off.  We have a lot of talent in our pipeline and are getting ready to bring on board a few more wonderfully talented teachers.  We anticipate our hiring to continue through the fall with our commensurate growth.

The pressure will continue to be on our leadership team to continually attract, hire and retain the right people.   After all, people make all the difference…the right people that is!

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All of us here at The Grove School are thrilled to have Ms. Tanja with us.  Ms. Tanja started this week and will be working with all of the students in our school as our strand teacher.  Classes will come into the multipurpose room for lessons in art, music, dance, theatrical play, etc.  that have been especially designed for them by her.  She will also be here in the mornings to work in the wrap around program.

Tanja is from Germany and received her degree in Early Childhood Education there.  She studied holistic movement, dance, relaxation and fitness there as well.  She has worked as a preschool teacher, a dance teacher, a movement teacher, a multi arts teacher as well as a nanny.

We are fortunate to have her with us.  We hope that you will stop by and introduce yourself to her.  I know she would love to meet you!

Watch her video below.

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