In a recent conversational interview with our Headmistress, our marketing team had a chance to ask her a few questions to get to know her more and also have her answer a few questions that many parents have before deciding to enroll their child. Mrs. Viola Adereti has a Bsc. in Biochemistry from the University of Ibadan. With over 30 years of teaching experience, she has been at Beehive School since 1990. She was formerly Head of Administration before being promoted to Headmistress in 2017.

Please tell us about yourself and your experience with Beehive School. What is your favourite thing about school?
I had spent a long time teaching older highschool students chemistry and math but there came a time when I developed interest in teaching younger children. This is how Beehive School came along and I have been here since. It has been over 25 years and I must say it has been an interesting journey. 

What I like most about Beehive School in Ikeja is the fact that the staff are the owners of the school. We are just like one big family in which the children are at the center. We call ourselves a one-child school because we work with every child at his or her level to ensure assimilation. Each child’s need is taken care of so that no one is left behind in any way. We set our academic standards very high so this enables our staff to commit to the growth of each and every child is regardless of where they are at academically.

What is an average day like at Beehive School for a student?
The day starts at 8am for a student at Beehive School. We start early to instill in them a time conscious mindset. The first thing the teachers do in the class is take attendance. In the Nursery section, the day starts with play time outdoors for about 30 minutes, before they move indoors to continue to learn through activity based learning. All formal learning ends at 12:30pm. After this, they go on to play outside and continue with the fun fun. We engage them with educational videos and storytelling. If one is tired and needs a nap, we have the spaces to accommodate them.

In the primary section, we start the day with English or Math as this allows for easy understanding when they still have fresh minds. The average class is 30 minutes to 1 hour long. The students have a break period at 11am for an hour. This is when the students can eat and relax or go to the field or playground to play. They can also engage in club activities such as the Science Club and the Red Cross Club. After the break, students engage in less demanding subjects and activities such as Music and Fine Art. Our classrooms have white boards and projectors which the teachers can use for visual aids.

Describe the curriculum used for learning and what is the average class size at Beehive School?
At Beehive School, we want to teach and produce students that can compete globally. If we focus only on the Nigerian curriculum, we shall not be able to achieve that. So we reviewed several curricula and found that the British one would be the best at supplementing ours. We therefore operate the Beehive Curriculum which is a blend of the Nigerian and the British Curricular. The two have been integrated to develop a learning scheme that would meet and exceed learning objectives. With this, we are able to give our students a broader-based education that would enable them to compete globally by gaining critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Our classrooms are fairly large, well-aerated with 12-15 students. We want the teachers to spend as much time as they can with each student so that is why we keep the number of students in any given class small.

What kind of culture does Beehive School have?
The culture at Beehive school is one I describe as positive. Our teachers complement each other so that we give our students the best academic experience. Teamwork is therefore key among our staff. 

Our teachers have a combined work experience of over 135 years so we trust their work. We encourage personal development, loyalty and integrity among our staff because at the end of it all we want to set examples for our students. Our culture is one that encourages our core values of excellence, commitment, integrity, teamwork, respect and creativity. We strive to create an environment where everyone works to help our children thrive academically, socially and intellectually.

What values do you instill in your students? How do you encourage those values?
Our core values are excellence, commitment, integrity, teamwork, respect and creativity. We believe that every Beehiver should embody these values wherever they are. With excellence, we set our standards high to ensure that all students are challenged to thrive academically. With integrity, we encourage our students to become people of high moral standards and commit to always doing the right thing even when no one is watching. From the playing field to the classroom, our students work to develop collaboration and teamwork skills that we believe will benefit them for a lifetime.