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

  • Dr. Scott Andersen has a diverse and unusual background. His degrees include an Ed.D., Ed.S., M.S. in literary science and educational technology, and a B.S. in computer science. He worked as a software developer and award-winning photojournalist, taught Spanish, English, math and technology in public school, was an adjunct professor of digital-video editing, and served as a principal and superintendent of schools. On top that Scott has seven children and enjoys cycling, running, hiking and all things outdoors.

  • 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.

 
 
 

Michaela is joining us for the summer as a substitute teacher. She is currently a student at Oklahoma State University, studying Elementary Education. Michaela has volunteered in early childhood programs in the past and has demonstrated that she is a very flexible and energetic teacher.

We’re happy to have her here!

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Ms. Lindsay is the new teacher joining Ms. Cristen in our EPS classroom. Ms. Lindsay is from Michigan, and she has a Bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education. She’s been working in the EPS class for a month now, and the children adore her.

Ms. Lindsay is excited to be here. She says, “My philosophy on teaching is I believe that each child is a unique individual who needs a secure, caring, and stimulating atmosphere in which to grow and mature emotionally, intellectually, physically, and socially. It is my desire as an educator to help students meet their highest potential in these areas by providing an environment that is safe, allows child’s natural curiosity, and provides an opportunity for continual learning and growth”.

What a great fit for the Grove School!

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The Grove School of Plano welcomes Heidi Summers as the new Head of School.

Heidi is new to Texas, having relocated from Richmond, Virginia. Heidi brings with her a wealth of experience working with children and families across the country. She grew up in Washington and has a degree in education and English/Language Arts from Washington State University.

Heidi’s professional background includes managing an early childhood center, directing a learning center, and teaching in both private and public schools.

Please join us in welcoming her to The Grove School family.

The Grove School will be hosting a drop-in meet and greet for Heidi on Tuesday, May 24 from 5-6p.  We hope to see you there!

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Hello! My name is Miranda Laughlin. I am the Strands Teacher here at The Grove School. I am a recent resident of the Dallas area having moved from Colorado in September of 2010. I graduated from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado in 2009 with a Bachelors of Science in Human Development and Family Studies along with an Early Childhood Education Teaching License. During my time in Fort Collins, I had teaching positions with second grade, kindergarten, preschool and special needs early childhood education classrooms.

In August of 2010, my husband Derek and I were married and moved to Dallas, where he is working as an engineer and attending seminary to be a Biblical counselor. I most recently worked as the lead teacher of a toddler classroom before coming to be a part of The Grove School team!

My philosophy of education focuses on serving children in building their path to learning how to think rather than what to think. Children should be the author of their own education story, and I as an educator get to create environments and situations where they may observe, explore, create and form ideas about the world. It is a joy to be a part of children formulating questions, hypotheses and intelligent thoughts as the foundation for the remainder of their educational journey. I see myself as a life long learner and enjoy being taught from my students as much as they enjoy learning from their teachers. My motto: “I’m not a square, I’m a circle and I can roll with it!

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All of us at The Grove School hope you will give a warm welcome to Shelley Hill, the new Education Manager at The Grove School of Plano.

Shelley recently moved with her family all the way from Wyoming where she has worked for the past 11 years.  Shelley most recently served as a Community Outreach Coordinator for a  school district.  She has also served as a preschool teacher and director and has also been the director of a Boys Club.  Perhaps her most important job is the mother of two children.

Shelley has a Master’s Degree in Educational Administration and a Bachelor’s in Elementary Education.

Please give her a warm Texas-sized welcome as she joins The Grove School family.

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We are honored to have Ms. Hunter Bullock join our Grove family.  Ms. Hunter is one of our Preschool teachers (3-yr olds) .

She has a two degrees from Lesley University in Cambridge, MA.  Her Bachelor’s is in Counseling and Psychology and her Master’s is in Child Development.  Lesley is a very highly regarded university in educational pedagogy.

Ms. Hunter has a rich experience base that she brings to our school.  She has worked as a classroom teacher in a variety of public and private settings and has a deep fund of knowledge that will not only benefit her students, but will also benefit our staff and parents.

Please join me in welcoming her to our school.

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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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We are thrilled to introduce to everyone Ms. Gina, a new teacher at The Grove School of Cary.  Ms. Gina is working in the Early Preschool classroom with Ms. Katie.

Ms. Gina has been working in preschools for eight years, the last five as a lead teacher.  Ms Gina has a Bachelor’s Degree in Early Childhood Education.

Please stop in and introduce yourself to her.  I know she would love to meet you.

Watch her introductory video:

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