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By Brown Chimezie
The Chief Executive Officer of Great Bloomers School, Mrs. Jaiyeola Jolaosho, has shared the story of her institution’s inception, attributing its success to her passion for children.
Great Bloomers School stands as one of the best private schools in Lagos, distinguished by numerous prestigious awards.
During an interview with journalists in Lagos, Jolaosho recounted how she established the school as a creche in 2012 while also acknowledging the necessity of upholding moral, academic and social standards among the children under her care, which served as the impetus for founding the institution.
She said: “I am a lover of children. Over the years, I noticed that I grew up loving children. I don’t know how that came about, but I know that the only thing you could get me do easily was to have children around me.
“When children are left in my care, when their parents leave them for work, they return meeting them fully attended to. However, this is not the situation when I am asked to do other things.
“Looking after children is something I like to do a lot. This has, in different forms, pushed me into so many things that I eventually did or that I’m still doing as I am growing up.
“One of those things is the fact that even in church, I have been in the children’s department for almost 25 years, if not more. I’ve always been with children, and because I also wanted children in my social life, I thought of running a creche, even though my first set of degrees were not in the field of education.
“We started the creche in 2012 and I was happy with the status of my clientele. In order to progress with the children, I felt the need to pursue a postgraduate diploma in education (PGDE) so that I could keep the children engaged properly. When we started the primary school in 2017, we decided to grow the school organically. We admitted every class based on our pupils progress in the school.”
Noteworthy among the array of awards won by the school is a pupil who clinched the first position in the Children of Africa Spelling Bee competition.
“I remember that our lower elementary pupils participated in the Spelling Bee competition organized by Children of Africa foundation, where we emerged third. This was a good feat for us, as we were encouraged to participate in the next competition, where we enrolled the pupils of our upper elementary classes for the 2021/22 edition.
“At this point, we emerged the first overall, and that gave us the motivation to do more. With the success of spelling in English, we decided to pay more attention to mathematics also. Hence, our recent award during The Ultimate Mathematics Ambassador (TUMA) 2024,” she added.
Speaking further, she berated the quality of the curriculum implemented in Nigeria, noting its lack of sophistication, which contributes to the difficulty Nigerian university graduates face in getting the right employment in the labour market.
Jolaosho emphasized that Great Bloomers School stands out among other institutions because of its unique blend of Nigerian and British curricula, complemented by its competent and outstanding members of staff.
She firmly believes that proactivity, intentionality, productivity, and remediation, which constitute her core values, form the robust foundation upon which the school has been built and have consistently produced significant results.
