Discovery School is located in the Falcon Courts North housing area of McGuire Air Force Base. We service approximately 300 Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten children from both the Air Force Base and the local community.

Both the Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten Curricula recognize children as active learners, eager and curious scholars filled with a spontaneous interest in learning, creating and experimenting.

Our Kindergarten program places great emphasis on beginning reading and mathematics skills. The Superintendent of Schools, supported by the Board of Education, continues to go to great lengths to provide all necessary instructional and support staff, as well as any materials required to insure the readiness of our student’s for 1st grade.

Social development, combined with a hint of academics, is the essential ingredient of our Pre-Kindergarten program. Daily classroom activities and interactions allow children to learn about themselves, their peers and the world around them. Through play and simulation of real life experiences, children test ideas, solve problems and learn to cooperate with one another. They also develop communication, motor and cognitive skills.

The 2006-2007 school year continued to demonstrate the commitment of the Board of Education and the Superintendent of Schools to the implementation of the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards, not only in their support of the daily educational program, but also by financing and providing the technological support and supplementary activities necessary to enhance that program.

Technologically, each classroom contains three computer workstations (two students and one teacher) with restricted Internet access available on the teacher’s station. A variety of age appropriate educational software is available as a resource for the teachers. All software is approved by the Board of Education and supplements the goals set forth in the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards. This year staff will engage a new media retrieval system to enrich learning.

The library is completely automated allowing for self-checkout of library books. Discovery School is also one of the first schools in the state to utilize a “sound amplification system” in each classroom. Teachers use a collar microphone and speakers are strategically placed around the classroom allowing for a consistent level of volume in all areas of the room. This allows all children to hear regardless of how near they are situated to the teacher. Children are better able to focus in on their lessons and activities simply because they can hear them.

Discovery School is entering the sixth year of its full-day kindergarten program. Expectations remain high that Discovery School will maintain its excellent program. The wise decision of the Board of Education and the Superintendent to not increase the demands of an already well-designed curriculum, but rather to provide more time for our teachers and children to delve into and fully develop concepts, continues to pay dividends. Standardized test scores have demonstrated mastery resulting from children who are well prepared, both academically and socially, for entrance into first grade.

With the improvement of the academic performance of our kindergarten children, adjustments are now taking place at the first and second grade levels to account for that improved performance. Perhaps, we are beginning a “bottom-up” trend.

The commitment on the part of the North Hanover Township Schools is not limited to the academic side of education. Discovery School again hosted performances by artists in a continuing effort to provide our children with a well-rounded education.

Finally, extensive communication continues to be implemented between teachers and the parents of our Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten students. Formal parent-teacher conferences are held in December and March. Resources for parents are available in our parent lending library and counseling services are available upon parental request. Discovery School also utilizes an Intervention and Referral Services Committee made up of representatives of the teaching staff, pupil personnel services and administration, whose purpose is to brainstorm strategies and ideas designed to assist classroom teachers with instructional methodology and classroom management techniques.