Randolph College Nursery School to reopen this summer

Randolph College Nursery School students read together in 2019. 

After being closed due to the pandemic, the Randolph College Nursery School plans to reopen this summer, first for a series of weeklong camps and then for its regular session in August.

It’s a reunion Director Kelly Kirkwood and her staff have been looking forward to.

“Most of our staff have been with us for years,’ Kirkwood said. “We’re so fortunate they will all be back with us. One of my lead teachers and I were working in the preschool two weeks ago, preparing for camp and reopening. She said it best: ‘I’m home. This is coming home.’ She is so right about that.”

The camps, for children ages 3 to 6, begin May 31 and run from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. daily. Each week offers a different activity or theme, with sessions limited to 14 children to stay in line with current COVID-19 guidelines.

“It will be a little bit smaller this summer than in the past,” Kirkwood said. “Even though restrictions are loosening, we are still making sure we have a manageable amount of children to allow for social distancing.”

Classes will likely be smaller when school starts Aug. 16 as well. Current restrictions, which haven’t been updated since April, call for three feet of distancing between students. If that changes, Kirkwood said they would be able to adjust.

“We are prepared to handle whatever comes our way,” she said.

Daily hours have also been extended for the nursery school, which will open earlier and close later to accommodate working families.

The school has received approval for the return of Randolph’s work study students, a hallmark of the program.

“It’s one of the things that makes our program so unique,” Kirkwood said. “They provide not only extra hands and help in the classroom, but they just add a liveliness and another layer of quality.”

More information about the Nursery School camps can be found at www.randolphcollege.edu/nurseryschool/summer-camps, and details about the 2021-22 school year at www.randolphcollege.edu/nurseryschool.