About our school
A state school built around eighteen children at a time.
Toddler's Academy opened in 1998 in a two-room building on Ogundele Way. Twenty-eight years later we teach 412 children from two to sixteen, still free, still on the same street, still refusing to let a class grow past eighteen.
What we actually believe
A teacher must be able to name every child
Class size is the one thing we never trade. Eighteen is the ceiling, and we have turned down funding that would have raised it.
Free means genuinely free
No tuition, no uniform bill, no exam levy, no lunch charge. A family should never be asked for money at the school gate.
Children stay, and so do teachers
Twenty-two of our thirty-one teachers have been here more than five years. Continuity is not a perk — it is the method.
1998
the year we opened, with 24 children
412
pupils on roll across three stages
31
teachers, 22 here over five years
2,900
children taught since we opened
The people walking with them
Teachers who stay long enough to matter
Ms. Adaeze Nwoke
Early years lead · 9 years here
“I have taught the younger brothers and sisters of my first class. That is the job.”
Mr. Bello Yusuf
Primary maths · 12 years here
“No child leaves my room believing they are bad at numbers. It is not allowed.”
Ms. Grace Etim
Reading specialist · 6 years here
“Twenty minutes a day, one child at a time. That is how reading actually happens.”
Mr. Chidi Okonkwo
Science & mentoring · 8 years here
“I meet my mentees in Grade 6 and shake their hand at graduation. Same hand.”