Community members interested in learning more about Northwest Missouri State University’s Horace Mann Laboratory School and the Phyllis and Richard Leet Center for Children and Families are invited to an open house from 5 to 6:30 pm, Thursday, March 9.

Visitors will have the opportunity to meet with teachers, graduate assistants, students and Bobby Bearcat while learning about exclusive campus resources. The open house will also offer door prizes including Bearcat gear.

Located centrally on campus in the Everett Brown Education Hall, Horace Mann places an emphasis on innovative and interactive teaching practices with individualized instruction by dedicated and caring faculty, staff and administrators. While the laboratory school benefits from Northwest programs and activities, the school’s teachers also incorporate state-of-the-art technology into student learning.

As a laboratory school, Horace Mann is also a clinical teaching environment for students in Northwest’s School of Professional Education. The relationship between master teachers, practicum teachers and graduate assistants allows Horace Mann students to reap the benefits of low student-to-teacher ratios.

Horace Mann offers unique learning opportunities for its students that have included guitar lessons, the study of robotics, lessons about crops and animals at the university farm and Spanish and sign language lessons. Students from multiple countries also add to the school’s diverse atmosphere.

Horace Mann offers a traditional nine-month academic calendar for students in kindergarten through sixth grade. Early childhood classes for children age three through pre-kindergarten are offered in the Leet Center in Brown Hall. The school day is 7:50 am to 3 pm, August through May. After-school care, known as Bearcat Club, is also available.

Parents of students are encouraged to participate in their child’s progress. In addition to classroom blogs and activities throughout the year, parent involvement opportunities include a parent advisory council, a Thanksgiving dinner, field trips and an adopt-a-family program.

The Leet Center serves approximately 90 families with children from three to five years of age. The primary goal of the center is to promote high-quality early care and education in a model environment.

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