The Plainview Jewish Center Religious School, one of the largest supplementary religious schools in the Nassau County area, offers many new and innovative programs for grades kindergarten through high school. Our school boasts a registration of over four hundred students which enables us to offer our children the most contemporary educational curriculum available. The PJC Religious School has a staff of fifteen teachers, a family educator, a librarian, an on-staff tutor, a certified special education teacher, a full-time principal, and a school secretary. There are eleven classrooms to accommodate our twenty-three classes. Our teachers use the newest material available in the teacher's resource room. We are constantly consulting leaders in Jewish education about the newest strides in the field of education.
Our teachers bring to their classrooms an enormous amount of enthusiasm, knowledge and passion for Judaism. Our children are taught in an experiential, hands-on setting. Not only do the teachers use experiential teaching in their classrooms, but during the year we also have several school-wide programs. In the past we have celebrated Passover with a "Walking Seder" and our students "traveled" to an Israeli market to dance and eat falafel via a mock El Al airplane. Our annual Purim Seudah is always a hit with the children.
The highlight of the Daled and Hey classes, are the monthly Tallit and Tefillin breakfasts. One Sunday morning a month these children meet in the sanctuary to put on Tefillin and daven. After their minyan, there are discussion groups, and the morning is finished with a bagel and a shmeer. This program helps our students prepare for further Bar/Bat Mitzvah training with the Cantor.
The Gimel classes will take part in Sunday morning chuggim. Each teacher will offer a specialty class in different areas of Jewish culture. Among other topics, the classes will include drama, arts and crafts, and creative writing.
Our religious school is pleased to offer the community an enrichment class as an alternative to a standard class. Our enrichment class is taught by a certified special education teacher. The teacher develops a specific curriculum according to the needs of each child in the class.
We are members of the Tichon Hebrew High School, a joint community high school program for grades 8-10. The students are given elective courses in different areas of Jewish study. Several times during the year, special programs in which speakers address the children about current Jewish issues are offered.
Jr. Congregation is open to the community every Shabbat and festival (9:45-11:00 AM). We meet in the David Evan Wein Youth Corner, which has been designed to replicate a sanctuary. Our services are led by one of our religious school staff members. As in our class instruction, Jr. Congregation is also a hands-on teaching experience. Our children learn the Parsha through skits and stories. The Rabbi makes weekly visits to Jr. Congregation and plays "Stump the Rabbi", a game in which the children bring their most difficult questions to the Rabbi. Once a month we offer our younger children a rgub - Youth Service for grades K-3 and their parents which has an emphasis on family education. All services end with a Kiddush. Each month we celebrate or children's birthdays with a special Birthday Shabbat Kiddush complete with cake and song. All children coming to Jr. Congregation can guess how many pieces of candy are in our candy jar.
Our on-staff librarian is always available to help our students, as well as all our congregants. We are constantly updating our shelves, bringing our congregants the newest books available.
PJC's Religious School Committee consists of a very involved group of congregants. We have monthly meetings in which we review the past school month, discuss future programs, and listen to parent input. Our Religious School Committee is extremely active in all of the holiday programs, Jr. Congregation and Family Education events.
