About SamSalo Preparatory School

The vision of SamSalo School is to provide Christian education to young children in order to give them a solid foundation to become successful in life.

We strive for the development of the whole child physically, intellectually, socially and emotionally.

To encourage and support parents in their role as the first and most important teachers in the lives of their children.

To assist parents with becoming learners along with their children. To expect that all of our students will be successful

To encourage positive self-concept and develop skills for building positive relationships with others.

To instill the love and enjoyment of literature and proficiency in the language by providing a supportive, relaxing, and rich atmosphere that encourages early literacy and communication skills.

To encourage and provide for the development of motor skills and physical well-being through a wide range of challenging equipment and planned motor activities.

To nurture creativity and imagination through art, dramatic play, puppetry, music, and movement.

To build understanding and appreciation of one's own and other cultures bu sharing literature, customs, and songs from various cultures.

To help each child develop self-control and problem-solving skills through discussion and role modeling.

To Strengthen parent/child and school relationships through a better understanding of child development principles and sharing of information.

We believe that early childhood programs should provide a happy, safe, and supportive environment that reflects a recognition and consideration of development patterns of each child.

We believe that learning is an active process by which children learn best and gain self-confidence when ample learning opportunities exist for direct hand-on experiences and decision-making.

We believe that trained and caring teachers guide this active learning process by sharing information, planning activities, questioning, setting goals and modeling behavior.

We believe in a well-planning that integrates cognitive, physical, social, emotional and spiritual needs into the child’s world of learning through the senses.

Meet Our Founder, Salome Doler Tekpetey

In 1989, Salome Doler Tekpetey, a retired principal of the Ghana Education Service started the Christian Women’s Orphanage in Odumase-Krobo in the Eastern Region of Ghana. She was the first of five children. In her early years, girls did not receive a formal education. Her father, however, decided to send his four girls to school upon the advice of the European traders in the then Gold Coast. As a bright student, Salome soon emerged as one of the best students who continued on to higher education.

She graduated from The Aburi Teacher Training College in 1937 and began her long career as a teacher and principal. Her husband Samuel was also an educator for many years. It was no surprise that six of their seven children followed their footsteps in education.

Salome operated the orphanage with her own funds and was later supported by the local church through the Women’s Fellowship. Many parents started sending their children for this free care. In time several children who were sent were orphans who lost their parents during the aids epidemic in that region in Ghana.

However, the small orphanage grew into a nursery school with several children. She called it “The Good News Club” with young children in the neighborhood. The children were taught songs, poems, and basic phonemic awareness and numbers. When the work became overbearing, she sought support from the local Presbyterian Church and the members of the Women’s fellowship started to assist. Still, there was no financial support but she continued the work with her meager pension. Her faith in God and the desire to help the less fortunate inspired the work.The school continued until her passing in 2009 at the age of 93. Picking up from where she left off was inevitable.

The great work started is now a family legacy with no desire of turning back hence our mantra:

“Continuing the legacy of education and empowerment in Ghana”

It is our hope that the work will continue for many generations to come!

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Our Story

SamSalo started as an Early Childhood Development Centre at Odumase Krobo in 1989 by Mrs. Salome Tekpetey, a retired school teacher and principal. After retirement in 1972, Mrs. Tekpetey settled at her hometown in the Eastern Region of Ghana where there were many very poor or orphaned children whose families were unable to send them to school. Touched by their plight, she started to invite a few children to her house for meals. As a teacher and a Christian, she taught them to read and write, shared her faith and fed them. Word went through the neighborhood and more families started to send their children. Mrs. Tekpetey consulted with the local Presbyterian Church where she was an elder for assistance.

At that time the church had started a new building project and therefore was unable to provide the financial assistance needed to help the children. However, the Women’s Fellowship supported her for a while as the number of children grew. She named the school The Christian Women’s Day Care. With the HIV epidemic at its highest in that area of Ghana, the need became even greater. She worked with the children until she fell sick at the age of 92. Mrs. Tekpetey did her best for the school although she was faced with several challenges. To keep her dream alive, her daughter Veronica Goka, a retired principal of New York City Public Schools has decided to take over the challenge to continue this great task. It is her hope to give back to her community and country which has given her so much.

SamSalo Preparatory School was established in September 2015 by Veronica Goka, as a continuation of the Samsalo Nursery School which was founded in 1989 by her mother Salome DolerTekpetey. Veronica started her journey into education in Ghana after she graduated from Wesley College. She left Ghana after a few years of teaching and taught in Liberia before finally joining the New York City Department of Education. Despite the challenges she faced, Veronica’s faith in God ignited a belief that all things are possible. She pursued advanced degrees which led her into administration and supervision. She supported her mother by supplying school materials and offering guidance. After she retired from the New York City Public Schools as a Principal she realized the need to continue her mother’s work and a great legacy.

The initial need was to pull down the old structure and put up a new building to house children from nursery through Grade 6. This daunting task was the reason for the establishment of the SAVETT Christian Foundation. The plan to raise funds included a GoFundMe account which yielded a fraction of what was needed for the project.

Veronica decided to work as a consultant to support the construction of the school. Phase 1 of the project was completed in September 2015 in time for the nursery to reopen. The work continued through 2016. Today, there are 10 classrooms with about 200 children through Grade 3. To school plans to continue to Grade 6.

We continue to strive to maintain a nurturing environment, provide 21st-century education which includes technology and highly trained teachers. We believe our goals will be realized through our fundraising activities through the SAVETT Christian Foundation.

Meet Our Director, Veronica Goka, M.S, MS Ed

Mrs. Veronica Goka was born and educated in Ghana. She is a graduate of Wesley College and the University of Cape Coast in Ghana. She also pursued advanced degrees at the City University of New York and Mercy College. She was a renowned educator for over four decades. Veronica taught in Ghana, Liberia, and a private school in New York City before joining the New York City Department of Education. As an outstanding teacher, she was nominated Distinguished African American teacher in District Six in 1996.

As a Staff Developer, she pioneered the implementation of the best practices in literacy instruction in a very traditional school to move student achievement. During her tenure as an Assistant Principal in District 11, literacy scores improved tremendously. She was the Principal at The Helen Keller School, P. S. 153 in the Bronx. Under her leadership, Helen Keller School was named a Reward School by the State Department of Education. She worked tirelessly with her team to create systems and structures to improve student achievement and to engage teachers in meaningful professional development.

By the end of her tenure, The Helen Keller has become the most sought after elementary school in District 11, New York City. She retired in September 2014 and immediately took over the restructuring of the SamSalo School which her mother started in 1989.

Our Program

SamSalo uses the Ghana Education Service developmentally appropriate curriculum with some modifications. This allows our teachers to teach in a way that is conducive to student learning. Children learn best by doing and the Creative Curriculum uses a developmental, hands-on approach to build around weekly or monthly themes. Our concentration is on developing the Whole child through critical thinking skills, observations, analyzing and drawing conclusions. Children will express what they see and observe in their environment using different media such as drawing, painting, writing, music, blocks and dramatic play. Indoor and outdoor activities further enhance specific skills.

Our approach to developing language skills in our children begins with phonemic awareness, phonics emergent reading, and writing skills with our youngest students. This is supported by the Jolly Phonics program through Primary 1. Children are exposed to authentic fiction and non-fiction literature while gaining reading and writing skills to enhance their progress. Grammar is incorporated into our language development approach.

We begin our writing development program by giving our young children fine motor skills beginning with holding writing tools to scribbling. Children are later introduced to letter sounds in order to write simple words and sentences. Children later learn descriptive sentences using writing prompts until they are able to do journal writing.

From counting to identifying numbers, our children learn to add, subtract multiply and divide and moving on to simple algebra and geometry. Problem-solving skills are developed through a number of stories. Hands-on tools are used to help children understand mathematical concepts.

From teaching Science to Social Studies, our children are exposed to the world around them through real-life experiences using hands-on objects, field trips, and classroom experiments.

Beginning Age 4, our children are introduced to our music and dance program. Children who show high interest receive instruction after school.

Our children participate in physical activity each day during recess. In addition, children have scheduled Physical Education by class weekly. Our children have the opportunity to move around in the classroom during group activities.

Our Calendar

The 2026 academic year begins with the 1st Term, running from January 18 to April 16. The midterm falls on February 26, followed by a holiday break from April 27 to May 3.

The 2nd Term runs from May 4 to August 6, with a midterm on June 19 and holidays from August 7 to September 5.

The 3rd Term takes place from September 6 to December 10, with a midterm on October 22–23. The year concludes with holidays beginning December 11 and continuing into January 2027.

National Holidays

Independence Day — March 6, 2026 (Friday)
Good Friday — April 3, 2026 (Friday)
Easter Monday — April 6, 2026 (Monday)
May Day — May 1, 2026 (Friday)
African Union Day — May 25, 2026 (Monday)

Eid al-Fitr — March 20, 2026 (Friday, tentative)
Republic Day — July 1, 2026 (Wednesday)

Farmer’s Day — December 4, 2026 (Friday — first Friday of December)