Public School 120 Queens is a multilingual elementary school located in Flushing, New York. We are committed to preparing our different types of learners to compete in the ever changing 21st Century workforce by guiding them to recognize the importance of finding the balance between doing what they love, and what the world will need them to do. Students at P.S. 120 will:
Take responsibility for their own learning by participating in classroom discussion and be able to predict how they can use what they are learning in their everyday lives and goals
Engage in problem solving and critical thinking activities
Be given leadership opportunities in and out of the classroom
Experience the cultural arts
Become digitally literate by gaining the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information, requiring both cognitive and technical skills
Apply their talents to the service of others
The History of P.S. 120 Queens
The original PS120 was built in 1924 and had its beginning as a beautiful wooden, one story building architecturally suited to the country like atmosphere had once was so characteristic of Queensboro Hill. The school consisted of six classrooms ranging from Kindergarten to grade 5. When the children were ready for the sixth grade, they were transferred by stagecoach and later by bus to PS 120 in Flushing, from where they graduated upon completion of the eighth grade. In the original school (or the "little school" as the neighborhood people referred to it), the children attended classes on a split session, making it possible for them to eat lunch at home. There was no gymnasium in the original school. The children had recess and played in the open fields that were adjacent to the school. This play area was on the site of the present building. There was not an auditorium either. Large rolling blackboards between the two classrooms were moved to one side to accommodate classes and parents in one area.
Today, PS120 services about 1000 students in PreK-5. With the addition that opened in September 1999, PS 120 has a total of 46 classrooms. The new addition features air conditioning, a fully equipped science room, music room, computer lab, and cafeteria. Our cafeteria seats four hundred children. Children are able to have outdoor recess in the newly renovated school yard.