White Horses Primary and Infant rides back to school on a high

With a renewed focus on literacy and numeracy, extended school hours, and a commitment to excellence, the White Horses Primary and Infant School is poised for continued success in the new academic year.

Acting principal of the St Thomas-based school, Sydoney Edwards-Campbell, told The Gleaner on Monday that the staff continues to be buoyed by the school's enhanced National Education Inspectorate (NEI) rating from the previous year.

“We're still basking in the joy of it all,” she said.

From a level two rating of 'unsatisfactory' in 2015, which meant that the school was expected to take “urgent measures” to remedy performance issues flagged, to its current status of 'good', meaning it is now at the “expected level for every school”, White Horses Primary and Infant has made significant strides.

The NEI's role is to evaluate the standards of primary and secondary schools and provide information on how well students perform or progress during their education. Additionally, the NEI is tasked with making recommendations to promote improvements in the quality of instruction and outcomes for every student.

“When we heard that we received the rating of 'good', everybody was excited, especially the administration ... . We had a meeting and we congratulated the staff because we do very well when it comes to teamwork here, so everyone played their part,” Edwards-Campbell said.

The Region Two institution, she shared, carried out a careful review of the recommendations made by the NEI inspectors over the years to guide how they could improve the school's overall performance and students' work output.

EXTENDED LEARNING TIME

Noting that the school previously suffered from low levels of literacy and numeracy, Edwards-Campbell said a decision was taken to extend the school day by 45 minutes, with classes beginning at 7:55 a.m. and concluding at 3 p.m.

“The teachers come in the mornings and the students do three days of literacy and two of numeracy,” she explained of the new strategy, which yielded vast improvements.

After receiving an overall effectiveness rating of 'good' from the NEI, the school was recognised at the Ministry of Education and Youth's Region Two back-to-school conference in Portland in July with the Spirit of Care Award.

“For the last four years, we have managed to either get a top boy or top girl in the parish, and it happened this year as well. One of our boys ... received the Seprod scholarship. Last year, the top girl, she got two scholarships. She went to Campion [College], ... and two years before that, we got the JN Scholarship and one went to Ardenne [High] and one went to Alpha (Convent of Mercy Academy) ... . So, we're seeing where more students are being placed at traditional high schools. We have seen where it's working and we plan to continue,” said the acting principal.

The new academic year, which started on Monday, holds much promise, she added.

Edwards-Campbell stated that the teachers have given their commitment to playing a critical role in motivating students to take an interest in learning and to participate in more spelling and maths competitions to maintain – or improve upon – their NEI level four rating.

The acting principal said White Horses Primary and Infant School was able to fill its three vacant teaching positions ahead of the start of the new school year, and now has its full complement of 13 educators.

“We have a mentorship programme here, so each senior teacher is responsible for mentoring some junior teachers and so we have that in place already,” she added.

Of the 299 enrolled pupils, 272 showed up for classes on Monday morning. However, the headmistress did not see this as a cause for alarm, anticipating that as the week goes on, more students will report to school.

asha.wilks@gleanerjm.com