St Mary's Prep a beacon of excellence in St James

Barrington Flemming, Gleaner Writer

WESTERN BUREAU:

St Mary's Preparatory and Kindergarten School is fast becoming one of the most sought after educational institutions of its kind in western Jamaica.

"Our performance over the years and our Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) results over the past five years speak volumes. We have more than 90 per cent of our students being placed at traditional high schools with averages ranging from 90 to 98 per cent," said Principal Anthony Taylor.

The institution, which was born out of the demise of St Mary's College in 2008, is nestled in the flatlands of Montpelier in the southern end of St James, and has, over the past five years, plucked itself from obscurity and into the limelight of top-performing preparatory/primary schools in St James.

Operated by the Anglican Church, the school started with 60 students and has experienced monumental growth in its enrolment to 460 for the current school year.

"Initially, we thought we would not get the students because of the distance, and we were unknown. But we began growing after our first year and excellent GSAT results," Taylor told The Gleaner.

So, from an initial nine GSAT students in 2009, the school is now preparing 51 students for the exams this year.

STELLAR PERFORMANCES

The school has delivered stellar performances in the GSAT, twice winning the Montego Bay Credit Union Quiz, and winning the Parish Championship in The Gleaner's Children's Own Spelling Bee Competition. The school has also won three consecutive 'Nyamins and Jammins' 4-H Club titles.

It has also chalked up excellent performance at the preparatory/primary level with its mastery in literacy and numeracy at grade four and, except for one year, the prep school has enjoyed 100 per cent mastery in both areas.

The principal attributes the formula for success to many factors, including the level of maturity in the teachers' attitude towards their work and a penchant for excellence in both teachers and students.

"The family environment that we create spurs parents to send their children to us. We lead with respect for each other. The board, all of staff and myself have contributed to the great success," Taylor added.

Saturday classes are held to augment the regular weekday lessons.

"We have a very rigid Saturday class because the time in the week is not sufficient, so what I do is to create extra hours in the days - so we start from 7:30 a.m. and we go up to 5 p.m. every day. We create some new games and interactive learning activity that we use on Saturdays."

The school has 23 teachers with one trained teacher and an assistant teacher to each class - a ratio of one teacher per 28 students, with some classes having 30 students.

Academic work is complemented by co-curricular activities, Taylor explained.

"We believe in extending children - not just in academics. We have Spanish, sign language, speech and drama, dance, 4-H, Spelling Bee, music, and quiz clubs."

A multipurpose court, and, very soon, three football fields, a computer lab and a library will make St Mary's Preparatory continue to stand out in western Jamaica.