Melrose Primary And Infant School Improves

Melrose Primary and Infant School in St. Andrew has achieved success in its numeracy and literacy rates over three years.

In 2017, numeracy was at 33 per cent and literacy at 58 per cent. By 2019, the school grew its literacy rate to 81 per cent and numeracy, 60 per cent.

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the institution has not had external or standardised assessments for 2020/2021.

Of note is that in 2017, three students were placed in traditional high schools, and that moved to nine in 2019, and seven in 2020, while the population at the school has increased from 256 in 2018 to 385 in 2019

Principal, Keisha Waller, credits the successes to strong support from partnerships that they have forged.

“This is part of a collaborative effort, involving internal and external stakeholders. We had an intervention which was strongly supported by the Shortwood Teachers’ College, where practicum students came in, assisted the teachers, and this allowed us to have small groups and one-on-one interventions with the students,” the Principal shares.

The programme also helped with remedial support for struggling learners, she notes.

Miss Waller, who is in her third year as head of the school, says the partnership is appreciated by her team, and although the support was not in the form of physical resources, they served as “sources of inspiration, so we are forever grateful”.

Recently, several organisations have been providing tangible support to refurbish and equip the school. They include Nunes, Scholefield & Company, Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA), Kiwanis Club of Barbican, the CHASE Fund, and the Transport Authority (TA), as well as a group of past students in the diaspora.

The Principal informs that the “ongoing” project with the CHASE Fund, with a grant of $500,000, is allowing them to refurbish their infant department, and to be ready for certification by the Early Childhood Commission (ECC).

“The Kiwanis is very active, with donation of hand sanitisers, and sanitisation products. At Melrose, every block has at least one sanitising dispenser. They have also partnered with us in a unique way, assisting with our special education programme,” the Principal says.

She adds that the Club’s support is allowing students to get “one-on-one tutoring sessions”, and parents are now buying into the initiative and encouraging their children to participate.

Miss Waller says the TA has been “an excellent player and has bought into the vision for the school’s development”.

The TA, the Principal informs, was an early supporter of the school when it embarked on its transformative programme, and continues to support beautification projects.

“They have helped us with furniture, and recently assisted us with our isolation area,” she notes.

Corporate Communications Manager at the TA, Petra-Kene Williams, says the Authority believes in the institution, and continues to provide support, so that the students and staff can benefit from a well-equipped and maintained learning environment.

Just before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, the school embarked on a technology programme to ensure that students could have full benefits of computer devices.

Food For the Poor (FFP) came on board and donated 10 computers to the programme, and the Flow Foundation upgraded the school’s Internet access.

The Principal says the stakeholders are integral to the growth of the school. “We are going places because you decided to partner with us. We are eternally grateful, and we look forward to the continued partnership,” she tells JIS News.

President of the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA), Sandy Burrell, says the growth at the school is “wonderful”, and more parents should enrol their children, because there is space.

“The Principal is doing well and the group wants to help,” she tells JIS News.

For President of the Kiwanis Club of Barbican, Klemarr Johnson, they are helping the school to become “an anti-COVID institution”, and in a few days it will receive another sanitising system, personal protective gowns and gloves.

He informs that the Club is lobbying donors to get computers for the school, and they have “garnered funds” to upgrade the institution’s playfield.

The partnership, he says, is part of their development plan that will last for another four administrations.

“When we stepped in and saw how much the school has achieved, and the awards that they have won, you see that this is a school with great potential.  They just need the resources to fully shine. We have established the partnership, and we have made the commitment to make it continue,” Mr. Johnson says.