St. Ann’s Bay Primary PTA Playing Integral Role In Return To In-Person Learning

The Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) of the St. Ann’s Bay Primary School is working closely with the administration of the St. Ann-based institution to ensure seamless operations as students return to face-to-face learning.

After being closed for 22 months due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the school reopened for in-person classes on January 10, following approval from the Ministry of Education and Youth.

Students are being engaged through a model of blended learning, where they rotate from in-person classes to online learning on a set schedule.

In an interview with JIS News, Vice President of the PTA, Taniesha Llewellyn, says that the body has taken an all-hands-on-deck approach to ensure that students and staff remain safe while in the physical school setting.

She informs that parents have donated resources, including cleaning supplies, while others have volunteered to visit the institution on specific days to help with the sanitation activities, and temperature checks and recordings.

“We have parents, who have volunteered to do different things, because we know that we have a role to play in all of this. COVID is going nowhere and it’s just how we are going to work together as a school to get our children back into [classes] and into learning,” she notes.

Ms. Llewellyn says that parental involvement is essential to positive educational outcomes for students and in that regard, the parents are making every effort to ensure that students reach their full potential.

“We believe that parents have an important role to play. We are here daily, and our children are comfortable, and our teachers and staff feel supported, knowing that the parents are standing with them,” she adds.

Ms. Llewellyn tells JIS News that while some parents were apprehensive about the return to face-to-face learning, given the Omicron variant “we also know that it’s important for them to come out as well”.

“As a parent myself, I’ve seen where, yes, they are doing well online but some of them are struggling in terms of getting the content. The blended approach where sometimes they’re in and sometimes they’re out, we are in support of it,” Ms. Llewellyn tells JIS News.

“We are prepared to take it one day at a time and do as best as we can in helping the school,” she adds.

Parent, Janeel James-Dawkins tells JIS News that she is happy that her child is getting the opportunity to interact more with his teachers in the face-to-face environment.

“I am excited that my child is in the same space with his teacher and classmates where better interaction can take place… and the other positives that comes with face-to-face learning,” she says.

Shaday Bygrave, whose daughter is in grade six, says she had been counting down the days until the return to in-person learning.

She tells JIS News that with the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) examinations on the horizon, students need to be in the physical classroom setting.

“I want her to [do well in her exams]. When they are not at school it’s hard … so I am glad to know that the teacher is back with them,” she says.