Veteran Educator Awarded for Transformative Teaching

Vice Principal of Santa Cruz Primary and Infant School in St. Elizabeth, Rev. Dr. Sandra Lois Thompson, is a transformative educator.

She has conducted groundbreaking work focused on struggling learners and readers, with particular attention to the challenges faced by boys in literacy development.

The research, implemented in her grade four class in 2011, not only improved the academic outcome of the pupils in her class but the entire student body.

“I’m telling you, that research got us somewhere as a school because we were down in the 40s (in literacy),” she says, noting that the rate improved to 79 per cent.

She also implemented a grouping system that allowed students to progress at their own pace, moving from different mastery levels – non-mastery, near mastery and mastery – as they demonstrated progress, with each child provided with the support they needed at every stage of development.

It was for her transformative work that Dr. Thompson was recently awarded the Prime Minister’s Medal of Appreciation for Service to Education.

“When I heard my name spoken [on the day of the awards ceremony], I said, ‘Jesus, this road is true’. I hope all those who thought it could not be done will see that it can be done,” says Dr. Thompson.

She tells JIS News that she was also happy to meet Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, who presented the award.

Dr. Thompson has spent all her teaching years at Santa Cruz Primary starting in 2000 when she taught grade three and progressed to the position of Vice Principal.

While teaching, she pursued professional development, earning her first degree through Temple University in Pennsylvania via collaboration with Church Teachers’ College, followed by a master’s degree in teaching and learning from the Catholic College of Mandeville in partnership with Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota.

Dr. Thompson, who is senior pastor of St. Mark’s United Missionary Baptist Church, is a pillar in her community.

She is well known for her pastoral work, outreach programmes, and acts of generosity that extend beyond the classroom.

Acknowledged for her warm and nurturing presence, she works with children with autism and other learning disorders, and often assists students in need with lunch, school supplies, and transportation.

Dr. Thompson believes that no child can learn while hungry and advocates for free lunches for students whose families did not qualify for assistance under the Programme for Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH).

As a senior pastor, she brings a holistic approach to child development by recognising that students’ needs encompass far more than academic instruction.

“What I want to say to Jamaica, whatever we are doing, make sure love is the order of the day. Allow our children to warm up to us, especially our children who are suffering from some form of disability,” the educator advises.

Dr. Thompson’s philosophy is “dedication without expectation of reward”, a principle that has guided her through more than two decades in teaching.

“You have to be dedicated to duty. Do not watch what you are going to receive from the job that you do but look at the future because you don’t know what is out there waiting for you,” she says.

“Sometimes, we are to work and don’t watch what we are going to get, because some things might come to you, not at the same time, but sometime in the future,” Dr. Thompson underscores.