Principal of Sheffield Primary Elated at PEP Results

Principal of Sheffield Primary School in Westmoreland, Dr. Vinnette Malcolm, is hailing the school’s performance in this year’s Primary Exit Profile (PEP) examinations, describing it as a moment of pride and accomplishment for the rural institution.

“I’m over the moon. I feel so elated. I feel great. I feel satisfied. I feel as though the work that we would have put in… the strategies have worked,” she told JIS News in an interview.

Dr. Malcolm shared that the school saw a significant number of students attaining high levels of proficiency.

“For this year in Mathematics, at the beginning level, zero per cent. At the developing level, we had 25 per cent. Proficient level, we had a whopping 75 per cent,” she said.

“For Science, 83 per cent. Social studies, 79.2 per cent. In that 79.2 per cent, 25 per cent of that is highly proficient. We have a 79 per cent proficient level. For the region, it’s actually 61 per cent and nationally, 61 per cent. So, we are above the national level and the regional level,” Dr. Malcolm highlighted.

A total of 19 out of the 24 grade-six students earned placements in traditional high schools.

The top-performing boy was Antonio Johnson, while the top-performing girl was Rhianna Higgins, who passed for The Manning’s School and Hampton School, respectively.
Young Rhianna received an overall score of 359, while Antonio copped a score of 350.

Despite the strong results, Dr. Malcolm noted some key areas for continued improvement.

“There are some areas that we need to work on in respect of students being able to analyse data a little bit more… and also reading. Reading is a challenge, and we are really going to get into our intervention programme,” she said.

Dr. Malcolm also shared insights on gender-based performance trends. “For Maths, Social Studies and Language Arts, the girls performed much better than the boys at the proficient level. [They performed] equally for Science,” she outlined.

The principal reported that some 19 students out of 24 were placed in the highest stream of the PEP pathway system – pathway one.