Smooth Start for Schools in Westmoreland

Three schools in Westmoreland reported a smooth start to the 2023/2024 academic year, which commenced on Monday, September 4.

At the Petersfield Infant and Primary School, staff morale and student turnout were high, and the atmosphere hopeful.

Acting Principal at the school, Carleen Austin-Williams, told JIS News that the institution, which has an enrolment of 674, saw most of its students coming out on the first day.

She noted that the number could increase, as up to September 4 parents were still turning out to register their children.

Mrs. Austin-Williams said this year, the school is aiming to improve the attendance of its students and their performances in literacy and numeracy.

“We are expecting improvement in attendance, and literacy and numeracy because if the students are not here, we cannot help them. One of the problems we have is that parents tend to pull the students [from school], some [because of] economic reasons, and some students don’t come because they are not feeling well,” the Acting Principal said.

“When they [students] don’t come, what we have been doing, the [guidance) counsellors have been doing home visits to find out what the reason is. If they are absent from school for three consecutive days, their class teacher will inform the guidance counsellors who will visit the home to find out what’s happening,” she outlined.

Meanwhile, at the Little London High School, only grade-seven students were required to be present for the first day as the school started its orientation exercise.

Acting Principal, Terry James, told JIS News that the staff at the school were “upbeat and very confident” that this academic year will be positive and productive.

“We are very hopeful that this year will be one of the best years yet. We started today with the orientation of grade-seven students and the response has been remarkable, parents took their children out,” Mrs. James said.

She noted that last week, all the new students met at the school to discuss what was expected of them during their tenure at Little London High.

Mrs. James informed JIS News that students from other grades will come in on a different day throughout this week.

All students, including those from the school’s Upper Six programme, are expected to be present on Monday (September 11).

“We did this because we needed to do some rebranding; we needed to communicate our different expectations to the different year , and so we have done this in order to tap into everything that we can on a grade level,” she said.

At the Little Bay Primary and Infant School, Principal, Keron King, outlined that of the 138 students enrolled at the school, more than 80 per cent turned out on the first day.

He noted that one of the major goals for the school this academic year is to continue working closely with parents and other stakeholders of the institution to improve the overall academic performance of the students.

“Our focus is mostly on literacy and numeracy, so we are putting different initiatives in place, both for the parents and for the students. We are looking to [continue our partnership] with the Rockhouse Foundation [for] our A Spark programme,” the Principal said.

“It’s a programme that works with the students to find out what stage they are at, facilitate them and set up different lesson plans and strategies through individual learning profiles to help each student improve,” Mr. King added.

He pointed out that the school will continue its extra classes, as well as set up programmes that will be beneficial to parents.