Values Education, Technology, Teacher Development Among Areas of Focus at Chetwood Memorial Primary

Principal of Chetwood Memorial Primary School in St. James, Garvin Atkinson, says renewed focus will be placed on values education, technology, and teacher development.

Speaking with JIS News about imperatives for the 2025/2026 academic year, he said teachers will be encouraged to incorporate the teaching of core values in the curriculum.

“We need to emphasise honesty, responsibility, respect, caring, cooperation. I said to the teachers, take one of those core values every week, integrate it in your lesson to see why honesty is important and show the impact that honesty will have,” he pointed out.

Mr. Atkinson also highlighted the need to further integrate technology in the classroom to enhance student engagement and make lessons more impactful.

He underscored that lessons should be interesting and cater to different learning styles. “We have [students] who are visual, we have those who are tactile, so, you have to cater to them,” he pointed out.

Principal Atkinson further stressed the importance of continuous teacher training, particularly in imparting reading skills.

He informed that he will be engaging specialists and will also conduct courses to ensure that “the phonemic skills, the basic tenets of reading are taught to our teachers, so they can help our children”.

As Chetwood Memorial Primary prepares for the new school year, the Principal is encouraging his staff to maintain a solutions-oriented mindset in the teaching and learning process.

“Let us remember that…as educators we come because of the children. Whatever resources we have use it effectively to help the children,” he urged.

“As we move into the new school year, there are going to be challenges and there will always be challenges. But, for me, as an education leader, while there are challenges, let us look at the solution because to every challenge, there’s a solution,” he added.