This story is on the Go-Local Jamaica Web site for St. James. Please check out this and other interesting stories at www.go-montegobay.com.
ONE BEAUTIFULLY decorated room above a shop in a shopping village, five students and one teacher is how the Heinz Simmonitsch School started. That was back in September 2000. Now, a two-storey building in the Half Moon shopping village houses the more than 100 children who range in age from four to 16 years. Mrs. Simmonitsch, wife of the outgoing managing director of the Half Moon Hotel, became concerned that there was no reputable prep school on that side on Montego Bay where she could send her three kids. After contemplating the decision to go back to her homeland Austria, she decided to start her own thing - just until they could find a solution. A room atop one of the shops at the Half Moon Shopping complex, her three children and two of her friend's children was how it started. But the school began to grow and the need for a bigger building arose. Diane Girvan was then hired as principal/director. She, who previously taught at Immaculate and Mount Alvernia High Schools, was initially reluctant "for a couple of rooms over a shop was not her idea of a school." But the beautiful decor plus the warm and happy atmosphere won her heart. The teachers are all Jamaican and a few of them have had experience teaching in US schools. The Heinz Simmonitsch School started out as a preparatory school but has since added on a high school division. To preserve the one-on-one relationship between teacher and student, classes accommodate no more than 16 students. One's first impression on walking into the building is that the place is immaculately clean, tastefully decorated, and looks more like an office rather than a school. In fact, the classrooms are all air-conditioned with ceramic tiles and some of them even have exquisite drapes. Pretty cool. Who wants to go to school when you can go to 'The Heinz Simmonitsch'? A wide range of extracurricular activities including horseback riding, golf, tennis, karate and gymnastics are available to the students after school at a cost. There are also various rooms for subjects such as language, art, science, computer, music and there is an auditorium, which doubles as a dancing classroom.
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