On Wednesday, May 12, The Gleaner's Editors' Forum hosted representatives from some of the island's independent schools. Today we share excerpts.KINGSWAY, A CHRISTIAN OUTLOOK
DR. JUDITH NEMBHARD, KINGSWAY HIGH SCHOOL
WE LIKE to say, since 2003, 60 years of Christ-centred education because we have been in operation that long providing a wholesome full education for our youngsters. The academics are along the same lines as the Government schools, but they are infused with our personal philosophy or Bible philosophy because it is a Seventh-Day Adventist School owned and operated by the East Jamaica Conference Seventh Day Adventist. We have a Christian outlook of dealing with academic matters, not that we change anything, that is standard, but we integrate our faith into it, so that people know that that is part of what we do.
We have a preparatory school and a high school, the preparatory division is very much alive and well, the whole school is but it is such a thriving section. If we had more space we would be larger, we have 205 students in the prep. school now and the students perform very well. We train them so well that they pass the GSAT for Ardenne and St. Andrew; but with some help from us, we keep a number of them.
We would like to keep them all because really it is supposed to be our feeder school; ours cost a little bit more so sometimes the parents think that they can manage without having to pay a higher fee. We do such a good job though that sometimes the children ask to come back and we have some that have been sent back to us from Ardenne, and from Queen's, so I think we have something special that keeps them there.
The teachers are carefully selected, well, all of the workers, so that they buy into what it is we are trying to do, prepare youngsters to be good citizens.
WE ARE CRITICAL TO THE PROCESS
WAYNE ROBINSON, PRESIDENT, JAMAICA INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS' ASSOCIATION
We represent probably about 100,000 students in all, probably a little more. You mentioned earlier about the partnership with Government, which is what we are involved in over the last couple of years where the Government buys space in independent high schools. If you use their data of $35,000 to send a youngster through high school for a year and you multiply by the 100,000 students, which of course we dispute that data, that's what they can afford; but it is more than that obviously; let us use that as a base data and you multiply that by the 100,000 students, you are going to get something in the region of $3 billion per year.
You asked what is the contribution of independent schools and this will give you a kind of idea of the amount of money we save Government each year. So you are talking about something like $3 billion a year or more so there is a role that is significant in cost-saving that should be recognised and understood by not just Government but the public at large.
I also represent my own school, Quality Academics, which is an institution six years old and basically prepares students for CXCs and
A levels and preparing repeaters. We are also a part of the remediation group; in other words, we provide extra lessons in the evenings, we provide continuing studies for people who are working, we provide extra lessons on weekends and we are part of a fast-growing number of institutions that have taken this to a business level.
We have managed to carve a niche and develop a reputation because of results over the last five years; we are one of the big players in the market. Basically our approach to it is simple, you get quality teachers, you pay them, you put the students in a rigorous preparation for these exams and you take it to a level, because you know you are depending on your own results to get people next year; you take it to a level that private sector would do, it is as simple as that. And so for instance, if you come to my school 11:00 o'clock tonight you will see maths classes going on, these are not 'paid for' classes, if you come there this Sunday or on weekends all the way up to exam we have classes until very late in the night.
SMALL CLASS SIZE IS CRITICAL CATHY
RATTRAY-WILLIAMS, PRINCIPAL OF ST. HUGH'S PREP.
St. Hugh's Prep is a very small school. It is owned and operated by the Anglican Diocese of Jamaica. We have approximately 197 students. We also have a special education unit where we take a small group, we have seven students right now in that unit. We also have a resource centre where children are pulled out of the regular classroom so that they can get help with special areas. We have truly taken on the integrated curriculum. We follow the Ministry of Education's curriculum but we have really truly taken on the meaning of integrated.
All our teachers work together so in the art class, for instance, you are not just doing art by itself, some abstract thing, it is integrated with whatever is being taught in the regular curriculum.
We have the core subjects but we also, like the other prep. schools, stress the other areas because we want our children to be well-rounded. I know a lot of focus for the prep. and primary level is for them to do well in the GSAT but we tell our parents on coming in that we are not just teaching GSAT, we want our children to be able to experience everything.
We really stress for our children to take part in extra-curricular activities and if it is not something they can do at school, if it is something that we don't offer at the school, then we encourage them to do it outside and find support for them outside. We stress for our children to go on field trips, our teachers regularly, at least once a term, take the children out on field trips to visit all kinds of places in Jamaica, not only to get to know Jamaica but to get to the experience firsthand.
I think that - for many of the private schools, it is a very difficult time because whereas our school would like to offer education to people at a reasonable cost, education is expensive and if we want to have the best teachers and the best facilities we have to pay a price so it is kind of a struggle. The average class size is 25 with many classes being below that and from our pre-kindergarten to our grade three we have an assistant teacher in each class. I think the smaller sizes of a class means a lot more because there are a lot of children who can do the work but sometimes they just need that extra individual help.
AN INTEGRAL ROLE IN THAT EMBRYONIC PHASE ALLISON CROSS, PRINCIPAL, HILLEL PREP.
Hillel was founded by the Jewish community 35 years ago. We have, like some other schools, two schools, prep. and high; I represent the prep. school and there is a principal for the high and we have a director who oversees both.
Although founded by the Jewish community, we are a non-denominational school. Looking at the role that Hillel as an independent school plays in the development process, I do believe we play an integral role in that embryonic phase, preparing children for higher order thinking. What do our students look like? What we want from them? Our goal is to create critical thinkers, problem solvers, divergent thinkers, kids who are physically active, global enquirers.
We want our kids to come out being kids who love learning and who will have a continuous love for learning and that's a bit of a challenge today with a big focus on a curriculum which is highly content-based. Now, our students, that is what we want for our students and I believe that's what our students look like when they leave Hillel Prep. and move on.
How do we produce these children? With a teaching staff who are highly trained, highly-qualified, our teachers have to be graduate trained, caring, with a continuous focus on professional development.
The most important part of our school is the caring aspect of it and that is a thread that runs throughout the school. Our kids have to come out as a part of a caring community, caring students, caring for each other, caring staff, caring administrator and a caring parent body.
And then how do our teachers achieve this goal of bringing our kids to where we want them and it is through our curriculum and our programme. We do follow the Ministry of Education's curriculum, it is an excellent curriculum, it covers all the core subjects thoroughly but we enrich it. The beauty of an enriched curriculum is the depth at which you can take it; a topic on the Caribbean people, you can get into it at so much depth that the kids come out of it with a knowledge of their neighbours and a knowledge of, not only a neighbourhood but a global sort of a feeling, and the ability to do that is pretty intense.
We offer not only the core subjects of mathematics, language arts, science and social studies but we also offer a full extra-curricular programme. Our kids have to come out physically active so we do lots of sports, you name it, Hillel is right up there, known for their football now.
