Robert Lalah, Assistant Editor - Features

Students of Hillel Academy in St Andrew make their way to class. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

It's lunchtime at Hillel Academy in Upper St Andrew and the high school students, perhaps the most diverse group at a single secondary school in the country, are trickling out of their classrooms. There is only muffled chatter and most students form a beeline for some benches near the walkway.

"We don't have the kind of behavioural issues that are common at many other high schools. Truancy, that kind of thing, we don't have to even worry about," Lloyd Holmes gloated like a doting father of the students. He's a teacher at Hillel Academy and speaks of the school and the students with a glimmer of pride in his eyes.

First-rate facilities

In a hearty discussion on school business are (from left) Alfredo Bennett, high school principal; Tracy Melhado-Matalon, business manager; Lloyd Holmes, IB coordinator and senior coordinator, high school, and Sheila Purdom, director.

It's not difficult to understand why these students wouldn't want to miss a day of school. The facilities there are first rate and help make learning that much more tolerable to the average teenager. As Holmes was speaking, standing on a corridor near the playing field, a group of students was gathered in the air-conditioned room behind him, watching Roots on a big screen television while taking notes. That was history class.

"The fact that we are able to provide these facilities really helps with the learning process. The kids are able to interact with the material and are therefore able to think about it more. The material really comes alive for them," he said excitedly.

Holmes previously worked at another high school in St Andrew, which also excelled in many areas, but, he said, the work being done at Hillel and the approach which that school takes to education is pioneering.

Trendsetter

Lloyd Holmes, IB coordinator at Hillel Academy in St Andrew, shows off the computer room at the school.

He chuckles when he says this, but trendsetting is nothing new to the administrators at Hillel Academy and come September, the school will be leading the way with what administrators say will be the next big trend in Jamaican secondary-level education.

Hillel has been accredited to offer the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma programme to its sixth-form students and will be doing so as of September. This means that the school will be throwing the traditional A'level exams through the window and will become the first school in the country to offer IB, backed with a complete curriculum, to its students.

"We really are excited about it. We've been working on this for four years and it really was a team effort to get it done, but we are so happy now to have this all work out," said school director Sheila Purdom.

IB is an internationally recognised diploma programme that is offered at more than 2,000 schools in some 126 countries worldwide.

Principal Alfredo Bennett says the advantage of the IB programme is that it pushes students to think.

"There is less emphasis on studying to remember answers to questions on a test. The students are forced to think and to have a good understanding of events happening around the world. It takes their thinking far beyond our shores," he said.

The IB programme places education in an international context and involves programmes that ensure that the students are prepared to compete globally. "When the students complete the IB programme, it's easier for them to get scholarships to universities abroad and so make themselves more marketable for jobs anywhere in the world," said Holmes.

Second language

The IB programme ensures that all students study a second language and take both science and arts subjects. This, the administrators at Hillel say, makes the students more rounded.

The IB students are also compelled to take part in outreach projects. This is part of the requirements for the IB diploma, as a specified number of hours helping others either locally, regionally or internationally must be completed. School administrators explain that this fit in well with the Hillel blueprint for education delivery, which already had an outreach requirement.

It's an exciting time at Hillel Academy now and you can feel the energy the second you step on campus. The students, teachers and administrators are all anxious to get the ball rolling and add another notch on their list of trendsetting accomplishments. For more information on the Hillel Academy and the IB diploma programme, contact Hillel Academy at 925-9485.