Thursday, March 28, 2024

STREET BEAT: Schools sport fresh look

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IT IS THE last week before the Michaelmas term begins and teachers are at schools planning for the term.

In addition, many schools are in the process of finishing repair or beautification work to ensure they look their best when the students return.

Street Beat visited a few schools to see what was going on. At Graydon Sealy Secondary, secretary-treasurer Sereta Belgrave said a lot of powerwashing had been done and a classroom had been converted into an additional staffroom because the main one was not large enough to comfortably accommodate all staff.

“We recognised we needed additional staffroom space so a room was converted for that purpose. I am very satisfied that, based on the resources, we were able to do quite a bit and I believe the staff is satisfied as well,” she said.

Belgrave said there had also been a problem with dust since the classrooms were made of concrete. As such, she said they had painted 36 classrooms. As for the next project, Belgrave said it was to resurface the entire courtyard – something for the future.

At the Bridgetown Seventh Day Adventist Primary School, principal Angela Bushell-Skette showed off the new computer room.

“We have done the AC (air conditioning), finished the wiring and are in process of sourcing the computers. These are freshly made tables made here by a parent which should hold 20 monitors. It’s really for computer-assisted instruction to enhance learning and will work for any subject but it will not be to teach [information technology] yet. We will eventually get to that,” she said.

Across the yard, her counterpart, principal of the Barbados Seventh Day Adventist Secondary School, Dr Cecil Cummins, spoke of their innovations.

“We will be starting the CVQ [Caribbean Vocational Qualifications] in commercial food preparation and in furniture-making so we just purchased a commercial stove for that,” he said.

Cummins said the classrooms were refurbished and outfitted with new chairs with desk attachments. In addition, he said they had put in place measures to secure student safety.

“We had speed humps put down for the safety of students as there are some folks who race through here,” he said.

Over at Bay Primary, there wasn’t much that needed to be done as principal Marielon Gamble said a comprehensive repair programme was carried out last year.

She said Bay Primary was ready and waiting for the students.

“As usual, we will have the Class 3 students moving into Class 4 with the same teachers moving up with them as [the teachers] know [the children’s] strengths and weaknesses,” she said.

One innovation, however, is a chicken coop as part of the school’s expanded agricultural science programme. Agricultural science teacher Dave Brathwaite spoke about it.

“What we are doingis trying to expand the agricultural science programme. The children have been asking for chickens for a while, which we can sourcefrom Gale’s Hatchery or Peyton’s Plaza.

“We want to show the children the process of raising chickens so we will be using broilers, not layers, which grow faster. Once we see how this aspect goes then we can move on from there.

“We may also bring in a chef to show the children how to prepare them,” he said.

carlosatwell@nationnews.com

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