Jan Pereira lives the life of a true educator. As a teacher, her life has been in a classroom in one way or another and she has touched the minds and hearts of thousands of children on these islands.
A graduate of Sheffield University in the United Kingdom, she has been a leader in local public and private schools where she has given more than 40 years to teaching and coaching.
It is through her gift as a teacher and the many people whose lives she has touched along her journey that Department of Sports Women’s Coordinator Merta Day has selected her to be highlighted during Honoring Women Month.
“Ms. Pereira has been a stalwart in the netball community,” Day said. “She is dedicated to bettering lives and continues to be an inspiration to her students; even those who have matured still revere her.”
Her teaching career began in 1968 at a school in Lincolnshire, England. Pereira and her husband Michael moved to Jamaica 1972. She taught there for two years before they moved to the Cayman Islands, where she taught science at John Gray High School.
She moved to St. Ignatius Catholic School in 1976 and started the physical education program and taught other courses. Pereira and another teacher, Diana Mynett, are credited with starting the first swim after-school program, which also included netball and track and field. In the 1978/79 school year, they again made history when St. Ignatius started the first inter-house sports day and swim competition, which is so popular today.
Her assignments since then have included North Side Primary School, a further spell at John Gray and the Middle School, which is now known as George Hicks High School, where she was involved in special education.
She has also coached many netball teams and helped set up an after-school squash program. Her involvement in teaching has also gone beyond the classroom to include athletics, where her coaching and teaching abilities are also well received.
She always loved sport. “My first memory of taking part in games was at age nine when my primary school played a netball match against another school,” she said. “I was put in as goal defense, a position I always seem to play in netball. From then, I took part in any sport offered, mostly because I enjoyed team sports and had a measure of success in every activity I pursued.
“Apart from school teams, I played field hockey for a local team in Lincolnshire, the Montego Bay Republicans, and for many years I played in various netball teams in the Cayman Islands senior netball league. I was on the first team to represent the Cayman Islands at the Regional Netball Competition in the Bahamas.”
She added, “Not having won any important trophies, I measure success as having always tried to play as hard and as well I could. My biggest success is the number of years I have been able to teach various aspects of Physical Education and pursue my own favorite sporting activities.”
Pereira encourages everyone to support community organizations. “Sports need support, so it is important for people to get involved. Sometimes it isn’t always about what you know; it’s about just being present and being a positive influence. Getting some of the older youth to help the younger ones can only be a great plus.”
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