Students, faculty and staff of Sir John A. Cumber Primary School recently celebrated receiving a ‘good school’ rating from the Office of Education Standards, with a special banner-unveiling ceremony held at the school’s campus on Wednesday.
Officials of the Ministry and Department of Education also were on hand to mark the achievement of the school which now joins Edna Moyle Primary School, Lighthouse School, John Gray High School, and the Layman E. Scott Sr. High School as public schools achieving the good school rating.
The school, comprising some 525 students and 47 staff, was rated good for fostering relationships throughout the school which were “positive, supportive and community focused”, the final inspection report noted, saying, “There was effective two-way communication with parents, and their feedback was actively valued as a key driver for improvement.”
“Teachers employed targeted questioning strategies to encourage deeper exploration of knowledge and understanding among students,” the report outlined.
Inspectors commended the school for its library, providing a “multipurpose learning environment in which students thrived”, adding, “the new provision for children and students with autistic spectrum disorder was effective in meeting their needs”.
‘An important journey’
In his remarks at the ceremony, Minister of Education Rolston Anglin said the milestone isn’t just an achievement, but an important journey.
“[It] goes to show that great things are happening in the public system. We just happen to make other noise seemingly drown out the great things that are happening.”
Anglin added the mission is, “celebrating the students to ensure that every boy and girl who traverses the public education system can feel proud to be students at whatever school they’re in”.
He commended the “strong leadership” of the school and encouraged the students to “dream as big you can dream”.
A school-wide celebration
Two weeks prior to the unveiling ceremony on Wednesday, students, parents, faculty and staff held a school-wide celebration, including a motorcade, upon learning the news.
Principal Jovanna Wright told the Cayman Compass that one of the Year 6 teachers came up with the idea of doing this motorcade.
“We organised our students, parents, and teachers in the afternoon. We started the motorcade at the West Bay Fire Station,” she said, adding that members of the RCIPS and fire station supported their efforts.
The motorcade was greeted by students on the school field with loud shouts, balloons, whistles, posters, banners and noise makers. Students also formed the letters ‘GOOD SCHOOL’ on the school’s field.
Wright said, “Every single classroom – teachers, assistant teachers, and students – created the banners, highlighting various aspects of the inspection report.”
It was important to have the celebration, Wright said, adding, “We have been working towards this for the past six years, so to actually see our school being rated and the report being published for the world to see – we had to celebrate; we couldn’t wait.”
She said, “We knew that John A. Cumber was a good school, but to see it in paper, it was phenomenal. We couldn’t put the celebration off. Parents, students, and staff were super excited, and we wanted to celebrate right away because we are so proud of our journey.”
Wright said they’re continuing to “aim high,” with the goal to move from ‘good’ to ‘excellent’.
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Here we go again celebrating mediocrity! Acknowledging improvement is good, but putting on a motorcade to celebrate a ‘good’ rating is over the top. Remember, “good” is only the base superlative. Anyway, it’s some progress, I guess. Apologies to those involved if I’m not wowed!
My kids attended SJACP when Mr. Herbert Crawford and Mrs. Shirley Kidd, respectively, were Principals and I’d venture to say the school’s rating in those days was much better than “good”, possibly even from Miss Genevieve Bodden’s days!
So what happened? Starting all over again??