OCHO RIOS, St Ann — More than 480 students turned out yesterday to take up their places at the newly opened Steer Town Academy, located at Mansfield Heights in Ocho Rios.

Originally built as a primary school, the school was converted to accommodate the Steer Town Academy, catering to secondary students, as construction work on the facility in Steer Town is still underway.

Sonia Nevins, who is the interim principal at the institution, said the school -- which is dubbed a centre of excellence — opened without any glitches yesterday.

"We had an excellent start this morning (yesterday); classes are in session and everything is going well," Nevins told the Observer.

"I was humbled at what took place this morning (yesterday); everything was in place and we were able to begin classes on time, without any problems at all," Nevins said, adding that she was not anticipating any future problems.

She explained that a number of measures, including orientation in August for parents, students and staff members, were put in place to help facilitate yesterday's smooth start of the co-educational institution.

"...We did not allow the parents on the compound until after 10 o'clock, because we wanted to focus on the students and not to have the interference of the parents at that time," Nevins explained.

She said staff members were also at the school until very late Sunday, putting in the final touches to ensure that everything was in place to accommodate the students on their first day.

The school has a population of 482 students, who recently sat the grades six and nine achievement tests.

Nevins said there are 10 grade seven classes to accommodate 257 students and nine classes for the 225 grade nine students. She said many of the students were reading below the required

reading level.

Nevins said the school also has a staff complement of 49, including 26 teachers, and she expressed confidence in their ability to help the students achieve excellence in different areas.

"We are anticipating great things from this institution and I believe we are going to achieve greatness," Nevins said.

She explained that along with the core subjects, special emphasis will be placed on etiquette and social graces.

"We will have all the core subjects, but we will be focusing a lot on the performing arts since we are in the tourism area, as well as social graces and etiquette, which will be very important," she told the Observer.