Principal, Fred Kennedy

St George's College the Jesuit-run high school for boys located on North Street, downtown Kingston not only focuses on excelling in academics and sports, but the school also pays special attention to the spiritual development of its students.

The school's motto "For the Greater Glory of God" personifies the school's commitment to shape its 1,350 young men intellectually, physically and spiritually.

Students in computer class.

The school has a campus ministry programme, which is run by Jesuits. Apart from the regular worship services, the programme also hosts a weekend retreat for fifth and sixth form students where the students take part in prayer and reflection and are given the opportunity to discuss pressing matters that affect them. The lower school students also participate in a day of recollection.

Furthermore, under the programme, all fifth form students are asked to participate in at least 15 hours of volunteer service where they visit homes for the elderly, read to the blind, or tutor at or adopted a primary school.

The Emmet Park pavilion at St George's.

The principal of St George's since last September, Fred Kennedy, says he has witnessed a change in the students after they returned from the retreat. He also said that there has been an improvement in the discipline of the students as there has been a reduction in the amount of suspension and expulsions.

"I think we have a tremendous effect on the boys in terms of getting them to understand personal responsibility," he said. "We are extending it to all fourth formers since it is a difficult transitional period between upper and lower school."
Kennedy said that the school intends on making the retreat mandatory for lower school as well.

Another tremendous asset of the school that spreads across 35 acres is the magnificent architecture, which goes back as far as the early 1900s. Led by Father Emmanuel Gil S J, 21 Spanish Jesuits who had been exiled from Colombia, as part of a religious persecution, founded the school in 1850.
Amidst a storm of protest against Roman Catholic priests opening Jamaica's first secondary institution for classical and scientific education, St George's College began its long and proud history.

Students taking a strolling during break time.

On September 2, 1860 in a rented house at 26 North Street, the new college opened with 38 day students and 30 boarders.

Students studying in the school's library.

Two years later the school moved to 5 Upper King Street and changed its name to the Presbytery Secondary School.
There it remained until January 1866, when it was closed for unknown reasons. The school was re-opened two months later by Father James Jones, S J and moved back to its North Street address. The name was also changed back to St George's College. After a number of closures in the 1800s, in February 1905 the Jesuits bought a large property called Pawsey's Pen (what is now Winchester Park) and converted the Pawsey residence into a classroom building where classes began that March and heralded the start of what is now an impressive college compound. The school also boasts a mini-stadium in the form of Emmet Park where many showdowns in the sporting arena have taken place.

Aside from winning the Manning Cup (football) twice in the early 1900s and the school dominated the Under-16 Colts all-island championship in 2002 and 2003. In 2003 the school also won the Under-14 Pepsi Football Urban Championship. The track and field team also ranked in the top ten in Boys Champs last year bringing home six medals; while the Under-16 junior basketball team won the title last year. The Under-14 team won the all-island Championship last year.

But while the school has done well in sports and has had a long tradition of academic excellence, it came under heavy criticism last year after the publication of Dr Dennis Minott's report on the performance of Jamaican high school students in the 2003 CXC Exams - he gave the school a failing grade and placed St George's l 49 out of 52 traditional high schools in the island covered by the survey.

Electrical technology teacher, Poleon Henry shows Orville McLean (left) and Mario Taylor (right) how to make a circuit board.

Nevertheless, the century-old St George's that has produced seven Rhodes Scholars argued that the report was not a true reflection of the school's performance.

"It was a case of a school in crisis. It shook people up. People were shocked that the performances were so low," Kennedy said. "A lot has happened since then in terms of galvanising every thing so that we can make a concerted effort to improve results."

In the mean-time, vice principal for the upper school, Suzette Mullings - Douglas who was also present said that while the school is not meeting its expectation, the school still holds its own academically. "We are still doing well, but not as good as we want to be," she said. "We had the top student in computer in CAPE exams and we also have students getting scholars ship for schools in the US."

She also said that seven boys have been chosen to be a part of the national team that will participate in the Pan American games. Another six boys were chosen by the National Basketball Association to play in Toronto, Canada.

Kennedy also pointed out that his school has also begun a drive to recreate a culture of excellence amongst the staff and students.

"We have been recreating a culture of excellence where there is a strong sense of accountability and people strive to exceed their expectations in everything that they do," said Kennedy. "The teachers are on time for classes and encourage students to be more self disciplined."

The principal also mentioned that St George's College was chosen as one of six secondary schools in the corporate area to be part of a pilot project funded by National Commercial Bank, which is aimed at improving Math scores at the CXC Level through intensive training of all nine Math teachers.

Kennedy added that one thing that drives the students and its 74 teachers forward is staff involvement. The school, he said, is also seeking to identify students who are at risk, by looking at various intervention strategies such as examining parental involvement in the home. In addition, a resource centre is to be established for students with learning disabilities.

Another way forward for the school, he added, was to single out the issues that are impeding on the students' ability to learn. "Over-crowding is one issue," he said. "The learning resources are not available as it should be. It should be made more available for the students."

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