FIVE rural schools considered to be in need of management support, according to the National Education Inspectorate, are participating in an exchange programme with some of the country’s top-performing educational institutions.

Dr Renee Rattray, educational leadership professional and education director at JN Foundation, says the aim of the initiative is to strengthen the capacity of school administrators and educators under the iLead Education Leadership Programme, which was launched last year by the foundation in partnership with the Ministry of Education.

The five schools are Islington High, Brimmer Vale High and Port Maria Primary in St Mary; Buff Bay Primary in Portland, and Robert Lightbourne High in St Thomas. They have been paired with Campion College, St George’s College, Ardenne High, Kingston College, Vaz Preparatory and Allman Town Primary in the Corporate Area. Holy Trinity High School in Kingston has also been included in the exchange programme, as a good example of the impact strong leadership can have on the performance of schools. The school has registered marked improvements since implementing key management strategies in 2013.

The exchange programme commenced with a tour of the Corporate Area schools last month by principals and vice principals from the iLead schools.

“It was a learning expedition. Principals and vice principals have as much to learn as students do; therefore, this was one of the initiatives to provide practical experience for the educators,” said Dr Rattray.

“It’s important for teachers to observe good practices in action elsewhere. In every profession, people audit professionals to learn best practices. A pilot has an assistant pilot; and surgeons observe other surgeons to develop their craft; therefore, we want to encourage more of that process in the teaching profession,” she added.

During the exchange programme, academic and administrative teams from iLead institutions will be visiting the Corporate Area schools to observe lessons; and also to pay special attention to the relationship between culture and performance in the institutions, Dr Rattray explained.

She stated that principals, middle managers, guidance counsellors and deans of discipline from the iLead schools will be paired with personnel from the Corporate Area schools. The leaders in the Kingston and St Andrew schools will act as mentors.

“We are not, however, expecting this to be a one-way exchange, as schools from these stronger institutions can also learn from the principals and middle managers in our project schools,” Dr Rattray emphasised.

She was supported by the principal of Allman Town Primary School.

“I am sure there are things that the rural schools have done really well which we need to know and that we can adopt in our schools. So it’s about opening up our schools as learning communities and building partnerships and friendships so that others can come in and learn,” said principal Kandi-Lee Crook-Smith.

Allman Town, which has often been cited for its strong leadership and innovations, prides itself on its resourcefulness which it banks on to consistently improve the school’s learning environment. Some of the strategies range from simple tactics such as providing students with reusable plastic lunch boxes, to reducing garbage on the school compound; to academic training for non-professional staff; as well as implementing full teaching and learning experiments that are geared to identify new ways to generate higher levels of performance.

Similarly Campion, which is regarded as one of the country’s top- performing co-educational high schools based on its performance in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate examinations, is noted for its strong management, along with North Street-based St George’s College and Kingston College as well as Ardenne High and Vaz Prep.

“I’m looking forward to exchanging ideas and possibly partaking in workshops so that we can implement best practices and exchange ideas,” said Linett Boyd, vice principal at Port Maria Primary School in St Mary after visiting Allman Town Primary School in the central Kingston community and earlier, Vaz Prep.

The primary school principals and vice principals from the project schools observed lessons and shadowed middle managers at the institutions, in addition to holding talks with the principals about best practices at the institutions and their overall success at implementing these approaches.

Vice principal at Buff Bay Primary, Duval Wyndham, was also impressed with the emphasis the Corporate Area schools place on developing a strong and positive culture, and he looks forward to deepening the exchange with the schools.

“In order to have a performance-driven school you have to have a school that is adopting best practices, so it would be good for us to exchange some more so that that we can all learn,” he said.