BY GARFIELD MYERS

Editor at Large, South Central Bureau

SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth – Burnt Savannah Primary is celebrating its 100th anniversary. But proud as she is of her school’s grand history, principal Emily Smith is equally delighted that it is a centre of excellence.

“We know we are one of the more succesful schools around, we are a school of choice,” said a smiling Smith when Observer Central visited recently.

Among the 600 students, there are some who come from as far away as Santa Cruz to the north and Newcombe Valley to the south-east, she said.

Smith, who became principal in 2008, has been in and out of Burnt Savannah Primary for most of her life.

“I was here as a student, classroom teacher, senior teacher, then vice-principal,” said Smith with a laugh.

The principal said the school has excelled at academics with several students winning special scholarships and awards down the years at Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) level. It has also been outstanding in related areas as well as culture and sports.

Burnt Savannah Primary has repeatedly produced parish champions in the annual Spelling Bee Competition and had established an enviable record in “festival and folk forms” including national awards for costumes and the traditional dance style, quadrille, Smith said.

Winnifred Jones, like Smith a past student of the school and who has taught there for even longer, 37 years, enthusiastically underlined the principal’s claims.

“I am very proud we are doing well academically and in every other respect,” Jones said.

The school’s records show that when it opened first in 1914, there was just one building, situated frontally and centrally, on the compound. According to Smith it hasn’t changed much over the last century, though the roof which is now galvanised was then shingled, and the current metal-louvre windows were once glass framed.

Back in 1914, there were 250 students on roll with students walking many miles to get to school from remote areas, including Retrieve on the steep, rugged south-western slopes of the Santa Cruz mountains.

Much has changed since in terms of infrastructure, and Smith concedes that her school is better off than many. Still, she points to overcrowding which has forced unorthodox innovations such as the conversion of a passage into classroom space.

She praised the Burnt Savannah community, parent teachers association, school board, past students and the local business community for maintaining strong interest and always lending a hand.

Help from such support groups have added classroom space down the years, and an ongoing project to fence the playfield was being done with their help she said.

“We are planning to complete that next Labour Day … parents will come and help us,” she said.

Much more help is needed, said Smith. In addition to expanded classroom space to reduce class size from the current average of 35, she is eyeing improvements to the playfield, including a netball court, as well as a small building for a tuck shop.

Smith is expecting Education Minister Ronald Thwaites as guest speaker at the school’s graduation ceremony in midyear and no doubt, she will be making a pitch for help from Government.

But regardless of what comes in the form of material assistance, the principal says her staff will continue to give of “their very best”.

She is particularly proud of a special literacy programme with classroom space assigned for children who are struggling to read. Often, she said such, children are only being hindered “because there is not much reading” taking place at home.

“So when we give them special attention they do much better… we send them home with reading assignments… and we try to involve the parents, asking them to help,” she said.

Methods utilising games children are “good at” such as ball sports, dominoes, and checkers in the learning process have helped considerably, she said.

“We also find it very useful to ask them to write about their experiences,” Smith said.

When Observer Central visited, Smith and her staff got the thumbs up from the school board’s vice-chairman, Cassandra Steadman. “They are doing a great job,” Steadman said.