PRINCIPAL of the Islington, St Mary – based Horace Clarke High School — formerly named Islington High —Errol Johnson, says there is a common goal shared between students and staff to transform the “low-performing school” into an institution of high achievers.

Clarke, who was appointed head of the institution last November, told the team from Jamaica Observer North and East that a mechanism had been adopted which he believes will achieve this goal.

“…What happens is that Horace Clarke High gets low performers from the GSAT exams and most of the low performers are boys, so we have to be retuning our methods and generally the way we operate,” Johnson said, adding that 487 students are enrolled at the institution, with approximately 75 per cent of that cohort being boys. “Somebody has to get them and we have to work with them.

We have to be rebranding the school, retyping the school and re-emphasising things like technical and vocational subjects,” he added.

Johnson said the aim is to go practical as he listed a number of technical subjects which include: auto mechanics, woodwork and industrial arts, and agriculture which he believes will better suit them. “We are going practical,” he said.

“We are proud that students from our industrial arts section, with the assistance of the Member of Parliament, Morais Guy who provided the material, were able to build a set of classrooms for Grade 11 students, next to the main building.

“The building by our students of these classrooms is an outstanding achievement of which we are very proud and it is an achievement which signals our intent and the direction in which we are progressing,” an obviously pleased Johnson said.

The school principal indicated that the development of the agricultural subjects is a priority.

“We are located in what is essentially a farming area. That is why we operate a farm which includes the planting of several crops along with the keeping of animals, especially chickens. Products from our school farm are used by the school,” Johnson informed.

In addition, he informed that concentration is also placed on sports as a means of fitting students into their chosen areas of study.

“Another thing we are trying to concentrate on is sports. We entered our boys in all the ISSA (Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association) competitions and last year we did quite well in most of these competitions, and this year we hope to go a little further,” he said.

Johnson said the aim is to relate the students to sports as a means of development.

“…How are you going to ask a student who has no interest in working in the bank to write a resumé for the bank? He plays football; ask him to write a resumé to some place where he is likely to get a football scholarship,” said Johnson.

He pointed out to Observer North & East that as a result of this and other specific initiatives, they have been able to control the violence and other untoward behaviour that have plagued the school for some time now.

“We have taken over and we are on top of that. We have put in strategies to improve the teaching and learning situation.

“We are trying to make learning more alive, more practical, and as a result, we are seeing a drastic reduction in school-related violence,” he said with strong conviction in his eyes.