She is sure about her place at the Happy Grove High School and she is committed to her goal of teaching young boys and girls to properly read and understand.

Kenniesha Thompson-McLean is a teacher at Happy Grove High school of what can be termed special English. Thompson-McLean heads the English Learning Laboratory, where students are catered to depending on their needs.

“We, at the start, assess the students and see the level at which they are at and afterwards employ different strategies in trying to accomplish the goal of getting them to read and understand English properly,” Thompson McLean told Jamaica Observer North and East.

Thompson McLean explained that Happy Grove receives students with certain problems every year, as these students come from all over the parishes of Portland and St Thomas and beyond, devoid of the ability to read.

“So it is my task to work with these students, sometimes at a very basic level, in order to ensure that they cope with the sometimes compelling demands of a high school.

“A lot depends on how the students are when they come in, and we have students who are at the pre-primer level (that is, the basic school level) and there are various reasons why students are performing at this level.

“We have to find out why, as there may be deep, underlying issues why they perform at that level. So, we make referrals to find out if there are deep-rooted problems and we always try to get a better understanding of the situation.

“To further achieve our primary objective, we place them in small groups to cater to their special needs, in order to work with them on a one-on-one basis.

“When this is done we get to reach out more, and they progress. We do work with them and we have successes and we have failures but we always get them to a functional reading level.

“We have to exercise a lot of patience and creatively use various materials to stimulate them,” Thompson McLean, who has been working at Happy Grove for 11 years said.

The always smiling Thompson-McLean operates from a reading room that is filled with various reading materials including charts that were made by her. The room is decorated in a manner that stimulates learning.

Thompson-McLean, who is a graduate of the College of Agriculture, Science and Education with literacy as a major, finds great joy when her students achieve.

“There is never going to be a 100 per cent success rate but we strive for this perfection.

“Some of the students that I have had to deal with over the years who enter the programme at the very basic level have gone on to achieve a lot including passing subjects at the CSEC level.

“I can’t begin to explain how joyful it is for me when these students achieve; I am filled with great pride and I celebrate with them. That is my satisfaction, that is my ecstasy. It is an exultant feeling.

“For the others, and this lot is slowly decreasing, who have not been able to scale the CSEC level, I just keep trying, always ensuring that, at least, they can read and understand,” a teary-eyed but determined Thompson-McLean said.