THE Cumberland High School in Portmore, after a tumultuous end last academic year, is now in a state of rebranding.

As new interim principal Barrington Richardson ushered students and parents onto the compound Monday, the emphasis on maximising each child’s potential could not be missed.

“It’s really about changing the culture and the mindset of all the internal stakeholders. The emphasis is on standing for your greatness and the greatness of others,” Richardson told the Jamaica Observer.

Last academic year, the school was embroiled in controversy as indiscipline at the institution forced teachers to stage demonstrations about student behaviour.

This was compounded by a brawl between then acting principal Michael Bryson and a female student who threw a stone through the principal’s rear windshield after being reprimanded and allegedly hit by the principal on the foot. The Ministry of Education intervened and Bryson has since retired.

But there is now a new outlook at the institution.

“With the level of work we did at the end of the last school year and during the summer, we expect that this year is going to be a great year,” Richardson said in an interview.

He pointed out that partnerships forged between the school, the ministry and other public and private entities will ensure an improvement in performance and breed a sense of accountability. He noted that his expectation is that there will be a change in culture and “ensuring that nobody is left behind”.

“The Mico University College has been working with the school since summer. This is where they conducted the testing of our students and they will continue the testing throughout this term and this will help us to plan for the [slow] learners in a very strategic way. In addition to that, they will be sending out their lecturers to have courses done with our teachers to ensure that our teachers are fully equipped to treat with these learners,” the principal stated.

“We have JMMB and the Joan Duncan Foundation now with the school. They had a full-day training session with all categories of staff in the summer and we are looking at changing the paradigm. It’s a total rebranding of the school,” added Richardson, “so they will be with the school for two years where they will assign life coaches to staff and the principal.”

In keeping with the notion that nobody is left behind, the principal told the Observer that a project to identify each child’s learning pattern will be implemented. The results from the testing done by the Mico University and College will be used to inform the way the students will be taught.

Dubbed the alternative pathways to education programme, Richardson explained that there will be three different approaches to teaching students who are able to comprehend and learn from the national curriculum, students who need “a little scaffolding…to access the regular curriculum” and the struggling learners.

“[For those struggling] we have an intensive programme where they only do the core subjects – math, English, social studies and integrated science – but there is a strong emphasis on their remedial reading,” he said, pointing out that these students will have one teacher.

“We have a modified curriculum sent by the ministry and so we have donned the redeployment of teachers to best cater to the needs of these learners. One size can’t fit all, so we’re treating with them according to their profiles,” he added.

To bolster this effort, the school has employed two additional special education teachers, who closely monitor the students and assist teachers in preparing lesson plans.

Additionally, the school has partnered with the Caribbean Maritime Institute (CMI) to assist 58 Grade 10 students matriculating from the ministry’s Alternative Secondary Transitional Education Programme (A-STEP) into the school.

“These children came to us with the fact that they were not able to accomplish much at the primary level; they didn’t pass GSAT (Grade Six Achievement Test), they did not get a placement and so they are now in this programme, wearing the CMI logo and Cumberland High School logo,” he said.

The two-year programme will expose the children to core subjects – mathematics, English, social studies, information technology – and food preparation and data entry/customer service courses at CMI.

“When they would have completed the two years they can now matriculate into CMI or they can continue their specialised areas, or they can move in otherwise,” Richardson said.