Battling the odds of volatile communities, the Gladys Bailey Learning Centres, powered by the Flow Foundation, boosted the literacy levels of 61 students through its summer camps staged at its Spanish Town Road, Metcalf Street and Victoria Street locations by integrating science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics (S.T.E.A.M.) in the curriculum.

The concept for the programme, developed by Monique Reynolds, Literacy Specialist and Lecturer at the Mico University College, incorporated literacy, problem-based learning, multi-modal instruction and S.T.E.A.M. approach into the training model. Together with her colleague, Kadian Stephenson, Lecturer, Mico University College, they taught the programme, trained other teachers and provided remote support after they stopped face-to-face lessons due to unrest in the communities.

“As teachers, our hope is for these boys and girls to reach their full potential. Literacy is a critical component for a strong educational foundation and so, I believe this programme is a necessary step in remedial learning for these children,” said Jacqueline Vassel, Coordinator of the summer programme. “We are happy with what we have accomplished, even in the face of extreme challenges.”

Six students, two from each location, emerged as top performers from the three-week summer programme. Amoy Scott, Ally Burrell, Faith Beckford (Top Performing Students) and Sharvan Mitchell, Jermaine McPherson and Rushane Brown (Most Improved Students) copped gift packs courtesy of the Flow Foundation based on their performance. Overall, the students showed improvement in phonics using syllabication to decode unfamiliar words and using context clues to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words.

“We were so excited to attend this summer camp and we learnt so much about technology, plants and even performing arts. I know I found the word tree that we made in the Engineering Lab very interesting. I am looking forward to the new school term because of what I learnt this summer,” shared Amoy Scott from Gladys Bailey Metcalf Centre as she spoke on behalf of her peers.

“I was very happy with my prize from the Flow Foundation and I can use the stuff when I go back to school,” she added.

“It is very important to us that we support initiatives that are aligned with our goals to change lives while connecting communities. As we continue bridging the digital divide, we cannot ignore the fact that there is still a significant portion of our society that has challenges with basic literacy, and if we are to address this situation, it must start with our students from as early as possible,” stated Kayon Mitchell, Flow’s Director of Communications and Executive Director of the Flow Foundation.

Mitchell continued, “Being able to support this initiative, being able to make a difference in the lives of these students is at the core of what we hope to achieve through our partnerships with community organisations.”

The Gladys Bailey Learning Centres continues to positively impact the lives of children in West Kingston through innovative learning programmes. They are beneficiaries under the Flow Foundation’s Community Connectivity Programme and as such, receive free high-speed internet service facilitating the use of digitisation tools as part of the centres’ resources.