The newly-transferred Principal at the Orealia Kelly Primary School, Ms Paula Etienne, has pledged to work towards improving the academic and behavioural performance of the students there. She is aiming at achieving the same high standards she enjoyed at The Valley Primary School where she previously served.
“It went very well at Valley School,” she told The Anguillian. “I am very proud of the successes of the students and teachers there because we did very well in the Test of Standards, sporting events and behaviour.”
She has now pinned high hopes on the Orealia Kelly Primary School, formerly the Stoney Ground Primary School. “At present, the staff, parents, community and I, are looking at improving both academics and behaviour at the school because they go hand in hand in order for students to learn,” she told the newspaper. “I think a lot of children are not showing a lot of interest in their class work. Many of them appear to have lost the true meaning and value of school. Back then, and up to now, the main reason for school is to learn; and we have to instil in our boys and girls that when they come to school, it is for learning. Yes, they should have fun because school days are the happiest days of students’ lives but, ultimately, their main purpose at school is to learn.”
Ms Etienne, who started her teaching career, in the late 1980s, went on: “The behavioural problems we are now experiencing were not like those then. At that time, there was not so much disruption. You were able to teach in the classroom quite comfortably and the children were very competitive. Right now they have a laid back attitude and that is what we want to change.
“Presently, a lot of them are working below fifty percent according to the Standardised Test results. However, we hope to change those results because our teachers are very zealous. We want to move this school together as a team and our teachers are working aggressively to change our children’s mentality – that laid back attitude they have. We want them to think positively and work towards achieving the goals we have set for them academically.
“A lot of children coming to school are not focused; they want to play; tease and bully. I don’t think we have time for that. There is a zero tolerance when it comes to bullying, teasing and swearing. We are going to praise, reward and celebrate the success of all those who want to learn – whether it is academics, sports or just showing good neighbourly love for each other. We all have to work together to change the ethos of the school. Let’s bring it back to what it supposed to be; raise standards and improve behaviour and discipline.”
Asked about her approach to improving the all-round performance of the students, the Principal replied: “I am working with a dynamic staff. We are working on changing the ethos of the school as I said earlier. Presently, we are in our fourth week of the reopening of school and I must say that the behavioural problems are at a minimum. The boys and girls are being encouraged and motivated by their teachers to do the right thing. Every week we talk to them about kindness and looking out for each other.
“We are currently in the process of launching The Principal’s 200 Club. We will be rewarding students, as well as teachers, for good behaviour and academics. We will be using a big display White Board which we have already installed in the school’s auditorium. It is numbered from one to two hundred. Every day one ticket each will be distributed to ten teachers. They will look, for example, for a child who is no longer fighting and is kind to other children; who is not running but walking nicely in the corridor; or who did not use to write in his or her book, but is now writing. They will all be given a ticket. When the children receive their tickets, they will come to the office where the teacher will sign each ticket and write why it was given to them. The names of the children will be placed into a Celebrity Book and later on the display board showing that we have ten winners. We will have them at Assembly and invite their parents and the news media to celebrate the successes of our children who will be rewarded.”
The Principal continued: “Another thing we are going to do right after the mid-term break, next year, will be the launch of the 100 Book Challenge. That is an arrangement whereby all students will be reading in class for fifteen minutes every day, and when they go home they will read for another thirty to forty-five minutes. On completion of their books, we will celebrate their successes. This, we hope, will help them with their literacy. It will also help them with their composition writing; their comprehension – and ultimately we believe that there will be higher performance in the classroom and in the National Standardised Test.”
But how will the Principal and her teachers ensure that the students are reading at home?
“We will be sending literature to the parents who will be required to sign a little book, and the children will write sentences in that book about what they read,” the Principal explained. “The literature is going to help parents to know how to guide the children correctly to understand the material they are reading. We hope that parents will be sitting and reading with their children and making their home a place where reading is seen and done.
“That exercise is aimed at improving literacy, but we also have something that we will be doing on the 22nd of October coming. It will be a Numeracy Fair. This will involve children from Grade Three to Grade Six working on Math projects. When those projects have been completed, we will display the work of the students in the auditorium and that will give them an idea of how they can challenge themselves using numbers. We want the children to understand that Math is fun. Further, for the lower grades – Kindergarten to Grade Two – we will have a Math Quiz. It will be based on the colours of our three Houses – Red, Yellow and Pink. We want to motivate our younger boys and girls in this manner.
“The staff and I have decided to use a different approach to the delivery of learning – the delivery of how we are teaching in the classroom. We all want to make our boys and girls feel good about themselves and to put more value into what they are doing and, ultimately, to see that they are making progress. Once they see this, they will continue on that path of success.”
Ms Etienne observed that the above were only a few of the plans for the school. “We have other matters in the pipeline, but we do not want to overwhelm ourselves or the students. We are taking it step by step,” she added. “We are looking for the support of parents as we cannot do it by ourselves. We need them on board 150 percent.”
The Orealia Kelly Primary School is the second largest primary school in Anguilla. It has a role of 320 students, and 22 teachers spread across the regular classrooms, the Remedial Reading area and the Special Education Unit.
Ms Etienne was transferred to the Orealia Kelly School, at the beginning of this new school year, from The Valley Primary School where there were 458 students. She began teaching at the then Stoney Ground Primary School in 1988 and was transferred in 1997 to the West End Primary School (now Alwyn Allison Richardson Primary School) where she served as Acting Principal and then Principal. She remained there until 2009 when she went to the University of Bristol to study for a Master’s degree [in School Administration]. Upon her return, she was transferred to, and appointed Principal of, The Valley Primary School where she spent four years.
She is quite happy at the Orealia Kelly School where she wants to make a big difference and preside over what she hopes the students will demonstrate an increasing high level of performance and achievement.
