This year an increased number of brilliant all-round students who recently passed through the primary schools in Anguilla left the award ceremony with hands filled with trophies and other prizes donated by the Anguilla Electricity Company.
It was ANGLEC’s 13th year of sponsoring the presentation ceremony on Thursday, November 21, which had as its theme: “Trails that lead to Endless Possibilities.” The venue for the well-attended grand event was the Church of God (Holiness) on the Queen Elizabeth Avenue. This year, for the first time, in order to give recognition to all the awarded students, the Department of Education has undertaken to publish the names of all of them in The Anguillian newspaper this week.
Chief Education Officer, Mr. Bren Romney, told the vast audience: “The National Primary Schools’ Award Ceremony, now in its 13th year, provides a platform for the Department of Education to acknowledge and celebrate the academic performance of our students at the primary level.
“Students who will be recognised and celebrated would have completed the following assessments in grades 3, 5 and 6: Test of Standards in the core subject areas – Mathematics, Literacy, Social Studies and Science; Sports and Music; and for the 11th year, the top five grade 6 students who sat the Caribbean Primary Exit Assessment (CPEA) will also receive special awards.”
Mr. Romney explained that the Test of Standards and the CPEA were designed to determine the progress of the students compared with established standards or key benchmarks. He further explained that students who scored 80 percent and above in one or more of the subject areas were awarded annually. Commencing this year the awards were extended to include students who scored in the 50 to 75 percent range. They also met or exceeded the established standard and equally deserved recognition. They would receive certificates of achievement and the names of all the awarded students would be published in The Anguillian newspaper. He joined in thanking ANGLEC for its sponsorship of the awards. He also thanked Mrs. Patricia Adams for her literary awards as part of the programme.
Minister of Education, Mrs. Cora Richardson-Hodge, said: “Education is a partnership between the home, the education system and the community. Excellent education is only achieved when all partners do everything they can to ensure that the students become everything that they can. The fact that these students are being recognised is an indication that the partnership has worked. These students excelled because they had developed a habit of reaching higher and persistently striving to do better each day.
“They have excelled because their parents developed the habit of encouraging and sometimes pushing them to do better. Their teachers developed the habit of continually improving their own practice, inspiring a love for learning, and properly equipping students to reach their full potential.
“They have also excelled because their school and the entire education system, through various initiatives, fostered the improvement of teaching and learning and rewarding excellence. And the community has increasingly solidified its position as a partner in education.”
On behalf of her Ministry, she congratulated the students on their remarkable accomplishments – and all those whose habit of striving to do better contributed to the students attaining excellence including the Department of Education. The Minister ended by expressing gratitude to ANGLEC for its continued sponsorship of the Primary Schools Awards.
Other speakers included Mrs. Jemila Morson-Hodge, ANGLEC’s Public Relations Officer, who accepted the commendation extended to the company and returned its thanks and appreciation. She arranged for Ms.Deavene Guishard, the Testing & Measurement Officer, with whom she worked for three years to be presented with a token of appreciation. The feature address was delivered by Miss Mya Lake who was the Most Outstanding Grade 6 Student in 2018. Her address was based on the theme for the event: “Trails that lead to Endless Possibilities”.
