Anybody visiting the privately-run Central Christian School will be delighted with the order, commitment, sense of mission and success, being exhibited there among the staff and well-groomed students. It is in this calm atmosphere of learning, dignity and respect that the Grade Six students are preparing to enter Campus B of the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School at the beginning of the new school year in September.
These, and other students, in Grades Four and Five, are housed in two recently-acquired trailers which are set apart from the main school building to form a new and pleasant campus for the senior students.
Mr Andrew Blake is the Principal of the school which is run by a Board of Directors and the Central Baptist Church at Rey Hill. He took The Anguillian on a brief tour of Grade Six where he explained what was being done there.
“The boys and girls are getting ready for the upcoming Test of Standards Examination,” he stated. “They recently (on Friday, May 13), sat the CPEA Examination. The feedback is that it went very well and so we are keeping our fingers crossed that they did pretty well on that exam.” The CPEA, of which Mr Blake spoke, is the acronym for the Caribbean Primary Exit Assessment, a CXC examination taken by all primary school students in the private and public schools.
“This is an English class that the students are in, and so they are preparing for the upcoming Test of Standards Exam,” Mr Blake continued. “We do all of the subject matters here – the Science, Social Studies and Arithmetic as well as English Language – to get them ready for the sitting of that exam. I think they are pretty ready now because they are at a stage where they are doing a lot of review-work in all the subject areas in preparation for the exam… The results of both exams will be put together to decide what bands the boys and girls will be placed in to enter into Campus B of the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School.”
Replying to a question, Mr Blake went on: “Every year, we send a set of Grade Six students to Campus B. I think this has been happening since about 2005, and we have been sending an average of about twelve or thirteen students a year. Of course, there was one year when we sent about twenty-four students. That was a big class.
“We also have a Grade Five and the students there will also be sitting the Test of Standards Examination. They won’t sit the CPEA since that is just for Grade Six, but they will be sitting the Test of Standards for Grade Five and will be doing that with the Grade Six students on the days outlined for that test.
“We have a pre-school section, so we have from three year-olds right up to Grade Six. Our total roll to date is 127 preschool and primary students.”
Asked about the success rate of the institution, Mr Blake replied: “The school has been primarily doing very well over the years. A lot of people tend to use our Test of Standards grading scheme to mark how well we are doing every year. Our students use two curriculums. We use a Beka Book which is a Christian-based curriculum out of the United States, as well as the curriculum of the Government of Anguilla, to get the students ready for their exams. Over the years, the school in general has been doing very well. We have had an award ceremony every year when more than ninety percent of the students are awarded for good academics and sports. I think we can do a little better but, due to finances and other issues, we are where we are, but we are trying our best to see how much we can achieve.
“We are now in a new area and we have the students in Grades Four, Five and Six located on this campus. We have another area where we are going to set up a computer lab, eventually, and we are just waiting for the equipment.” On that campus, the teachers are Mrs Kathy Blake who is responsible for the arts subjects; and Mr Ross Guishard who teaches the science subjects. Mr David Christmas is a part-time music teacher.
Mr Blake was reminded about plans to build a new school campus, off The Quarter main road, and that work was commenced there a few years ago. “We are very anxious about that, and both parents and students are dying for the opportunity to go over to the new site,” the Principal commented.
By a stroke of good fortune, an announcement about the resumption of construction work there is to be made shortly.
