JGHS staff blamed for kids bad behaviour

| 15/09/2015 | 93 Comments

Cayman News Service(CNS): Poor leadership and bad teachers are behind the behaviour problems at John Gray High School, according to the consultants who conducted the baseline inspection at the Cayman Islands’ largest and worst performing government high school. The principal at the time of the inspection and over the previous four years was Lyneth Monteith, who is currently the acting chief education officer. Inspectors described the school as unsatisfactory with significant weaknesses.

Noting some improvements over the last few years, the inspectors were very critical over the management of student behaviour, which they classed as unsatisfactory, and said the school was not acknowledging that the poor behaviour was down to poor teaching.

While the inspectors have acknowledged that there are insufficient resources in the school to deal with the number of students who have learning difficulties and special educational needs and that some kids have “extreme behavioural difficulties”, the team conducting the baseline inspection said school leaders had not identified that “students who enter the school with low levels of attainment are not coping with the level of work presented in lessons”. They said the “extremely challenging behaviour of a minority of students has an unsettling impact across the school”.

In the damning report regarding the school, where just over a quarter of students are gaining five Level 2 passes including English and maths, the inspectors pointed the finger of blame for the poor standards and bad classroom behaviour at the school leadership and teaching quality. The inspectors, who are all from the independent school system in the UK and who have never inspected a government school before, found that many lessons were unsatisfactory, with over half being described as needing improvement. One in five gave cause for real concern.

“In many lessons, the strategies for managing behaviour are inconsistent and ineffective, and disruptive behaviour impedes the learning and progress of a large number of students,” the inspectors stated. “The consequence of this is that a large number of students become disengaged from their learning and, as a result, their behaviour deteriorates.”

The inspectors said that some of the worst behaviour had been address and the number of serious incidents recorded each year had fallen but aspirations for good behaviour and quality of learning were still not high enough.

“The school has made plans to improve these areas, but these are not being implemented consistently across the school and, as a result, are having limited impact on improving the standards of teaching and learning and the behaviour of students,” the inspectors stated, noting that behaviour presents a significant challenge in too many lessons.

Although many educational experts indicate that the poor behaviour may be down to issues the students are dealing with outside their school life, the inspectors were convinced it was down to the quality of teaching. They made this finding based on the fact that in some classes students would behave very well “responding positively and with enthusiasm” where the teaching was said to be good, but behaving badly in another lesson where the teaching was poor.

Pointing to inconsistent and ineffective use of behaviour management techniques, the failure to address low-level disruption and boisterous behaviour, they said the teachers’ acceptance of low standards was common and did nothing to foster a positive learning environment.

The inspectors did note that the school does not have the resources it needs to address some of the fundamental problems at the school.

“There are insufficient appropriately trained staff available to make consistent and meaningful provision to support the large number of students who have special educational needs or those who speak English as an additional language,” the report said, but also blamed teachers who they said were not making appropriate adjustments for these students, particularly in mixed-ability teaching groups.

The inspection criticised the school management for the poor performance of teachers and stated that the quality of leadership and management was also unsatisfactory.

“Steps taken to improve the quality of teaching and learning have not been rigorous enough,” the inspectors wrote in the baseline report. “Subject leaders have little involvement in overseeing the quality of teaching and leading improvements in their subject areas. The school’s self-evaluation and subject action plans are not robust enough in identifying what needs to improve and how that improvement might be brought about.”

The schools bosses were, the inspectors said, portraying a much more positive picture of the quality of teaching at the school than the day to day reality when they made any observations and so the management had failed to make any significant improvements.

Baseline Inspection Reports for all schools plus the overall report

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  1. Anonymous says:

    This report makes me very sad and frustrated! Myself and other colleagues put in many suggestions in order to change behaviour and how teachers dealt with differentiation for the high percentage of students with Special Educational Needs 5 years ago! We had a great deal of experience from all over the world between us . We were not listened to by the Senior Managers or The Ministry of Education and did not have our contracts renewed. Our experience is now being utilised, respected and rewarded elsewhere which is sad because we all loved it in Cayman and could have made a positive change. The Ministry of Education has a lot of very inexperienced people in it making all the decisions. JGHS has too many teachers out of touch with the real world. There is no such thing as an unteachable student….

  2. Ananymous says:

    To the Consultants; We have multiple issues which are culturally different from the UK. Here are some reasons.

    Many of the issues facing society are related to poor parenting, followed by the damaging effects of media ie unsupervised computer use, videos, gaming addictions and movies etc….

    Some children are not being reared by parents who have a stable secure relationship, This instability also has a damaging effect on learning ability and affects behavior.

    Parents need to take their role seriously, they need to supervise the children and discipline them in love. But some parents are not disciplined themselves and some need supervising.

    Many parents are absent from the home for economical reasons, but kids don’t need money and things, they need a loving secure and safe home with the bare essentials. Children from safe sound families do well in school.

    Some teachers may not be trained to the standard that we expect, some maybe here for the money but don’t have a vested interested in building relationships within the classroom. Some maybe verbally aggressive to student. who regulates that? who is monitoring teachers performance? Are there set standards for all teachers? Are the students tested to see if the teacher has fulfilled the requirements?

    On the other hand, some teacher have experienced rude disorderly children and have given up on trying to regulate behaviour for fear the parents abuse them. What happens when a teachers when there are disruptive, attention seeking, badly behaved kids disrupting the class? The problems are complex and differ. I am in favour of each school having a governing or management board if it will address the issues highlighted in the report and issues we’ve known about for a long time. But we also need standards and should not hire teachers who do not meet those standards.

    I know of an incident where the Principal punished a child for a prolonged period of time (suspension) and took away privileges on his return also. Even the child could see that the punishment in the end didn’t fit the crime. The Principal comes from a country where discipline is rated high.

    Presently, I have a nephew who attends a government school for the past 3 years and still cannot read. Partially the fault of the mother who’s not paying attention to what the teachers are doing but mostly the school system that doesn’t place emphasis on phonics as a tool to assist reading. If it does, it employs teachers who has a problem with phonics. If this is factual, who allowed his teacher to enter the classroom not knowing phonics? Isn’t phonics the gateway to reading????
    I’m happy to report after a few phonics lessons he started reading quite well. Why isn’t phonics taught in the schools. Why do high school students in Cayman leave school not knowing how to write properly and definitely don’t read at all?

    This is a problem for everyone not just the department, not just student, not just teachers. If the department is hiring teachers below standard, who’s set the standard. The consultants obviously come from a country with very high standards and we must listen to what they are saying. Let them provide the evidence to back up their claims. Let us look at the report and ask ourselves how can this help us, what do we need to do to improve our system? Let’s stop hurling blame at the minister, the department, the teachers etc.
    We all as a society need to take the blame. One piece of a vehicle cannot drive us to our destination. It takes multiple parts working in a coordinated way to get anywhere. The same applies to this report.

    • Anonymous says:

      How is any of what you’ve outlined “culturally different” to the UK?

      – Who

    • Anonymous says:

      They are not coming from a country with very high standards! Some of what they say is absolutely true. However, the consultants have no idea of the territory, have only EVER inspected private schools and were not allowed to talk to any of the key people in Cayman. They were however allowed to talk to Mary Bowerman who has her own agenda.

    • Anonymous says:

      This week, the chief education officer ( Ms Montieth) sent all employers an email letting us all know how much we are appreciated and how we are a team. Morale is low, but our hard work is not in vain. However, she spelt vain as vein and also wrote about immobilizing resources instead mobilizing. Her sentences did not have commas and ran on and on and on. Now I am not usually bothered by this sort of thing, but she is leading us, as the CHIEF OFFICER. She has also left behind a failing school, but everyone seems to have forgotten that. What possible qualities does she have to lead the teachers, when she can’t even spell and her own school is a shambles! The department need to hire people who are capable of making a difference and who know what the hell they are talking about.

  3. CaymanNeedsParenting says:

    I see two dislikes… possibly belonging to those alleged ‘delinquent parents’ who are so afraid to face the truth behind such vivid words in the article above.

  4. Wiser says:

    What I would love to see if the current school system we have in place that just push the students through to the next grade regardless if they can read/write etc properly would hold those students back that is not making the grade and ensure they are equipped to move on to the next level of education.

    I remember going to a reporting session once for my nephew a few years ago. A teacher well educated and older and very dedicated to her job was telling a mother who was there that her child had great potential and if she applied herself did her home work and stopped being disruptive in class she would get excellent grades.

    Instead of this mother agreeing with the teacher and the positive feedback she was getting to help better (who these teachers have for 7+ hours a day for about 9 months out the year) her child she lashed out at the teacher cursing her for saying things about her daughter and it was obvious that she was just set against her. The daughter simply just sat back and had the most smug look of victory on her face cause she knew that she could be an eternal screw up & mom was going to back her up.

    I am not saying my generation was perfect but if I screwed up I knew my teacher was going to call my mother after she whooped my but and round 2 would be waiting at home. Teachers I salute the hard work you do daily and apologize for the ungrateful ones who do not recognize what it takes to do what you do.

  5. Knot S Smart says:

    Dont worry folks Ms Tara will fix the problem…
    Although she seems quite busy on the talk shows every time you turn on Radio Cayman…
    That lady sure can damn talk…

    • Anonymous says:

      She needs to secure another election victory because I am sure the legal professional will not be clambering at her door step to hire her.

  6. Anonymous says:

    The education ministry’s programme co-ordinator for at-risk youth, are hoping to secure funding from government to expand the work has identified more than 600 children in the government school system that are at risk of ending up in the criminal justice system. These are some of the students mentioned in the Inspection Report. Did the Inspectors measure and take this fact into account when conducting their report. If not, they need to immediately retract their report and include this important data which would significantly change the tone of the report and remove the blame squarely on our teachers who spend a considerable amount of their time mentoring and correcting children misbehaviour – fact!!!!!! We need to immediately dig deep down and decipher what percentage of teachers’ time is spent on maintaining discipline in the public schools class room setting.

  7. Anonymous says:

    If the consultants think that it is the teachers’ fault, then why don’t we hire them as teachers for one term and ask them to turn things around?

  8. Anonymous says:

    These problems existed for years. few take responsibility, the majority have Shaggy syndrome, it wasn’t meeeeeeeee. Tell it like it is Ms. Rivers, the truth hurts. Get over it and earn your pay, yes we have many other problems but continuing to ignore our education problems will only create more problems.

  9. True Position says:

    The downhill slide commenced when the strap was removed.

  10. Anonymous says:

    The social problems within the country are being played out by the dysfunction within the school system.
    Domestic violence, alcohol and drug abuse, neglect and abuse are all factors that are largely ignored within the society.
    Children raised within this dysfunction are harmed and act out.
    Teachers are meant to teach yet anyone who has actually spoken to a teachers knows they are also used a social workers without authority or support.
    The young person who assaulted the teacher last year when being removed for disrupting the classroom is another example.

    Simply blaming teachers may make the Minister safe with the voters but a disservice is being done with the society.

  11. Anonymous says:

    I was having a coffee with a friend in a local coffee shop.

    A young Caymanian boy perhaps 10 years old was in the shop with his family’s helper.

    This young boy made his hand into the shape of a gun, pointed it at me and pretended to shoot me with a very stern look upon his face.

    I looked in disbelief at the helper who simply shrugged her shoulders.

    A joke, a game or a problem.

    Time will tell.

  12. Anonymous says:

    Wow.
    The last thing this country needs is for our body of teachers to feel worthless and unappreciated.
    I cannot support this report, and not only because I know a number of good and well-intentioned teachers personally, but also because teachers are generally the most undervalued contributors to any society.

    Western society as a whole is perplexed by the state of our young generation. This can be readily witnessed in America, the UK, Germany, Australia – you name it.
    Bad parenting along with the removal of traditional and generational disciplinary norms has resulted in the current state of affairs – in my humble opinion.

    In regards to the specific Cayman variant of this story, the same is true and is accompanied with the lack of incentive to provide for and invest in our future generation over the past 30 years. After all, we can just import a foreigner to be everything from a plumber to an equity partner, right? Right.

    If we are not careful, (native) Caymanians will devolve to nothing but the welfare class of the country, similarly to the Brits and Americans in the now economic dead-spots in the wake of the end of mining industries and outsourcing of manufacturing jobs, standing idly by as others control and reap the benefits of our otherwise booming economy.

    My heart breaks for the focused and determined kids out there that have been failed by our successive governments and society as a whole. They deserve better, but unfortunately, if they were not born to parents who can afford private education (often funded by private firms as part of migration packages by the way – which opens up another pressing and serious debate) they are fighting against the odds.

    At the end of the day, I have witnessed my fellow Caymanians raise their kids devout of the values and discipline that we all know was a part of our Caymanian culture and tradition and it confuses me to no end. Thankfully, those in my immediate circle have enough sense to stay the course in this regard, therefore I am not impacted by the rife negativity in our society on a daily basis, but I am keenly aware of the wider reality.

    I encourage all of us to get back to basics and raise our kids in a manner to give them the best chances in life. Nothing worth having comes easy – and this a truth that appears lost on our younger generation.

    – Whodatis

    P.S. Teachers, please do not be discouraged by these reports. We must bear in mind they were compiled by jurisdictions and systems that tend to absolve most if not all responsibility of respectable children from the parents and household.
    We need you, just keep doing the best job you possibly can. Thank you!

    • Anonymous says:

      Really Whodatis? As much research as you do on the British for your consistent British bashing, give them credit for also calling out their poorly performing teachers.

      http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/9011225/Poor-teachers-to-be-sacked-in-a-term-under-reforms.html

      be honest you know most here would have to be sent back to Jamaica and that’s the problem

      • Anonymous says:

        Some of my best and favourite teachers were from Jamaica. Same goes for nurses, helpers, doctors and yardmen. Just saying.

        Anyway, regardless of the quality of the teachers, disruptive and unruly students are created in their respective homes. Had it been a situation where our students were generally very well behaved but just not making the grades I would be more inclined to support your assertion.

        Besides, many of our public school teachers hail from countries other than Jamaica. (Granted, I am not updated on the current situation at JGHS in this regard. Nevertheless, if so, I refer you to my opening sentence.)

        – Whodatis

        • Anonymous says:

          Exactly I’m there often and yes there are a few good teachers from Jamaica and their classes are well managed and guess what? The students themselves will tell you who the ‘good’ teachers are when it comes to good classroom management…. the trick is to find those good teachers who are not unfair/dislike Caymanian children. That reduces the number to a small number.

          I refer to Jamaicans because they make up majority OVER 75% of our teachers are Jamaicans some with status now so fall under ‘Caymanian’ and the others are on contract.

          Therefore, based on numbers alone IF we wanted to address getting rid of poor performance in education (or police, legal departments) based on probability there would be more Jamaicans because they dominate the population. That is something you and your fellow Jamaicans will have to accept, nothing to do with racist etc., but simple Maths.

  13. The REAL deal. says:

    As many others have clearly pointed out, the problems begin at home and the children are acting out at school.

    Children born to adolescent parents who resent them have a lesser chance of success than those born to stable, mature parents who are financially and emotionally capable of caring for them.

    In Cayman, unfortunately, it is a growing trend for girls to become pregnant in their late teens by a popular underachiever or criminal in the making. It is also a trend for those same underachieving males or delinquents to thrive on collecting the panties of young impressionable females. These young babymakers are often outcast by their own parents out of disappointment or resentment due to burdensome dependence (babysitting, borrowing money, etc.) as they generally lack the maturity to handle parenting and often crave the normal lives of their peers (eg. nightclubbing, partying, socializing, materialism, etc.). In the end, the child suffers, as does society, as we become the unsuspecting victims of irresponsibility. This cycle has been going on for decades, and it is not going to stop until someone puts a program in place to re-program the way our teenagers think.

    Just think about all of the children who cause trouble in the schools. Most of them are products of broken homes, immature parents, parents with emotional issues, underachieving parents, single mothers, uneducated parents, rape victims, abuse victims, etc. These children are so emotionally scarred by life, they carry that baggage with them to school every day and empty it out in the classrooms or into the lives of their peers. These children have parents who tell them “If any teacher touch you, she ga have ta deal wit me!”, and they back it up by going into the schools and attacking the teachers who try to discipline their unruly delinquent brats. By doing so, they enable and instill confidence in a child that has ‘zero’ respect for authority, themselves, and their peers, which results in a loss to society as a whole. That same trouble-making non-productive child becomes an adult that despises authority and preys on his/her peers because that is what they were taught by their delinquent parents.

    Furthermore, the social promotion also has to STOP. It is not sensible or reasonable to pass an underachieving child into the next grade simply to empty a seat for the next child moving up. There needs to be a Remedial School to manage the underachievers and weed out the troublemakers because unfortunately, in the case of our school system, the good are literally suffering for the bad.

    As for the disruptive and violent students who are attacking teachers, they need to implement mandatory juvenile detention for any student under 16. If the student is 17 or older, then they should serve a term for assault with the adults at Northward prison. It sounds harsh, but it’s what Cayman needs, not all the “we are the world” stop-spanking tree-hugging nincompoopery. Real, old-fashioned discipline is the key to change in Cayman, and that is what we should be fighting for.

    Those in favour say “I”.

  14. Anonymous says:

    Minister Rivers, Accountability is way forward…
    Who is she trying to kid? Perhaps this was said for foreign consumption as no one with half a brain will believe it on the rock.
    If it wasn’t so serious it would be funny .

  15. Anonymous says:

    Everyone here is pointing fingers. This is not productive because finger pointing only highlights the problems (the easy stuff to do) and does nothing to solve the problems (the really hard stuff to do).

    Many of the problem children in school are:
    a) unwanted in the first place (a hangover after a good party)
    b) born to mothers who are not emotionally or financially capable of raising a family
    c) born to mothers who, during pregnancy, ate a poor diet and consumed drugs (both legal and illegal)
    d) a combination of all of the above

    This is a recipe for prenatal and postnatal abuse that leads to subtle physical brain damage and not so subtle emotional damage due to the lack of love and nurturing.

    Solution:
    Provide explicit age appropriate sex education and access to effective, low cost birth control products without negative social stigma. Preventing unwanted pregnancies will, in the long run, reduce the number of problem children coming to the schools.

    Teach young women that motherhood is a wonderful experience if it entered with knowledgeable emotional and financial preparation coupled with the support of an loving extended family.

    The above is a long term solution that will bear fruit in two or three generations.

    There are no quick fixes.

    • T. Rankine says:

      I agree with everything you have said, but don’t discount the fact that more than 1 person was involved in creating every child. The fathers of children should be treated in EXACTLY the same way

    • Anonymous says:

      Based on all you said, which has some validity btw …it would appear the woman´s egg was fertilized out of nowhere. What about the dead beat sperm donors?

  16. Shhhhhhhh. says:

    HERE’s MY QUESTION : If the parents of the unruly students communicated with or met with the teachers regularly, what should happen? That unruly student would be pulled back in line, not left to roam the streets and get into trouble before the parents stumble home drunk or whatever! The teachers cannot punish the students effectively, that’s where the parents have a serious role to play. Do they perform that role? Children with learning disabilities invariably play the clown and disrupt teachers efforts, seeking self esteem from peers.

    My father was a headmaster, and he supported his teachers by roaming the corridors, spotting disruptive students, pulled them from class, and disciplining them, with a cane if warranted, and by God it worked!!! Teachers had a chance to teach under his regime.

    BUT NO, today’s liberal bull crap imposed by the so called first world says children must not receive corporal punishment, so this is the mess we now have to deal with. I am not primitive, I simply have lived long enough to have seen what works and what sure as hell does not work.

    Blaming the teachers when the shitzim is broken is totally unfair. Fix the education / discipline problem, hold parents accountable for their children’s behaviour, separate the deviant students from mainstream, and you might just get the results we need. And spare us the revolving door of consultants!

  17. Anonymous says:

    As Aware said above. “This is a bag of crap!!!. I say that will pleasure.” I second that…

  18. Anonymous says:

    I’m hoping that report didn’t cost anything… Our son goes to JGHS and we had a choice and our daughter goes to GTPS, we could easily have sent them to private Schools. Both myself and my wife are successful individuals, both of us are products of the public system. We send our kids to school to learn, have a social connection with their peers, not to be disciplined or baby sat until 3:00 pm… parents are the ones to blame here, if there’s blame to be given.

  19. Anonymous says:

    More like the leadership of this country is to blame. SMDH

  20. Berther says:

    The magic cruise dock will fix the school system. And everything else……

  21. caymanaindonkey says:

    Ahhhh one thing I forgot to mention in my last post, is that we seem to give every student a reward for who the knows what… WTF is that about..
    I am not sure if anyone remembers who came second in the 100 meter in the last Olympics. So who the f… Came upnwith making all our kids winters?

    Guess what, se of you reading this, your kids is going to be a bum, fireman, teacher, criminal, looser, Donkey and maybe a corrupt politician.

  22. SSM345 says:

    I am beginning to wonder if our Government just pays people to write reports that blame everything on someone else. Our squeaky clean Leaders seem to do no wrong in this world, ever. What’s next a giant sculpture of them all in the middle of the pier commissioned by Stan lee and Marvel Comics as they seem to think they are super heroes?

  23. Anonymous says:

    I agree and now we will probably promote the leadership that failed into a higher and better role!

    • Anonymous says:

      They already did! Time for the acting Head of CES to resign, she was a teacher and principal at one of the worst performing schools and she gets promoted? Things will never improve.

  24. Rp says:

    And the criminal behaviour by the convicted at Northward is the fault of the prison guards.

    Hit the teachers not the parents and the ministry of education who are actually the ones responsible.

    Just ridiculous!

    • Anonymous says:

      If the children are not taught manners and etiquette, as well as respect at home, how can they go to school and display anything but disruptive behaviour. They are what they are taught.
      The teachers cannot reprimand the students, so who is in charge while they are at school? Children who are problematic and disruptive should be removed and let the children, who want to learn enjoy a peaceful atmosphere.

  25. Anonymous says:

    You know, I am not surprised that so many people are ready to bash teachers for their own failures. In the bible, there is described a practice that on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) that the the Jewish tribes would come together, and the high priest would symbolically and ceremoniously lay all the sins of the tribes on a goat, then let the goat wander out into the wilderness to die. This is the origin of the term scapegoat. What the Jews failed to realize is that scapegoating did not and does not absolve the tribe of its responsibility for its sins.
    Teachers have become the most convenient scapegoats for the sins of Cayman’s parents (not all parents, mind you). What Caymanian society needs to realize is that it is not absolved of its responsibility for properly rearing their children. Cayman is now reaping the results of the bad seed it has sown.

  26. Anonymous says:

    The problem with the school is that the head and senior managers have never taken responsibility for report after report saying that they are failing. In fact they rewarded the head with a promotion to CEO and we all know what that means.

  27. caymanaindonkey says:

    You can’t blame the teachers!!
    So who can we blame..
    1) The parents.
    I know most families now have two jobs and don’t spend enough time with their kids.
    2) the sperm donors and the ones who open their legs.
    3) human rights. Can’t beat or discipline kids in school.

    Now who should take a lot of the blame. I personally would say the CI Government (MLA) ministry.
    Over the last 30yrs they have gone back and forth on what education system is the best, evertime some Donkey gets elected as minister of education, they change the education system and rules regulations and other Sh…….t

    Let me go back to the teachers, they are one of the most under paid persons in the world for the job they do, I have known 100’s over my life time here and I would say at least 80% of them love their job and care for young people (our kids).

    Finally I am fortunate enough that my parents sent me overseas when inwas young and received a good education, not saying that we didnt at the time have a good system, as many of my friends in the 70’s have done very well for themselves.

    Being a layman and one that is not am educator, it seems pretty simple to me.
    Over the last 15-20yrs we have allowed our education system tonslip and have passed students that should not have been passed. This means we have skipped a generation, thus we have families out there that are illiterate, and can’t assist with their kids home work. We have also bread into our small brains we are entitled to jobs without and education and we should be getting that big salary.
    We need somehow to address this and I have no clue on what to do.

    The other problem is that as mentioned earlier, we have teens (sperm donor’s and of course recievers) not taking responsibility for their kids, they are hope that their parents will look after this child, whilst they either go get another pregnant or get impregnated.

    Look at the brac, the best education system on the island. Let’s follow their system.. Bring back the gallows if you don’t get a B or above!

    • Anonymous says:

      Gee… you sound like s proper nut job!

    • Anonymous says:

      Your overseas education sucked! Terrible grammar and spelling. Think you need to go back to school

      • Anonymous says:

        I have to agree with you. I cannot decide whether to agree or disagree with the poster, but as you say, the grammar and spelling suck.
        I liked the part where he was talking about the bread in the brains.
        Perhaps he is a baker? Can he spell “Caymanian”?

  28. Anonymous says:

    If you think a good teacher doesn’t make a difference, let me give an example. Last year was the worst year of my life with my son in school. Every day was a battle to get him to school. The teacher was having personal problems and it was effecting her teaching. Just last night another parent told me that last year was chaos.

    This year, my son’s teacher, told me all the rules and behaviour that he expect in class. He explained how he awarded children based on their grade level, etc. This is the first time that a teacher ever told me how they rewarded students. I told him that as long as he is consistent, my son will give very few problems and he can contact me any time to let me know if there is a problem. He said, “I will be contacted you on good days as well as bad because I don’t believe in calling parents just for bad things.”

    That is what this report is saying, that there isn’t consistency. No child is perfect. If we are not consistent at home and/or school, children will test our boundaries. That’s what they do.

  29. Anonymous says:

    “JGHS staff blamed for kids bad behavior” I didn’t bother read any further than that… Piss poor parenting is to blame. End of story!

    • @1:26pm. Agree whole completely! Teachers are not meant nor are they paid to be abused, maligned (by parents); all the while being nanny, daddy, mummy, counselor, confidant and teacher to immature, ill-prepared, ill-mannered “kids”; who should be in a “middle school” and not a high school.
      Christ, 1065 students in ONE SCHOOL YARD!!!!?????….my grand father would call that what it is…”a real mess”!

  30. Aware says:

    This is a bag of crap!!!. I say that will pleasure. While I acknowledge that the school’s leadership has a part to play in the childern’s behavior WHILE at school, the fault cannot be laid in totality towards the school’s leadership. These people must have forgotten that true leadership and the teaching of behavior begins at home. Parents are to groom their children, instilling the best of morals and shaping their character to be that of a positively influenced child, esteeming to become productive persons within our society. Parents are to bare the responsibility of the behavior of their children, after all, they are the ones that had them. Parents need to do their jobs and stop blaming others for how their child/children are. Teach them to be better human beings and stop trying to be their friends. There are certain circumstances which are exceptions, but overall, parents have lossed sight of their duties towards their children.

    If students are not being taught to be respectful and civil from home, how on earth are they supposed to be taught the same at school in just 3 years, well 2 now by teachers, people who have temporary influence in the children’s lives. Had the parents taught their kids the basics from home, then the teachers would not have to do ALL the work. Teachers have to deal with attitudes, fights, sex, disrespectful behavior, physical abuse and all sorts of issues, while the parents and students are not carefully and seriously reprimanded. Parents need to be held responsible for their lack of support and parenting to the kids they brought into the world. Only people who have not had any experience dealing with diliquents will have all this crap to say. While the teachers are trying their best, they are also being blamed for the students “bad behavior”. How silly is that??!! I have witness the distasteful behavior of parents towards the teachers, and all I could do was shake my head. It’s aweful how parents takes the side of the student when the parents know they created a mini-monster in their child. Parents need to stop being cowards to their kids and bullies to the teachers and start being decent human beings that their children can look up to. Most parents leave no example for their childrent to follow. They are not positive leaders but leaders of bad influence, starving and depriving their children of real love, support and discipline their childern need. Oh please!

    If parents also took an interest in their children, they would be able to see from an eartly stage that their kids have learning disabilities. As parents it is our responsibility to see and address the needs of our children. But no, we ignore or pass it off until the children are older and becomes a nuisance to our society. Government schools standards have always been significantly low, but in the last few years, it has become appalling. The school has to lower their standard of teaching for students that are diliquent, most by choice. While I do understand we do not have the proper learning facilities for students with learning disabilities (which are exceptions), parents need to realize that they too can do their part in helping their kids with those disabilities. Everyone has access to a computer, if not at home then at the library. Go and educate yourself as to how you can help YOUR child and don’t leave everything up to the teachers. The nerve!

    • Anonymous says:

      Spoken like a true underperforming teacher/principal/civil servant!

      While the media coverage has been much-focused on who is to blame for the self-evident failings at JGHS, who is to blame is beside the point.

      This was a report about whether THE SCHOOL is performing at the right level. The parents of the children that attend the school are clearly outside the scope of the report! And even if they weren’t what could THE SCHOOL possibly do about the low standard of parenting? Neither the school nor the Ministry have any jurisdiction or authority over the parents.

      People like you can keep wishing on a star that parenting magically improves, but ***SPOILER ALERT*** it’s not going to. (The underlying problem is low income, poorly educated parents with their own behavioral issues).

      In focusing on the parents you are essentially advocating acceptance of bad behavior and poor results at school. It’s the parents’ fault so why should the school do anything?

      Well, misbehaving students affect the learning of the well-behaved. Even if you think that the children of failing parents somehow deserve to fail themselves (this seems to be your logic), why should all other students suffer?

      Policy makers and management are not concerned with “who is to blame?” so much as “what can be done?”.

      That is the question I would put to all of you posting that it is all the parents fault. Okay, let’s for one moment say it is, what can Tara and the Ministry of Ed do about that? (More And why does that mean that teachers should give up trying to deal with bad behavior?

      No one is saying teachers are solely responsible, but this report was about what can be done IN THE SCHOOL.

      • Anonymous says:

        I totally agree with you (2:56). All over the world we have people who need to be taught how to be good parents because they were never shown how to be good parents by their own parents! Blaming the parents and leaving the book at their door will not help the children in school right now. Instead of moaning and groaning about parents, we need to think of ways to help the children in school. Teachers have a tough job and the policticians do not understand how tough it is, I get that. But some teachers need to leave the proffession because they are not up to it. Teaching is no longer a nine till three job where you stand in front of the class and talk to kids and have them do all the same work. That teacher is gone, that teacher is a teacher of old. It’s 2015 and things have changed dramatically since licking with belts and God knows what was acceptable.
        Teachers need to be commited and positive if things are to change and the politicians need to respect the teachers more in order to gain respect back. Teachers, parents,politicians and the communitites need to work together to improve the education system instead of blaming each other.

      • Anonymous says:

        Excuse me Minister Rivers is all about blaming. In fact she did it so superbly well at the Teachers Conference that she has disenfranchised most of the teaching profession in schools, in the Department of Education and in the Ministry of Education.

        • Carol Emma Cooper says:

          Again and again, we expect teachers to be miracle workers! They are not! Send your child/ren to school ready to learn. Clean, well-fed and enough sleep. If you know your child has difficulty learning, you know that from home, ask for assistance.
          We need to get the educators in Cayman back in the education business. Lawyers, sent to legal, accountants to finance department! These are not the people to run our Education Department. The money that Government invests in the private school business, needs to go to the government run schools. Hire a Superintendent of Schools, whose job it is to run a school system and not change every four years to someone who never ran a school system before. We are getting exactly what we are paying for. Years ago, the Cayman Islands, with very limited money in the education budget, turned out students who went on to college and to trades. What has happened? We have allowed the whole system to go topsy-turvy because no one will accept the blame and say the “buck” stops here! Time for some drastic changes in the whole system and stop paying for reports! The money could be better invested in teachers. Every week, we see in the newspaper some lawyer being admitted to the bar. Has anyone seen a picture of a Caymanian professional teacher as yet? We need to acknowledge these young men and women who work and study really hard to advance themselves for the benefit of our children. (Hoping my grammar is suitable!)

    • Anonymous says:

      Well said. Parent need to take responsibility for their children and should be held liable for the children’s bad behavior.

      • Anonymous says:

        How? This not a rhetorical question. I mean it, how should parents be held accountable? Jail? Fines? What?

        • Anonymous says:

          Probably both. It really is laughable to blame the poor old teachers for the dreadful behaviour so prevalent in our schools these days. Don’t you get it? The world is going to pot, the family unit is breaking down, the children are being exposed to absolute filth by adults via the media, there is precious little respect being taught in the home towards authority of any kind, certainly not your child’s teachers, and you (not you personally, dear reader!) have the audacity to lay the blame at the feet of the teachers? This really is irrational and an exercise in hysteria.Stop being so idiotic all you who indulge in such nonsense. It’s like blaming the police for adolescent criminal behaviour – barking madness!

        • Anonymous says:

          I say both jail and fines. Except more than likely the parents are either already in jail or on probation.

  31. Anonymous says:

    Replace the Jamaican teachers with teachers who actually have a degree, and a good track record. Problem solved!

    • anonymous says:

      You have got to be kidding. If you are old enough you would realize that when there were “Caribbean” teachers here the educational standard was much higher. But then you don’t appear smart enough understand that. Who were the teachers in the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s. You are either very naive or shallow.

      • Anonymous says:

        The teachers in the 70’s and 80’s were British or Canadian or British or Canadian trained. I do not know where you were.

        • Anonymous says:

          Check those who came from England in the 90’s without degrees. You all would never admit a West Indian teacher without one or two degrees.

      • Anonymous says:

        Those from the Caribbean are still at the schools, unless of course they have passed away, may they rest in peace (except those who were allegedly paedophiles, angry spouses who took out their issues out on children)

    • Anonymous says:

      Every day racism in Cayman.

    • Anonymous says:

      To 11:57, your comment is harsh, but true.
      Not all Jamaican teachers are poor teachers, but 80% of them I’d say are. It’s not because they are bad people or anything, but they just haven’t been trained to the standard of the UK or Canada. The schools in Jamaica are worlds apart from the schools in UK because the actual schools are streamed, so differentiation does not happen, which is why Jamaicans find it so difficult here. In Jamaica, I have been told recently, that the curriculum is followed to the letter for each subject and there are facts that the children need to learn in order to pass tests. The teachers and students work through books page by page and everybody in the class do they same thing. But here you have to think for yourself and make lessons engaging. It’s not their fault, it’s the Cayman governments fault for hiring them in the first place. Or hiring them without asking them to do a qualification first, to top up their skills.
      This is not Jamaican bashing thing, it is just common sense, that if your training was poor, you will be a poor teacher. If Jamaica was such a well educated place, maybe we would be following their curriculum and education system not the UKs. After all they are a next door country with a similiar culture. I know Cayman is a British overseas territory which may have played a part in the education system, but surely if Jamaica was well known for it’s good education, the government would have chosen their system.

      • Anonymous says:

        Wow… did you do your research from the part of your body you sit on. Check your facts as the teachers in the public schools are NOT predominantly Jamaican. Also just for your FYI the children in Jamaican schools both public and private have better passing scores than all the children in most Caribbean islands. Which if you didn’t know, they take a BRITISH EXAM called IGCSE which is the main curriculum and exam taken by all Caribbean Islands, It’s not a ‘Jamaican Education System.’

        • Anonymous says:

          Sorry to disagree but Cayman is actually the top performing Caribbean country. You clearly have not done YOUR research.

        • Anonymous says:

          You need to check your FACTS! From the CEO to the rest of teachers, the majority are Jamaican who now have status so considered Caymanians and the majority on contracts, or recently hired are mainly from Jamaica. Failures are clearly due to most Jamaicans, it’s a fact.

      • Anonymous says:

        Before you start making claims about the percentage of under performing Jamaican teachers could you please back that up with actual data i.e. I have observed x Jamaican teachers, of the x number of Jamaican teachers observed x were “adequate”, “inadequate”, “outstanding” etc.

      • Jay says:

        You are the most uneducated person that I have come across to make a generalization.

      • Jay says:

        To 7:30. I, believe that you are all wrong. The person who wrote this article has an agenda against the Chief Education Officer, and the Government. I, as student, went to John Gray High School, and I came up through the ranks. If it wasn’t for the Jamaican, and Caymanian teachers, I would not have been able to pass all my CXC “CSEC” subjects. The problem is that Cayman loves to hire Britishers who do not know anything about “EDUCATING CARIBBEAN PEOPLE.” I am proud of all the teachers in the caribbean who go over, and beyond to help students at John Gray, even when they are despised and told that the student CANNOT learn. Have you ever thought that the teacher might be doing more than their fair share of work? If the student is not willing to go the extra mile on learning his, or her work how do you expect the student to have an “A” grade. #JGHS

        -Teachers teach students

        – Students should learn

    • Anonymous says:

      Ok, and then we can resort to hiring all our Caymanian teachers with these degrees you speak of.

    • Anonymous says:

      So, have you checked out the proportion of Jamaican/Caribbean teachers at the Brac high school? The only government High School in Cayman receiving a good rating? Come on now, stop the nationality bashing. There are good and bad teachers everywhere.

    • Anonymous says:

      Blimey, I thought I was a bit thick ’til I read this post.Now I’m feeling a lot better about myself in general. Thank you, friend, thank you.

  32. Anonymous says:

    So its the teachers’ fault that the students are behaving badly? All righty then. I am sure that makes everyone breathe a sigh of relief and note that it is not my fault that my child is failing or the reason why many people who can afford to do it are sending their children to private schools. Its the school’s fault. Back to basics.

  33. Anonymous says:

    I trust the fact that there are non-English speaking students in Government schools in sufficient numbers to cause disruption will finally silence the automatons that insist only Caymanians can get free education here!

    • Anonymous says:

      So it’s the non-English speaking students who are causing all the bad behavior at JGHS? And I suppose all the commotion then must be caused in their native language?

      • Anonymous says:

        Contemplate how well a Spanish Speaking Honduran communicates with a Patois speaking country-Jamaican and then multiply by a hundred and throw them into a building with under-qualified or overworked teachers, and lower socio-economic group Caymanians, with a good smattering of special needs kids to add diversity, and dat wah u get!

      • Anonymous says:

        How about the Caymanian children only speak patois?? (and proud of it)
        That is not English.

    • Blame Game says:

      It was the Caymanian men that brought the Central American women here, probably when the cost of charters every long weekend became too much to handle. Now the chickens are coming home to roost.

      • Street Chicken says:

        I’m surprised that’s an expression here, given how many chickens don’t seem to have homes to roost at.

  34. Anonymous says:

    To promote the Principal of this school to acting Chief Education Officer would be incomprehensible to anyone unless they are aware of how our Civil Service works.

    • Anonymous says:

      Read “The Peter Principle” and weep.

    • Anonymous says:

      Got to promote Caymanians. It’s killing the civil service but don’t let Ezzard hear you say that.

      • Latoya says:

        C4C has had talks about charter schools and these boards etc. that would explain why minister of education is letting all these negative reports so she can justify C4C requirements

        • CaymanNeedsParenting says:

          I thought children were supposed to go to school to get an education and learn self-discipline. Nowadays the teachers need education and the parents are neglecting to discipline the children.

          What a mess.

        • Anonymous says:

          You hit the nail on the head. I was duped into voting for the woman because I thought an independent would add a fresh perspective on issues facing our “land of hope and glory”. Instead we have Tara Rivers, Winston Connolly who are C4C stooges. What a mess indeed.

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