West Bay school still weak, inspectors find
(CNS): School inspectors found that overall progress has been weak at Sir John A. Cumber Primary School in West Bay during the six months since the school was last reviewed. The school’s second follow-through inspection took place on 30 January to 1 February, and while a number of improvements were identified, the standards of achievement “remained too low”, according to the report published last week. Despite efforts to address weaknesses, the inspectors still found “inconsistencies in teaching quality” and students’ attainment and progress in English and maths was well below local and international standards.
Ten new teachers and staff have started at the school since the previous inspection, including a new deputy principal. Inspectors said the previously high rate of staff absenteeism had also improved as had the attendance of the children. The principal was said to have “provided effective leadership to address weaknesses” and classrooms were better organised. The report also stated that teachers’ management of poor behaviour was also more consistent and appropriate.
But the inspectors from the Office of Education Standards found many weaknesses in teaching, that expectations of the children were not sufficiently demanding, and progress in reading, writing and mathematics remained well below expected levels.
The inspectors found that one-third of all observed lessons were weak. They also noted the teachers’ poor subject knowledge in mathematics and lessons characterised by excessive “teacher talk and insufficient opportunities for students to be active in the learning”.
Meanwhile, over in Cayman Brac, West End Primary School was judged to be satisfactory after it was inspected last June, having made progress on its ‘unsatisfactory’ grading back in 2015. Inspectors said that across most indicators the school was at least satisfactory and some were good.
WEPS has a significant number of children with special needs, but inspectors found that these students made good progress because they were well supported across the school, with individual education plans being reviewed each term.
The only areas judged to be weak at the school in this inspection were attainment in mathematics and progress in science.
Category: Education, Government oversight, Local News
Really surprise Sir JACP has fallen to such low standard , my daughter graduated there in 2015.
And she was taught and groom in to the excellent student , that moving to the UK starting secondary school, she was at the bottom set in year 7. she has become and exemplary students from then until now. But at the end of the day the parents have to play a great part in their children life to get their children to work at home and support the teacher to get back Sir JACP to its former glory of sucess
you think the teachers give a rass..Julianna should be the one to go and teach all the children them..after tha big raise,,its gonna get worst…DEAR GOD PLEASE TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR LITTLE ANGELS AT JOHN CUMBER PRIMARY SCHOOL..LET THEM TO PROSPER AND NEVER TO GIVE UP HOPE..WE NEED TO GET OUR OWN KIND (NATIONALITY) TO START TEACHING ..
Juliana taught over 30 years ago and for only two years before she did the only decent thing she could do and that was get out of teaching.
What is really amusing about these inspectors is that one of them is an ex colleague and was one of the worst teachers on island. Sure wont be taking any tips from her!
How would you expect a school with such major issues to turn around in just six months especially with the quality of teachers it has, never mind weak management. The head is not in a position to change staff.
Finally CNS you are back reporting on something that actually matters. I thought you had dropped education as you had become so silent on the subject at a time when great changes are planned which no one is talking about. Get investigating and you will find a great big fat failing ideology about to be unleashed.
There are publicly available reports on the government schools but how can we find out the best performing schools on island? Any advice appreciates thanks!
All the reports are published in the same place.
Thanks found some on the government site for but private high schools but they are from 2006….
There are none. Just some that are less bad than others!
Sounds like some teachers need to be replaced…
Marl road has it that John A Cumber is a dumping ground for weak teachers. I found that hard to believe but now wondering if it is true. Very unfair.
Absolutely true and when the teacher is so bad even JACPS complain, the teacher(s) are moved to George Town. Fact!
Raising teachers pay not going to help if one is a bad teacher, then paying more not going to make that person a good teacher, money don”t make good teachers, the love of teaching do
Raising teachers pay was a political act by an absent Minister of Education who knows **** all about education. She is about to unleash on the Cayman Islands the biggest reform in education EVER without a shred of evidence that reform of the type planned works. Indeed there is a shed load of evidence to the contrary. It is Education Council that are making the decisions. I urge you to look at who sits on Education Council and tell me they are experts in education. Cayman is sleep walking in another fiasco.
Only if they are single with no ties or are non-grata ex-pats with the community. We should be getting rid of these people yesterday like the plague even if they are good teachers who caused no harm. The students need to be taught by people with the same face structure and speech patterns as they grew up among, otherwise they wont respect the teacher.
Some of the mediocre teachers are very religious, some are from nearby islands and others just have kids with the natives…so they all get a pass regardless if they are effective or not. These are just teaching kids, how much harm can a few do-nothing teachers really cause?
They never will be because they either belong to the right church or have other connections or are Caymanian/Jamaican.
Build more schools and split the students up, that way there is less distractions and make it easier to teach them. Alot of the times its the parents that dont enforce what the teachers teach them at school, at home. You cant just leave it upto them so play your part.
You want THEM to build more schools?
Last time they tried that was 15 years ago. One cost more tgan a major university would, and the other is still under construction.
The only workable solution involves keeping them as far away from the problem as possible.
Either way something needs to be done to help the children! Each and every child is very intelligent and is only influenced by what they see.
So why not privatize the schools and give each child a voucher?
Privatization of schools will not work. Same children, same teachers, same teaching methods you think will produce betters outcomes. Dream on.
For God sake. Split the schools up you offer as a solution. You have class sizes to die for on this island and tiny primary schools. Half of the teachers should never be near a class room and if the Performance Management was implemented they would be removed but sadly its not.
How about the teachers enforcing discipline in the school. Its not that hard.
I am sorry but your contract will not be renewed.
It’s shocking to me that an article about a same sex couple’s desire to marry can generate hundreds of comments – no matter which side you’re on, that issue has been debated to death here – but this type of news undoubtedly will not.
The public education system on this island is so badly broken. The spend per student is high enough (higher than the private schools) but the will to admit the problems and do the hard work to fix them is just not there. Nor is the expertise. The results? We all know what the results of a poor education system are – it affects everyone and compromises the promise of entire generations of students. I can’t figure out why parents, voters, anyone with an interest in this issue (which means all of us, really) aren’t marching in the streets to force change and improvement.
If only we could get half as fired up about the well-being of our children and their education as we do about what two loving and consenting adults do in the privacy of their bedroom, this island’s children would be so much better for it.
Its quite simple in reality. Expats kids are in good private schools, along with the children of those Caymanians who understand what a good education means (and can afford it). The majority of the remainder (but by no means all) do not give a shit about their kids schooling and hence no uproar.
Some of the children at the school are doing well. I think the problem is deeper – including some parents attitude towards education. However, your attitude towards public schools does not help.
I am sorry, but your contract will not be renewed.
Actually we had a world class expert in mathematics education. Sadly he left and we are left with people who know nothing.
Is it time to replace the school head, this should be possible as he’s not a civil servant.
That may be what is needed but remember the head is a leader of a school over which he is allowed very little control. He has to keep under performing teachers, he has to accept inadequate teachers to his school and he has to deal with an entrenched Jamaican culture that amounts to passive resistance.
Great idea. Leave the crap teachers in place and replace the head, that is so going to cure the problem.
Ja Rule the Schools.
Alden? Didn’t you fix this when you were Minister of Education? The products of our schools are getting less and less able to compete for even entry level jobs. This is a national disgrace, in no small part founded upon your arrogance.
He is too busy importing the world’s poor and overwhelming our schools and other infrastructure with their kids (at great cost to our own) to be concerned with such things as the actual quality of what is being provided.
Just leave all your problems in Jesus’s hands mentality of our government.