Private school goes to top of the class
Cayman Prep and High School
(CNS): Cayman Prep and High School was given top marks by school inspectors from the Office of Education Standards, which is systematically reviewing every education facility in Cayman, from early years through high school. The all-through school received an overall ‘good’ grade, and the inspectors found that across all quality indicators almost all judgements were at least ‘good’ and the high school campus was rated ‘excellent’. Cayman Prep is the largest private school in the Cayman Islands, with a total of 974 students — 522 in the primary school and 452 in the secondary school.
Inspectors found students’ attainment was ‘excellent’ in secondary and post-16 education and ‘good’ in primary and early years. They also found that the students’ behaviour was exemplary across all stages of the school, which has “highly effective links with parents” and the community.
Among the many stark contrasts with government schools, the fee paying school had a very high participation rate from parents in the school survey.
While the government high schools have as many as 25% of their students marked as having special needs, there was no mention of how many students with learning difficulties were attending the costly private institution.
However, the inspectors found those students with special needs were very well accommodated, with “a strong emphasis placed upon the students being fully included in all aspects of life at the school”.
“There were no weak areas of performance identified in the school,” inspectors said. Students’ progress in key subjects, leadership, self-evaluation and improvement planning were evaluated as ‘good’ rather than ‘excellent’ only because certain aspects require further development.
Category: Education, Local News, Politics, Private Sector Oversight
For far to many the children have only one parent, several siblings no father figure except mommy’s current unemployed boyfriend. Mommy supports them all as best she can. School is a free child care center. Yes children always suffer for their parents decisions. They have a long hard hill to climb but every now and then some of them do it and leave the whole culture behind. Not many but some. not my fault, not the governments fault. It is the sad fact that the fault is with the parents. The people who caused their birth.
There are third parties that actively obstruct educational progress. Cayman Ministers Association strives to constrain Sex Ed in schools, and they are against teaching women about their menstrual cycle, the need for regular post-puberty wellness checks, tampon-use, and birth control. Men are taught that they are superior to women, that birth control is the woman’s responsibility, and generally take what they want without consequence. Non-virgin women are shunned, and studly baby-daddies with temporary 6-packs, revered!
CIS better get top marks as well or a lot of those parents will jump ship to greener pastures at Cayman Prep.
Especially with another 4% fee increase for 2019/20 coming down the pipe, making their tuition almost double Cayman Prep…not to mention the CIS kids also get the benefit of the dump in their backyard and several huge construction projects.
Put me on the waiting list please!!
Here’s the kicker: CP&HS is owned and operated by the United Church of Jamaica and Grand Cayman. Always has been. Guess the “religious fundamentalists” are good for something afterall.
Agreed, but CIS is part of the International Schools which are supposedly not for profit?
Lols. It seems only the teacher salaries are not for profit!
Cool story, except they teach all religions to their students in addition to tolerance and the basic principles of humanity. Now there are a few fundamentalist schools out there, wait until you see their inspection reports.
Several CPHS students, teachers and alumni took part in the recent march for equality. That should tell you all you need to know.
Don’t worry. Dart will make sure CIS is awarded Excellent.
Ask them how many special needs kids they have turned away…
And how many are attending private tuition classes at the High Achievement Academy during school hours!
There are several special needs kids and the learning support offered is exceptional but as with the case With special needs there are some kids that cannot thrive within the school and it would be an injustice to keep them there both to the child and to their peers. The biggest issue with the government system is they have unqualified individuals acting as SENs to assist the special needs kids and that’s just wrong. CIS should FOI how many SENs in the government schools have gone back to be trained to properly help the kids. The number would be shocking but they would be paid for this position and government plays it off saying they are capable because they have been teaching long enough. This is totally wrong and unfair to the kids. Congrats to Prep for putting proper systems and qualified people in place to help kids.
Agree, I see it on Cayman Brac for sure
Many parents send children to private schools because these schools are not political footballs and not subject to the ever-changing whims and fancies of politicians, their cronies and the demands of the loud-mouth, untalented teachers politicians love to listen to.
Prep and Catholic have always been the top performers, back in the NAT days the top 20 students were 90% from these two schools.
Untrue. The top performers in the days of the NAT were from the Brac.
Was that before or after CIG stopped posting the public and private school NAT scores together?
Prep has ALWAYS been a quality school! I attended from Infants through end of 8th Grade. They didn’t have a high school back then so we went to CIHS. At CIHS, the majority of the top performers came from Prep and Catholic.
Young House for life!
Yes! Left Prep 30+ years ago but…….GO YOUNG!!!
Elmslie run tings!
Elmslie shmelmslie! Redpath wrong path! Go Young!!!! Lol
The problem with the public school system is the lack of adequate school fees. The parents should be charged CI$500 per child every month with the option to earn discounts if they are active participants in the PTA and if their children are performing at agreed standards.
Right, let’s punish the kids for their parents’ failings.
Described as costly, but built at 25% of cost of CHHS and less per student than any government school.
To put into context, this school is only one category above JGHS. That shows, relatively, how hard the government school has done, despite the challenges they face.
@5:13 – If you’ll buy that, then I’ve got a bridge to sell you.
Huh? The High School is rated as excellent. Everything is at least good. JGHS is at best satisfactory.
Huh? They rated it as good overall, with excellent elements. Read it again.
This is what happens when you do not read the full report and pay attention to details. JGHS is rated as weak or satisfactory in every area. Overall – satisfactory. CPHS rated as good or excellent in every area. More excellent than good. Overall – good. But this person simple conclusion is 1 rating difference.
It’s simplified for a reason. In football a 10-0 win is worth the same as a 1-0 win, other than goal difference.
To the casual observer, jghs is satisfactory, prep is good.
This is the same reasoning as a degree from the Cayman university is the same as a degree from Harvard. It is still just a simple degree.
Being an actual teacher, who has been observed by the actual inspectors, I’m guessing I probably have more insight than yourself. JGHS could never have achieved more than satisfactory based on the criteria. Prep could have achieved excellent overall but it didn’t. However, both schools will be satisfied with what they achieved, but for different reasons.
Do they have any Caymanian teachers?.
Yes they do.
6.29pm More than one? (excluding status holders).
what’s your point?? They can only be a great school if they don’t have Caymanian teachers? Public schools fail b/c our gov’t fails them- end of story! Local staff or expat staff, as long as they’re guiding our kids to success, what does it matter where they come from?!
many
A status holder IS a Caymanian.
Yes they have severa born Caymanian teachers who even worked in the government schools and left because they were tired of the political football and being undervalued and underpaid and if polled even with the new pay increase in the government system they probably wouldn’t go back even though they would be earning more.
The teacher that laid the foundation for excellence in my child at Cayman Prep is a Caymanian and one of the best she has had so far.
Do they have any Caymanian kids?
@6:56 – Yes, they do have Caymanian children. However the Caymanian children that attend private schools are generally civilized and don’t try to fight their teachers, also their parents are well educated with good jobs and are very active in their children’s life and school. Unlike the majority of Caymanian parents whose children attend the public schools.
Not one MLA sends their children to public school. Ever wondered why?
You’re suggesting that MLAs are well educated with good jobs? I suppose 50% correct isn’t too bad.
@6:36 – Touché!
That is such an interesting point. I know Alden’s children all went through private school. Very interesting point, not good enough for politicians.
Also, towards the original post about this, Caymanian children do go to private school, but public school can only have Caymanians. Expats can’t go to public. So it creates the ever increasing rife between expat and Caymanian.
And therein is a fallacy. Expat children CAN and DO go to public schools, with special permission. Look into it.
Since there are no private schools on Cayman Brac, expats attend government schools. There doesn’t seem to be a problem…
Because Brac’s problem is less students than space. Grand’s problem is more (potential) students than space in the public schools.
And yet there are hundreds of expat kids in the public schools.
Wow – complete and utter nonsense. The reason the public schools are struggling is because the government is responsible for them – simple. Stop blaming parents – not everyone is born with silver spoons.
How is government failing them? They appear to get more funding per pupil than the private schools cost.
Sorry government isn’t a parent and the parents aren’t always interested in parenting when everything is free to them.
Many!!!
Yes
Why aren’t the special needs kids at public school put at the light house school where they can get the support and education they need?
The special needs they are referring to in this article is in the form of learning disabilities including dyslexia, dyspraxia and dyscalculia. Lighthouse school is suited for kids with other special needs predominantly autism not for learning disabilities.
Many children can be mainstreamed. Special needs doesn’t mean that they can’t be accommodated in a regular school. Special needs can mean a child that can’t speak Spanish or a child that is gifted. You really think those children need to be at Lighthouse School. The problem is that the teachers at the public schools have the same mentality as you: the children can’t perform so they have low expectations of them.
Because special needs can mean dyslexia or other learning difficulties, not necessarily a disability, which is what the Light House school specialises in.
Lighthouse School is not the answer. They deal mostly with physically challenged students.
why can’t the gov’t hire teachers that have the tools to handle special needs children? They don’t necessarily need to attend Lighthouse school, but if teachers had the skills and educational background to teach special ed kids, a huge population of public school children would be much better off!!!!
I’m Special
Spelling: only one “e” in “judgment”
CNS: In American English, yes. In British English it is always without an “e” in the middle if it’s a legal judgment but generally with an “e” otherwise.
Haha. #Owned.
The Prep and Catholic school kids would have known that already.
Seems like the best solution is to make Prep School manage all public schools in the Cayman islands as their cost of doing business in the Cayman Islands. Perhaps it would end the divides in our small society and stop this cycle of Caymanians being passed though the system only to end up as second class citizens.
Get rid of the stupid set system in the public schools where at least how it was when I was there…there were like 10 different levels of students for each class with the highest performers being in set 1 and the rest being expected to perform less depending on their level all the way down to level 10 or 9 or whatever the lowest set was.
How can we expect to produce more productive and successful Caymanians if our education system has always been designed to graduate underperformers.
Take away Prep School’s business licence or whatever licence they have until they or another entity equally capable implements and manages their model in our entire school system. Prep School shouldn’t enjoy economic success at the expense of our entire society specifically Caymanians.
It takes roughly 30 years for an individual to pass through our system and be in a position where they should be on solid ground for contributing to our community and enjoying their personal sacrifices in education.
Caymanians, we cannot continue with our current model. If we don’t make the major change to our system, specifically the education system, as I mentioned above, we will continue each year to be at least 30 years away from a major influx of equipped Caymanians to properly manage this country in both public and private sector jobs.
Sincerely,
A concerned Caymanian
I honestly must say you are so right on with every word that you have typed.
The government education system a failure to the teacher and the caymanian children. Like you said the set system is its biggest problem and it’s only segregation amongst the children. I went to prep school then onto high school so I experienced both school systems . Prep had its faults but high school was worst. I left 5th form and went to jamaica high school. I was so backwards that I was placed in 3rd form. There they had 3 classes A,B and C. Every student had the same books to study from. There was no discrimination among the students no matter where you came from or how smart or slow you were. For the first time I actually achieved good grades. Teachers would lecture to the class Without the need to look into the text books. They knew it word for word. I could go on with more but I will stop there. I’m sure you get my point.
Cayman government schools really had some grate teachers but it was the government system that failed the teachers and the students 30 years ago and still continues to fail them to this day.
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS FREE EDUCATION. YOU PAY TO LEARN, EITHER THE EASY WAY OR THE HARD WAY.
DR. SYDNEY BEAMOUNT.
God bless my teachers. Too many to mention. But I have mention Miss. Armstrong. Cayman islands prep school.
There is very little British English spoken or written in Cayman overall. Thus the need for these explanations.