Savannah primary fails another inspection

| 31/10/2019 | 56 Comments
Cayman News Service
Savannah Primary classroom

(CNS): Inspectors found that insufficient progress had been made at Savannah Primary School when they returned for a follow-through inspection this month, after the school was graded ‘weak’ back in February. The inspectors had made six major recommendations to help elevate standards in teaching and students’ achievement in all year groups in English, maths and science. But with little improvement in the majority of the problem areas, the school was graded ‘weak’ once again.

Inspectors acknowledged that at the start of this academic year in August, a new principal and deputy were appointed and the school has introduced the island-wide revised curriculum.

But the report outlined the problems in the school with the standard of teaching.

“There had been no significant improvement in the quality of teaching overall since the last inspection,” the inspectors stated. “Around one third of the lessons observed by inspectors were judged to be weak. An important area requiring improvement was classroom and behaviour management. Inspectors noted low-level misbehaviour by students in too many lessons and this distracted other students and adversely affected the pace of lessons.”

Overall, they found the quality of teaching was too variable, and while a minority of lessons were judged to be ‘good’, especially in the Reception class, there were too many examples of lessons that were poor.

In general, the inspectors said standards of achievement in reading, writing, mathematics and science remained weak and only around half of the students achieved at the expected levels with too few students making the required progress.

See the report on the OES website or in the CNS Library


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Category: Education, Government oversight, Local News, Politics

Comments (56)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    I don’t understand why our government schools aren’t working. They make the students pray to Jesus every day. Our government leaders pray to Jesus before they conduct the people’s business. We’re a Christian nation. So what’s going wrong? Doesn’t make any sense.

    #lame

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  2. Anonymous says:

    Face the facts. Educating a third world cultured kid is almost impossible. You pay over twice as much on your kids as the world average, good teachers, big expensive schools and still fail badly. Bring them up third world and they don’t have a chance in the modern world where an education is a base for getting a great job and having a productive life. How to fix that? If you don’t know how it won’t get done.

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  3. Anonymous says:

    Legit question. My child attends Prospect Primary School. I always make it a point to ask if he has homework as well as looking it over if he completes it before I get home. I go to PTA meetings (not every single one admittedly) and I’ve gone to just about every reporting session. I think I try very hard with my son. I teach him what I remember to the best of my ability as well as I help him with projects etc. Occasionally, he comes home with some homework that I just don’t understand and I don’t want to teach or tell him the wrong thing. I’ve made it a point to tell him to let the teacher know he does not understand. He will at times bring home HW and have absolutely no clue what to do and neither do I. Am I wrong for telling him to ask his teacher? Aren’t they being paid to teach? If I don’t know myself, what must I do besides telling him to ask his teacher, especially when I’ve exhausted all means to understand his work to no avail?!

    • Anonymous says:

      You are not wrong for telling him to ask the teacher, but homework shouldn’t be too hard. It should reinforce what was taught in school. You could speak to the teacher to find out the topic being taught to ensure that the homework aligns with what was done in school. The issue of homework should be addressed right across the board. We have some saying homework shouldn’t be given and in another breath saying it should be given.

    • Anonymous says:

      Google is your friend.

  4. Anonymous says:

    If you want to see Julianna at the school just tell her your child is gay and wants to get married.

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  5. Anonymous says:

    And the government had already wasted thousand of dollars on the cruise port project, but there isn’t a dime to invest in the future generation???

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    • Anonymous says:

      Yeah, forget remediating a leaching dump, drug rehab, mental health, and any effort towards trade schools and career skill improvement. No money for that, but here’s $3-4mln for the seasonal pre-Christmas make-work/vote-buying program (wait for it).

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    • Anonymous says:

      I guess the government thinks it’s better to create slaves to the cruise lines than people who can think their ways to better things. Talk about misplaced priorities!

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    • Anonymous says:

      Yes this is what our Minister Juliana and Councilor Barbara should be putting their energy and Government funding into, fixing education , instead of gay marriage and The Port . Shame.

  6. Kurt Christian says:

    Vote No

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  7. Anonymous says:

    We continue to spend more and more money on these children and their parents with no positive returns on the investment. Taxpayers should not be required to continue to finance this failed system. Appropriate school fees need to be immediately introduced to cover the costs of providing educational services.

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    • Anonymous says:

      In such a wealthy place, there is no reason why we cannot have free quality education. There are lots of other things that I do not want to cover the cost of, Education is one that I would. However, with likes of Juliana in education and the rest of this joke of a government money will continue to go to their masters’ pockets.

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  8. Anonymous says:

    My child goes to Savannah and I must admit that since the leadership has changed there has been improvement BUT parents NEED TO BE ACCOUNTABLE FOR THEIR CHILDREN! The school has too many children who are down right rude and disrespectful and who needs to be constantly monitored The parents are just as disgusting. They are aware of it and they feel because I am caymanian and my child has a right to be there the school and teachers need to fix it when DISCIPLINE STARTS AT HOME. Come on Juliana get off your ass and make some changes. The Bible says not to spear the rod and spoil the child. The poor teachers are scared because if they sneeze the ministry going to send no use Bell and Chief Officer Cetonya gonna cancel their contract. It happened to another teacher after the ministry fabricated a false story of her being investigated by MASH and not renewing her contract. Because of this every teacher on contract is scared. The intimidation is awful. Someone needs to investigate that. There are good teachers but BUT this Minister doesn’t seem to have a grip on her Ministerial staff. She needs to wake up‼️I have spoken to the Principal and I must praise him he is trying.

    Come on Juliana just like how you don’t miss the court dates for same sex marriage come to the school. Talk to the teachers, come hear the horror stories behind Bell, Cetonya and Tammy. Better yet come talk to us parents. Put ur interest where it NEEDS TO BE‼️

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  9. Anonymous says:

    They can’t speak or write english, cant count to 10, don’t no the temperature water boils, but they can tell you all Bout adam eve and god and all the other bs that keeps them dumb and uneducated.

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    • Anonymous says:

      My friend. Your hate for the Bible and God blinds you from the real issue. These children can tell you every famous you tuber and sing the words to every Justin Bieber song. Their parents can tell you the drink specials and what DJ is playing on each night at each hot spot.

      Priorities are mixed up and WiFi is raising our children.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Not my kids, I actual parent them. I know, what a concept! To be fully invested in someone outside of yourself. SHOCKER. Also, I firmly believe churchy stuff has no business in school unless you choose to go to Sunday school.

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      • Anonymous says:

        I constantly see parent shove Ipads in their children’s faces to “keep them occupied”. They spend hours every day not monitored, and when they try to take it away, the child cries bloody murder and they give it back.

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    • Hafoo says:

      Know….not no…just saying.

  10. Anonymous says:

    I hope Julianna and Anthony will put as much effort into addressing this situation as they did for gay marriage….but I doubt it…

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    • Anonymous says:

      Nothing wrong with educating children about diversity…. get a life bigot

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      • Anonymous says:

        Actually, they were commenting as an ally – shaming those two for their misguided prioritization of fighting Caymanians instead of addressing recurring chronic failing standard reviews in their Ministry.

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      • Anonymous says:

        I think you need to re read the post. They were being facetious….

      • Anonymous says:

        What a strange comment to one that was clearly calling the bigots out. Did you read it incorrectly?

      • Anonymous says:

        Methinks you got hold of the wrong end of the stick. I presume you haven’t been on island long if you don’t know JuJu’s and Anthony’s view on gay marriage!

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  11. Anonymous says:

    Give the teachers another raise.

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    • Anon says:

      If we pay them $150,000 a year like many civil servants maybe we will get “world class” schools.

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  12. Anonymous says:

    Do educators even notice children’s posture at their desks? Are those desks too large? School nurses, are you aware of the problem? Hello?!??

    The Unknown History of Posture Training in Public Schools 1913-1950
    http://thepowerofposture.net/the-unknown-history-of-posture-training-in-public-schools-1913-1950/

    How pupils at school in China write with good posture. https://www.scmp.com/video/china/3033584/how-pupils-school-china-write-good-posture

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    • Anonymous says:

      Every single kid on the photo has improper posture. Many probably have poor vision and other vision dysfunctions for which they are never tested, for no ophthalmologists do proper tests.
      Desks look to high for these children.

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      • Anonymous says:

        I totally agree – kids today are not taught proper poster like we were taught years ago! This is so very important not only for their poster, but proper poster also helps with concentration! These kids look bored!!!!

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  13. Lo-cal says:

    Why don’t we just get teachers from the UK, US or Barbados. They seem to be doing well. Before you say they don’t understand the culture, maybe we need a cultural change when it comes to education.

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    • Boris says:

      I truly believe that one of the problems with out education system is our teachers and I personally think that our teachers should come from the UK. and Caymanians should get their training there as well.

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    • Anonymous says:

      The majority of teachers are from “elsewhere” so the cultural argument is bunk. The majority of the young Caymanian teachers I know are great….why import in when we have home grown quality educators…the biggest issue is the lack of structure within the school system…reactive no proactive. Nothing done with behavioral issues etc.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Teachers do have a lot to do with it, however, so do effective discipline measures. There is very little that a teacher can do to curb poor behaviour. These kids don’t care if they have to write lines (they just don’t ), miss recess, stay after school, etc. I am sorry but the strap, or at least the threat of it, worked.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Young Caymanians leave because they get burnt out trying to implement or promote change but having no support to do so.

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        • Anonymous says:

          You are right! Young Caymanians are tired! Nothing is enough. We could spend day and night at school and still be seen as a failure. My dream is to be a part of a PUBLIC school in Cayman that supports Young Caymanian Teachers.

          The only thing they (the leaders) care about is whether or not a young Caymanian will be the next Principal no one cares whether or not you are developing into a good teacher.

      • Anonymous says:

        Young caymanians are great and I know many well educated ones. They usually left island and went to uni and came back.

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    • Gray Matter says:

      You must be Barbadian… to put that third world in there.

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      • Local says:

        I am a Caymanian who was fortunate enough to have lived a few places. As far as the Caribbean goes in education Barbados is at the top. The people also tend to be more caring in their job.

        A large part of the problem could also be that every child regardless if they learned or not will advance to the next grade until they graduate with a leaving certificate. Why is that? In my opinion the blame for education falls squarely on the policymakers and administrators as it seems like no one has the fortitude to make any hard choices here. This is a Caymanian flaw I guess. When it comes to education you need a stern person with morals who will make the hard decision to release non performers.

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        • Anonymous says:

          Agreed Barbados has a far more educated population. They also have a great university campus and many of the professionals were educated in their own country. Other countries like Trinidad send their children to Barbados for university

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          • Anonymous says:

            Yes, but where do countries like Switzerland send their children? That is what we should be emulating.

      • Anonymous says:

        Well if the third world system is outperforming your first world system you’re obviously doing something wrong.

    • Anonymous says:

      Simple answer could well be that “friend-of-a-friend” Jamaicans teachers are much more likely to stay long term.

  14. Anonymous says:

    #worldclass

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