JAMAICA

In determining where to look for a school, we found out that St. Thomas and Hanover were the two parishes which had somewhat lagged behind the other parishes in their academic journey and with the former being more accessible to us, our next task was to find a school in St. Thomas. Serendipity led us to Aeolus Valley in January 2015 and over the past years it has been an inspired choice almost seemingly divine intervention.We have had two outstanding Headteachers whose vision, hard work, innovativeness and resolve have inspired us and because of this we have made tremendous strides in these short seven years.

Education tends to yield results slowly and one has to be patient but we have clearly seen significant improvement in all our targeted areas.It is important to note that in early 2017 with an enrollment of only 40 students, low morale of teachers and impatience with the system, parents were somewhat reticent to send their children to the school but over the last 5 years, enrollment has more than doubled to a high of 95 (currently 89),better marks on the National Grade 6 examination, the introduction of technology in the forms of white boards, laptops, tablets, microscopes and other teaching aids all from GJFA along with other programs developed and encouraged by us, there is a completely different mindset at the school.

We held a two day early Childhood Education Symposium for over 100 teachers in St. Thomas in February 2020 with our facilitators(all with Caribbean backgrounds) Dr. Gloria Thompson, Dr.Carmen Bovell, Dr.Parthender Pinder, Dr. Claudia Williams and Mrs. Arlene Mattis being our facilitators.