Great year for Green Park School, Clarendon

Excerpts from address by Mr O'Neil Ankle, Principal, Green Park Primary and Junior High at the School's graduation recently.

One writer once said that “education’s purpose is to replace empty minds with open ones”. If that is true I believe we here at Green Park are achieving such a measure. The truth is the teachers here have a burning desire to see children learn. It’s a passion to inspire our children into their God given greatness. Today, we celebrate with our Graduates, Parents, teachers, friends, the wider community and well wishers on the bumper harvest that we have had throughout the 2009-10 academic year.
Ladies and gentlemen: let me say and you will hear me say this over and over again, Green Park Primary and Junior High School is no longer the school that you knew 5-6 years ago. Green Park has become a preferred primary and Junior High school for many. Many parents have told me that they selected Green Park as their preferred GSAT School for their children. Ladies and gentlemen we must be doing something that is different as a primary and junior high school…Teachers of Green Park please to take bow…I know I have been a hard task master at times however to get to where we want, none of us can be too comfortable.

Agriculture
Our Agricultural programme is one that all of us can be more that proud of. Ladies and gentlemen I believe we have the best Junior High school farm in all of Clarendon and perhaps Central Jamaica and I think we can challenge the entire island. This year under the outstanding leadership of Mr. Balmore Mannings we started our poultry unit – providing the school’s canteen with over 2865 lbs of chicken meat and 100 lbs of trotters (foot) and with the price of chicken today you can do the math ($372,450). In addition, some 50 lbs of chicken meat and 400 pounds of chicken foot, liver, gizzard and neck were given away to students as incentive for their participation in the project. This year also saw an expansion and diversification in the crop area, where cash crops such as scallion, thyme, beetroot, and raddish among others were produced which helped to increase sales in the department by over 15%-self sufficiency is where we heading. Ornamental plants sale also helped the department to raise over $11000. With this kind of performance, we are expecting to break new grounds with our fisheries unit come September. We want to rear some 200 lbs of fish ever 3-4 months. We also want to further develop the ornamental plant unit by expanding the Green House during the next school year. We aim to be different as a junior high school…. We want to also congratulate Lamure Bolton of 9 Wealthy who walked away with the top student award in poultry care and management at the Clarendon 4-H Clubs Achievement Day.

Guidance and Counselling
This year in an effort to ensure continuity the Guidance and counselling department once again staged another successfully Residential Behavioural Change Camp for boys for the second year running. This year the boys went to the Kendal Camp Site in Manchester for three days and two nights. Sixteen boys participated in the camp.

GSAT-2010
Our performance this year is the best in the 40-year history of the institution. For the first time in our history no student will return to us and let me tell you is a plan that we have worked for the past 4 years. This year we sprint past the national average in all areas of the GSAT. In Mathematics we have a 67% average a 12% improvement over last year, national average 57%. In science our school has a 76% a 23% improvement over 2009, the national average 60%. For social studies our school’s avg. is 71% a 15% improvement over the previous year, national average 58%. Language Arts we are at 68% a 12% improvement over last year, national average 58%. In Communication Task our school’s average 75% a 17% improvement over 2009, national average 67%. Help me congratulate the teachers for their dedication and sacrifice. Please note that of the 54 students who sat the examination 20 have gained averages of over 80%. Secondly only 5 students failed to get over 50% and above. This year many of our students got in the 90s in many of the individual subject areas. The outstanding individual performers you will see receiving their awards in a moment.
Ladies and gentlemen Green Park has come of age and you have not seen the best of us yet. We are the toast of Region 6, persons are asking what are we doing differently why for the past four years our grades just keep trending up; and this does not only go for GSAT, but GNAT and our reading programme-led by Ms Joan Edward and the teachers at grade 7 are working miracles. I can safely say the Reading Resource Center-(Library) under the guidance of Mrs. Amoy Hay is contributing tremendously to our overall improvement and performance.


Graduates
To the graduates as you leave the hallowed and holy walls of this institution I want to challenge you to continue being the best that you can be. My sons and daughters this world especially this country can no longer support mediocrity/slap-dash performance; you have to be at your best at all times. Graduates you can’t be ordinary and survive, you must be extra ordinary, so don’t sentence yourselves to a life of poverty when God has called you to a higher level of blessings.