Winfer Gardens Primary has gained the distinction of being named the public school with the highest number of children in the top 1% at this year’s National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) and the teachers credit the success of their students to team work.
“Teamwork is what made it possible,” proclaimed Deputy Head Teacher Deryn Moore-Heyligar.
The school, which entered 112 students at the NGSA this year, recorded an overall pass rate of 84.8%, with 15 students gaining places in the top schools.
Concerning the potential of the children and their performance, Moore-Heyligar said, “I think, children in general have their innate abilities. We just mould and build from what they come in with. Here, we work as a team; the teachers, Head Teacher and staff, straight down. Team work is everything.”
This teamwork, she said, is supplemented by knowledge the teachers would have garnered from further studies. She indicated that “the teachers attend workshops and further learning facilities like the University of Guyana and Cyril Potter College.” The knowledge they gain, she added, is incorporated into their teaching methods.
Teamwork for the school is not limited to the teachers and children; it involves the parents as well, according to the Deputy Head, who stated that the school has “full parental support.” She explained, “If we find any child lacking in any way, we just call in the parents and speak to them about the problem.”
In addition to open communication, Moore-Heyligar also said, “We also have parental workshops where we identify specific aspects that can be used to help and teach the children at home because they aren’t with us every day.”
Moore-Heyligar said it should be known that the students of the primary school are well rounded children who participate in sporting activities as well as academic ones.
According to her, the teaching strategies implemented in the school are the same around the country and they are strategies all other teachers would have been exposed to.
Grade Six Teacher Dawn Chandler is proud of her class and the 15 children with the top marks are her students. Commenting on her teaching strategies, she said, “It’s not just chalk and talk” and she observed that children cannot be expected to constantly be learning from only books.
“We incorporate other areas to provide an interactive learning experience,” she related.
Recounting one such experience, Chandler spoke of a method she used to help the children with English. She said, “One time, while studying ‘Shirley Dines Out’, we created a dining room setting in class where the students performed the duties of table etiquette in the classroom. So, when the children encounter the story, it is not foreign to them as they have the experience.”
The Grade Six teacher also emphasised the importance of teamwork and she explained that should one of the teachers experience any difficulty teaching a particular concept, they may seek counsel from a colleague who is better versed to get the point across.
She said that the Grade Six students who would have been with the school for a long period of time would have already been moulded and heading in the right direction.
According to her, “the cake was already baked, so all you do now is ice the cake.”
