‘Timmy’ school has new home

The school popularly known as “Timmy” School has a new home. After many years of learning and teaching in a crammed, hot, uncomfortable school, the 444 students and 21 staff members of the Intermediate High School are now breathing a sigh of relief in their spacious 8-classroom school.

In a long, but much anticipated ceremony on Friday January 19, Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonslaves, daughter of the founder of the school, Grace Eustace, Principal Helen Prince and Minister of Education Girlyn Miguel cut the ribbon to signal the new era of a school that had endured in a substandard learning environment.{{more}}

Constructed at a cost of just under $1 million and situated at Mckies Hill with a spectacular view, Chief Education Officer Susan Dougan described the school building as an “edifice of magnificence with an ambience for learning and teaching.”

She praised the initial leadership of fonder Dr J P Eustace and Bertram “Timmy” Richards who later followed as principal for many years. She noted that the school had past students such Magistrate Donald Browne, former Deputy Prime Minister Hudson Tannis, Permanent Secretary Lavern Grant to be proud of and called on past students to emulate the leadership qualities of their former principal.

Calling on parents to assist in the care of the school was Permanent Secretary Laura Browne who also encouraged the students to set goals. She urged the students to develop a habit of punctuality and urged them to develop a more purposeful attitude to ensure that they excelled.

Principal Helen Prince remembered that although countless repairs were done, the former building was crammed and hot. She described the new structure as a great milestone. She said that this was an indication that the government took giving the nation’s children equal opportunities and similar conditions for learning seriously and thanked the Prime Minister and all education officials for seeing the dream become a reality.

Prince announced that with the new spacious building, the fourth and fifth formers who are temporarily housed at the Richmond Hill Multi-purpose Centre would be moved to the new location at McKies Hill by September when additional classrooms and other rooms will be completed.

She was proud that the school now had a resident counselor which she said could reduce the violent tendencies in frustrated students, but expressed a desire to have a library, an IT Centre so that students could become computer literate and a laboratory for science studies.

The principal expressed joy that the school was abandoning the shift system and was getting a full schedule from 8:10 a.m.-3p.m. She hoped that the ambience would now raise the students’ self esteem and also encouraged them to perform well academically.