From strength to strength in its sophomore year.

 

The first academic year of the International School St. Lucia was described by Principal June Harkness at the school’s end-of-year celebration as being an exciting and remarkable achievement, and as ISSL’s Management Team prepare for the new academic year it seems like the excitement is not yet over. The school’s location was a hive of activity this week as new classrooms were added, along with science and computer labs, offices and a sick bay. The summer months have been spent ‘growing’ the school to better accommodate the student body which has tripled since the doors opened last September. In fact, the rate at which numbers grew surprised even the most optimistic of the St. Lucian education and business brains behind the school. “We knew by the end of the first term that all our forecasts were way under, and started to look at options to increase space,” says Chair of the Board of Trustees, Germaine Waters. “The students had become very attached to our ‘upstairs Super-J’ location, and thankfully, with the cooperation of our neighbours and landlord, we were able to add on teaching and admin space for up to 110 students for the 2007-2008 academic year.”

 

The International School of St. Lucia was inspected and approved in its infancy by the island’s Ministry of Education, and in its first year the school participated in many Ministry-organised events and activities, from Principals’ Meetings to the Junior Achiever Programme. In the spring term of 2007, ISSL’s Junior Achievers came up with an innovative recycling program, earning dollars for collecting plastic bottles and aluminium cans and selling them to Mr. Josephat Small’s recycling company in Bexon. The scheme was timely given the international explosion of ‘green’ awareness this year which saw Al Gore’s ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ win an Oscar, and the USA finally sit up and take notice of the facts. The group, called Junior Achievers Recycle or JARS, were rewarded with the Governor General’s Award for Innovation, and some warm, encouraging words from Dame Pearlette Louisy herself on the importance of looking after the environment. The students, parents and teachers of ISSL remain committed to spreading the word on recycling and the dangers facing our planet, and plans are being made to scale up the project this year by encouraging corporate good-citizens to go green and do their part to increase awareness of environmental issues in St. Lucia.

 

As if a full curriculum for 90+ students in a spread of eight grades was not enough, the International School St. Lucia will introduce an Adult Education program in 2008, offering specialist courses, Secondary (High) School Diploma, and tailored corporate training programs for the local business community. Through its association with New Brunswick Department of Education in Canada, ISSL has the resources to provide over 40 elective courses at diploma and university-entry level, through a combination of

internet-based learning with local guidance and mentoring. Students of Grade 11 and 12 will be able to choose from a menu of elective courses offering everything from Culinary Science to IT, and in fact ISSL’s Grade 11/12 IT course is so advanced and comprehensive that it is the equivalent of a first year university course in the USA and Canada. The availability of supervised online learning means that students are able to choose among a broad spread of subjects that will further their career prospects, and career advice is built into the diploma curriculum, thereby ensure students make wise and balanced choices for their future.

 

By offering students and adult learners the New Brunswick Secondary School Diploma, ISSL provides an internationally accredited qualification which is accepted and respected by universities in the UK, Europe, the US and Canada, as well as in emerging regions such as Asia and South America. Inspected and approved by the Ministry of Education of St. Lucia and New Brunswick Department of Education in Canada, the International School of St. Lucia continues to provide the benchmark for excellence in secondary education for the global era by helping every student maximise their potential academically, creatively, physically and socially. For St. Lucia’s first and only community-owned, non-profit, fee-paying secondary school, the future looks bright indeed.