Coleridge & Parry intensifies efforts to tackle falling grades

Falling results in core subjects have prompted Coleridge & Parry School to step up academic interventions, with administrators pledging a more targeted and practical approach to teaching after acknowledging nationwide low grades in mathematics and languages.

Principal June Moe told the school’s Speech Day and Prize-Giving Ceremony on Tuesday that the school was moving decisively to provide more individualised support.

A programme was created to “pull out those students who are struggling with numeracy so that they would have more one-to-one interactions with teachers or they work in small groups”, Moe said. “In addition, we are going to look at having peers assisting them, so students who are doing so much better, they would assist their peers once they agree.”

She explained that teaching methods would also be adjusted to make learning more practical and relatable. “We also plan to make it more practical. So using more manipulatives, even using their own daily lives, things that they would buy,” Moe said, noting that consumer mathematics and School-Based Assessments would be introduced earlier to strengthen foundational skills.

Moe attributed the decline in mathematics scores partly to classroom dynamics and changing student needs. 

“I believe that it may be that sometimes, lower down the classes might be a bit too big. We’re having a lot more neurodivergent students. We’re having students with differing learning abilities,” she said. While teachers were trained to respond to those needs, she pointed to gaps in formal diagnosis, explaining, “We don’t do the diagnosis. So a lot of times we depend on the parents to bring that information with them. Sometimes it isn’t always forthcoming.”

She also expressed concern about weaker results in English B (literature) and foreign languages, linking them to deficiencies in basic reading and writing skills. “Right throughout there’s an issue with basic reading,” Moe said, adding that while students were generally comfortable speaking languages such as Spanish and French, “I don’t think the problem is the speaking, but it is the writing.”

The school recorded lower performance in English B, Spanish, mathematics, geography, chemistry, Caribbean history and French, but significant improvements were seen in biology, food nutrition and health, principles of business, textiles clothing and fashion, visual arts, industrial technology building, human and social biology, and English A (language).

Delivering the feature address, Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association chairman and former student Javon Griffith urged students to take ownership of their development, telling them: “The habits you form, the standards you set, and the choices you make during these years will echo long after you leave these gates.” 

He added: “Excellence is not a single achievement; it is a habit.”

 

Outstanding students were also recognised, with Talesa Boyce receiving the Principal’s Award for Best All-Round Student and Best Performance in CXC Examinations, while Kianna Clarke and Roshon Codrington were jointly awarded the Principal’s Award for Leadership.