Emotional tributes as West Terrace Primary buries milestone capsule

Olympian Barry Jackman joined educators and officials at West Terrace Primary School on Friday to bury a time capsule filled with student memories, marking the school’s 40th anniversary and preserving school artefacts for discovery 100 years from now.

An emotional principal Charmaine Jones described how she felt ahead of the ceremonial burial: “Today is a very emotional day for me. Because in 40 years’ time when this capsule is open, I might not be here. I will be 99 years old. Can you imagine 99 years? So it makes my heart heavy to know that I’m here and we’re planting this capsule. And I will not be here.”

She read aloud a letter to her successor 100 years from now: “Dear future principal. They say life begins at 40, and here we are in the year 2025, celebrating 40 years of our beloved school. I feel those words more deeply than ever. Forty years of dreams realised, challenges overcome and futures shaped, and yet I know in my heart the best is yet to come.”

Jones added: “Today we bury this capsule. We do so in a time of transformation. Education is changing not only in tools or technology but in purpose. The Ministry of Educational Transformation is inviting us to see schools not just as places of learning. But as places of becoming. We are learning how to teach the whole child, mind, heart, and spirit. It is not always easy, but it is necessary.

“I write this with a heavy heart, knowing that I may never meet you, the principal who will open this letter. Our path may never cross yet our hearts are linked by a shared calling. We are both part of this long, beautiful legacy of service, leadership, and hope.”

She closed with a message of unity: “Take care of this place we love. Add your chapter to the story. Know that across the years, you are not alone. We are with you, cheering you on and believing in you. The future is yours now. And we trust it in your hands.”

Student Council president Naya Williams and secretary Skyler Yearwood presented the contents of the time capsule. “Today we are doing something very special. We are sealing a time capsule, a box filled with memories, messages, and treasures from our school in the year 2025,” said Williams.

“Inside the capsule, we have placed photos of our school athletic teams, staff, our classes’ letters to future students, pictures of awards, trophies, and certificates, newspaper articles showcasing the wins we had this year, books we read and examples of our uniforms and school craft.

“This time capsule shows what life is like at our school today. It tells our story, how we learn, how we play, what we dream, and how proud we are to be part of West Terrace Primary… One day in the future, students just like us will open this capsule. They will read our messages, see our pictures, and learn what made our school special in 2025.”

Member of Parliament for St James South, Sandra Husbands, commended the school’s leadership and legacy.

“I want to congratulate all of you,” she said. “Our national anthem says, we write our name on history’s page. Today, West Terrace, in its 40th year, is now capturing what it has written on history’s page, and we are placing it in a capsule for a future generation of West Terrace school children and teachers to understand what this moment meant for us.”

The minister praised the school’s progress: “West Terrace has been blazing a trail. It has done well over the years. It has had excellent leadership. But today it has gone to a higher level under Charmaine Jones, bringing this moment to us to give us the opportunity to capture what is best about us at the 40th year and making it available to future generations.”

She urged the students to stay on a positive path: “Each and every one of you can be a star, a star for Barbados, and I want to encourage all of you to continue on this path, to work with your teachers, to work with your parents so that you can become the best that you can be.”

Minister Husbands also congratulated the students on behalf of Minister of Education Transformation Chad Blackman.

Husbands also presented class four students with exam kits for their upcoming Barbados Secondary School Entrance Exams next week.

The ceremony also featured remarks from Jackman, one of the school’s first students, who reflected on his journey from the halls of West Terrace to the Olympic stage.

Jackman encouraged students to aim high: “Always, and I want to make sure I say always – always dream big. Aim for the stars and beyond… I must stress though that none of it comes without hard work, sacrifice, dedication, diligence, and discipline. If you’re going to be exceptional, you cannot expect to give out an ordinary effort and receive an extraordinary result.”

The ceremony, whose theme was Sealing the past: Securing the future, ended with the burial of the time capsule in the garden at the school, with the principal, head girl, head boy, alumnus Jackman and MP Husbands each throwing dirt onto the capsule buried underground.

(LG)