Potters Primary School Gets New Class

20th June 2019

Potters Primary School gets new Class

The Potters Primary School held a Handing- over Ceremony earlier this week for a new classroom.

The school took on this project as part of the Grade Six (6) Students` Social Studies School Based Assessment (SBA) and the new building was made possible through Fund-raisers held by the school and donations.

The Ceremony was attended by members of the Potters community along with a number of government officials who had a part to play in the completion of the project.

The program was led by the students of Grades Five (5) and (6) and items ranged from speeches to raps, expressing how appreciative they were for the new building.

Parliamentary Representative for St. George, Hon. Dean Jonas, said that such a project meant a lot to him as he too attended the Potters Primary School.

Minister Jonas said that he was also very impressed with how intrigued and hands- on the students and teachers were throughout the execution of the project.

The St. George’s MP was also pleased with how the students took charge the program that morning and the individual who chaired the proceedings was also a student.

“We have a lot of great speech writers here,” Minister Jonas remarked. Maybe I could use some of them going forward to review some of my speeches and I can see some improvements that I will be making once they assist me.”

He also applauded the teachers and parents for guiding the students “the support services, the teachers, principal, vice principal; you the staff provided leadership to these young people and we are very proud” stated Mr. Jonas.

Minister of Education Hon. Michael Browne, expressed how pleased he was with the upcoming generation of Antigua and Barbuda and how the students took matters into their own hands and led the initiative, with the help of the teachers.

He also lauded the leadership skills and intellectual growth of the primary school students.

“They don’t even strike me as primary students; they are like secondary students getting ready to go into college”.

Mr. Browne stated that in this country, young people are usually targeted and are sometimes blamed for things that go wrong.

However the Minister said that he is confident that a bright future is ahead for the nation’s youth as long as they are prepared to put in what it takes to do so.

“This project is a testament and testimony and their performance here today demonstrates that our country, our nation, our region is not going down the drain; these young people are heavily involved in their own personal development and their community and initiative.”

The Education Minister said he hopes that this would set an example and make a statement that the younger generation is full of intellectual, motivated and are hardworking individuals.

Judah Ashe and Jaheim Cornelius, two Grade (six) 6 students, who performed a rap song, were very excited about the project. “It felt so nice because we paid the price, hard work is the key, it worked for me,” stated Mr. Ashe.

In a reflection given by a Grade (Six) 6 student, Angel Charles, the students were so eager about the new classroom that it caused a conflict as everyone wanted to have a seat in it.

She further stated that the teacher chose sixteen (16) students at random to have class in the room but that did not resolve the matter, so they were pushed to split the class in two and that way, everyone got a seat in the new classroom.

The students and teachers were also extremely delighted with the support which they have received from everyone who played a part in making the new addition of the classroom a reality

This was demonstrated through the presentation of gifts to the principal, deputy principal, teachers and the contractor.