Contributed
Buff Bay High School prefects Cavelle Brown (from left) and Shanique Boyd speak with the school's principal, Nadine Molloy.
Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer
For students, summer camps are normally associated with loads of fun as memories of the previous school year fade and the one to come seems far away.
However, the prefect body for the upcoming academic year at Buff Bay High School in Portland did not have a typical summer camp. While their schoolmates went out the gates into weeks of freedom from the classroom, they spent an extra two weeks at school.
Not that they were brushing up on their academics. And not that they seemed to mind.
"We've been talking about it for a while, having a summer camp for them," Buff Bay High's principal Nadine Molloy told The Sunday Gleaner. About 22 students were involved in the camp, a few of them potential prefects making the transition from third to fourth form. The others are going into fifth form.
"We recognise the lack of leadership training in our section of Portland. They have potential, but there is not a lot of opportunity in the country. We recognise the potential so many of our students have," Molloy said.
Responsibility
In addition, she said, "We realised when we were prefects the level of responsibility we had, we did not see our prefects carrying the level of responsibility."
So it was into camp for student leadership training, which involved Peace and Love in Society (PALS) training, sessions on world view, instruction in how to conduct a business meeting, etiquette, protocol, communication skills, self-esteem and sexuality, among other areas.
"We have a conflict-resolution problem, so we brought in PALS to do it," Molloy said. "We got role models from the community to come in and speak with them." Among those who interacted with the students were Edith Smith (who has extensive experience through the United Nations), teacher Juliet Duncan-Hugh from St Thomas, project manager for the National Schools Debate Norma Rochester, and the school's guidance counsellor.
There was a wrap-up session on Friday, July 17, in which the students presented what they had learnt in their "unique way".
While the students were engrossed in the leadership training, the temptation of good old summer fun would not be totally locked out, the resolution of a tug of wills between some members of the prefect body and their principal, indicative of a deeper level of maturity.
"A set of them wanted to go off to a water park. I got draconian and said, 'you can't go'. They included that in the wrap-up session. choice was taken from them in one sense, but they agreed with the choice that was made for them. They realised that they need guidance," Molloy said.
Six of the 20 prefects are boys, and Molloy said that this was an improvement on former years.
Training
Molloy said PALS "complemented a lot of what we were doing, in allowing them to interact with their peers in relating what they learnt over the two-week period".
Buff Bay High School took on the PALS programme in May. All grades will have timetabled peace education lessons in the new school year. teachers will also receive training. In addition, there will be further sessions with the prefect body.
Molloy made it clear that "our training programme this year is a work in progress". Still, it has been effective, as the Buff Bay High principal said "they seem ready and raring to go".
Contributed
Edith Smith
EDITH SMITH, who retired to Jamaica more than three years ago, is not a stranger to Buff Bay High School, whether she is in Jamaica or the United States (US). She has been involved in the school's Language Day, as well as getting a taste for home economics, and while in the US, assisted Buff Bay High through the Friends of West Portland organisation.
In addition, there is a music programme in which Buff Bay High students go to Minnesota for six weeks.
Smith worked with youth for many years, and when the summer leadership training camp was conceptualised, "they thought I had something to contribute".
Outlook
"I was supposed to talk with them, to broaden their outlook on major international developments and how they impacted on their lives in Jamaica. I chose food crisis and Jamaica," Smith told The Sunday Gleaner.
In addition, Smith said, "I travel a lot and I was supposed to draw upon my international experience."
Smith's session with the students came early in the camp, from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on the second day, and she found "the girls were much more talkative than the boys. The boys had good ideas, but they were not as assertive as the girls were". She said although it was a challenge, the boys eventually shared.
One of the areas Smith explored was how, as prefects, the students would defuse conflict, in a situation where they found some aggression directed at them, as other students would be angry at them and jealous of their being chosen as prefects. Smith drew on her own school experience as a prefect, assessing how similar and different the roles and school environment are now.
"If you do not deal with conflict, it affects students and teachers alike," Smith said.
Smith was not at the final day's wrap-up session, but said, "I heard they gave good evaluations of the sessions and said they learnt a lot."
Appreciative
At the end of her session with the Buff Bay High School students they thanked her in rap, both song and poetry, drawing on their training the previous day. While Smith was appreciative, she cautioned them that while patois was fine, English was vital as they needed to be understood in the global environment. Smith pointed out that one cannot get to the level of a University of the West Indies, like Professor Carolyn Cooper, or playwright and radio host Barbara Gloudon, who are both adept at the Jamaican language, without learning to express themselves in English.
"They have great expectations, they are bright," was Smith's assessment of the students. "If they go overseas and they are not using English, they will be seen as backward."
- M.C.