The faculty at D.W. Davis Junior School has been on a mission -- to raise the bar and to improve student performance and productivity at the institution that has had a rough past in terms of being labeled a troubled school, due to it's inner city location -- but in recent years has seen a united faculty striving to improve student performance with a renewed concentration on academics.
In his fifth year at the institution, school vice principal Sterling McPhee said they have been seeing incremental improvements, and that it was nowhere more evident than in the school's 2014 and 2015 Bahamas Junior Certificate (BJC) results in which Princess Simeon (Class of 2014) and John Saintilma and Marissa Williams (who have moved on to senior schools) led the students with at least six "A" grades earned during each year respectively.
At D.W. Davis their aim is to push every ninth grade student at their institution to write at least five examinations, to exceed the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology's National Standardized High School Diploma standards to graduate high school that was set to commence with the start of the new academic year, according to McPhee.
In order to graduate high school students have to maintain at least a 2.00 cumulative grade point average (GPA) on a 4.00 scale, and have attained four subjects in the BJC exam inclusive of mathematics, English language, a social science or a technical study which they would have sat at the junior school level.
"According to the Ministry of Education, with the new diploma that is coming on stream, they are required to pass at least four BJC's including math and English with a D or above. Of course that is not the standard that we are setting for our children. We're having our children register for at least five or more of the examinations, and we're making it mandatory for all of our ninth graders to write the examination, because it's a requirement for graduation at the end of high school, so we've kind of set our standard a little high to ensure students have the opportunity to be able to take as many of the exams as they possibly can," said McPhee.
The vice-principal said the 60 educators at the institution understand their responsibility, and the part they have to play in ensuring how students perform going forward. Teachers have placed extra emphasis on academic performance to the extent that they offer students extra classes during the morning, during lunch breaks and in the afternoons, particularly for the ninth grade students.
"We've seen where that helped last year, so there has been an increase of teachers volunteering, and to me that is a high point, as we seek to improve our students' performance," said McPhee.
He said with the concept of one school, everyone has to do what is needed to ensure that the desired results are achieved. With that thinking, over the last four years, he said the student transformation has been evident in their behavior, which allowed teachers to focus on academic performance which he said has been improving incrementally.
In an effort to ensure that students understand that they are special and unique, and that they can achieve, the faculty strives to provide a positive mindset environment for students, and to foster that culture, one of the things the school did this year was to change their school's mascot and logo. They are no longer known as the Pitbulls. The school has adopted the Royals as their logo with their mascot now a crown and scepter to indicate royalty. McPhee said the students are addressed as princes and princesses during the school day interactions beginning with assemblies. He said it all opens up the floor for discussions the teachers can have with students as to how princes and princesses behave, and the royal court conversation, to create a culture and make them feel that they matter.
The vice-principal said they have seen the changes and differences as it relates to the overall performance and attitude of students, with the team -- led by Nicolette Brown, principal; McPhee and Margaret Dillet, vice principals; Bridgette Seymour and Betty Taylor senior mistresses and Kenneth Rolle, senior master -- creating a new culture at the institution.
"D.W. Davis had a rough past. Many persons knew D.W. Davis School in the past as being a troubled school. It's an inner city school, and it was considered to be a troubled school. I've been here now going on five years, and a part of a great team here at D.W. Davis, and there's a new initiative that we've taken on to really improve student performance and we've seen an improvement," he said.
Like many schools McPhee said at D.W. Davis they have had their highs and lows and that school is a microcosm of what is happening in the community. They have had to deal with incidents where they have had to take weapons from students involved in fights, but he proudly said in the last two years that the school has been incident free, especially at the close of the academic year when he said there would normally be situations, where students would try to take revenge for something that may have happened. He further said they received zero reports from their community partners about students misbehaving. And believed the lack of drama spoke to what the faculty had been doing.
"Seeing the students' attitude changing, to me was a great sign of accomplishment," he said.
One of their top priorities with the start of each incoming year is to get their incoming seventh grade students to understand the culture at the school. The teachers met a week before the beginning of the year to plan and prepare for the incoming students and the seventh graders, the first set of students that they met, and to put on a united front as they presented the principal's vision.
"Our theme for this year is 'Raising the Bar to Improve Students' Performance and Productivity,' so it's a united front going forward with each teacher understanding the responsibility that they have, and the part that they have to play in ensuring in what we do as a school. We have the concept that it's one school and so whatever we do, we are always reminded that it's one school, so everyone needs to be doing what we need to be doing, to make sure we get the results."
McPhee also coined a saying that he hoped the 638 students at the institution bought into, and it's that "D.W. Davis is the best junior school in The Commonwealth of The Bahamas". It's something he says to them every morning over their public address system, because he says it does not matter that the institution is located in the inner city that they can excel and succeed.
To drive his point home, pictures of former students who have excelled over the last two years are posted in the school's office for students to view and to let them know what they could achieve if they work hard and focus. McPhee said he wants students to believe that something great is happening at D.W. Davis, and to want to be a part of it, and to vow to work hard and do their best to represent their school at their best.
"We're looking forward to surpassing the bar that we have set," said McPhee. "As a staff we have made a decision to see if we could increase our performance as it relates by another 30 percent in getting the number of our students to be ready and prepared for moving into high school for the graduation requirements, so that's one of our key focus in particular with our ninth graders, so we're really working hard towards that end and we're looking forward to seeing the results as we work together to make that happen."
With an average of 11 students per teacher, McPhee said the ratio worked out well, because it provided educators with an opportunity to work in small environments giving individualized teaching where students could get maximum attention from their teachers.
McPhee said they had anticipated 800 students at the start of the school year. The students were enjoying the smaller class as it allowed teachers to really focus and cater to each student.
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