Two Barracks Road Primary School students show the peace and harmony the sign at the school behind them encourages. - Contributed Janilee Abrikian and Mel Cooke, Star Writers
'Breaks', as so many primary level children call the mid-morning pause for refreshment and reinvigoration, and lunchtime, are guaranteed glee times for many students. The latter wasn't though for quite a few students of Barracks Road Primary, and was a guaranteed stress period for the guidance counsellor of the Montego Bay, St James, school.
Principal Alonzo Jones told The STAR, "The guidance counsellor used to have her own casualty area, right in front of her office, processing and filtering injured students. She used to live at the hospital."
Kept Busy
Vice-principal Berle Hylton specified, "We used to be kept busy. The bigger children used to hit on the littler ones. We used to have stone-throwing, fighting, kicking, hitting."
These days, when the lunch bell rings at Barracks Road Primary it does not signal the opening round of simultaneous schoolyard battles. While the situation is not perfect, lunch time is no longer a standard punch time. For the lower school students in the school's 1,700 population it is mostly what it should be - crunch time, as in them champing away happily at their meals, in peace.
The younger ones go to lunch first and Hylton points out that it is not only the children who are much happier. "Teachers love the idea," said Hylton. "We have adjusted the bells and are not turning back. We decided we are going to fight to reduce incidents and injuries, and there is no turning back."
The lunch time rescheduling is one of a number of measures taken at Barracks Road Primary after the school set up a Critical Incident Management Team (CIMT), a key component of its involvement in the Peace and Love in Society (PALS) Critical Management Incident Programme (CIMP). Barracks Road is one of 98 primary and all-age schools and 15 high schools under a PALS-Ministry of Education project which is addressing crisis management.
Potential Chaos
The period before the official start of the school day is also being addressed. With up to 500 students arriving well before the bell rings to call all to official order - some as early as 6:30 a.m. - it has been a period of low supervision. While this has undoubtedly been fun for the students it is naturally a situation fraught with potential chaos.
A recent incident, in which a student was injured by equipment at the school in this 'free' time, highlighted this area of weakness even as it underscored the CIMT's efficiency as it was mobilised to handle the emergency.
When the team met at Barracks Road Primary on Tuesday to continue its planning for the (CIMP), it was agreed that the 'early bird' students needed more adult supervision. In addition, the consensus was that each classroom would be equipped with a first-aid kit; all members of the CIMT would be trained in first-aid; and teachers and students would immediately check their classrooms for potential hazards.
Moving from decision to action was done quickly; by the end of the day, president of the parent-teacher association, Ricardo Wallace, had been contacted about the manpower needs and he will be enlisting parents' help for the required supervision.
The CIMT's safety assessment has also seen prefects and teachers monitoring an area of many schools where rough-housing and conflicts take place - the playing field.
Already there are signs of a change in the Barracks Road Primary School culture and Jones says "more teachers are now seeing safety as a collective responsibility". As one teacher says, "we are more alert and trying to be more proactive".
There are signs of a change in culture with Jones saying "more teachers are now seeing safety as a collective responsibility". As one teacher says, "We are more alert and trying to be more proactive", this as there is a preventative approach to safety and security.
There is much that the team still needs to address: creating another exit that would facilitate easier movement in an evacuation of the school's 1,700 students; creating codes that would signal the level of crisis and alert the whole school community that there is a crisis; developing strategies for quick mobilisation of the team; posting signs that would guide evacuation procedures; and identifying medical personnel who would be on call to the school in the absence of a nurse.
But the principal confirms one intangible, but very significant benefit he is already enjoying. With the programme and the team in place, in crunch time - as in when a crisis occurs - he has a structure in place that will give him the time and space to make informed, rational decisions.
And that could just make all the difference.
'Breaks', as so many primary level children call the mid-morning pause for refreshment and reinvigoration, and lunchtime, are guaranteed glee times for many students. The latter wasn't though for quite a few students of Barracks Road Primary, and was a guaranteed stress period for the guidance counsellor of the Montego Bay, St James, school.
Principal Alonzo Jones told The STAR, "The guidance counsellor used to have her own casualty area, right in front of her office, processing and filtering injured students. She used to live at the hospital."
Kept Busy
Vice-principal Berle Hylton specified, "We used to be kept busy. The bigger children used to hit on the littler ones. We used to have stone-throwing, fighting, kicking, hitting."
These days, when the lunch bell rings at Barracks Road Primary it does not signal the opening round of simultaneous schoolyard battles. While the situation is not perfect, lunch time is no longer a standard punch time. For the lower school students in the school's 1,700 population it is mostly what it should be - crunch time, as in them champing away happily at their meals, in peace.
The younger ones go to lunch first and Hylton points out that it is not only the children who are much happier. "Teachers love the idea," said Hylton. "We have adjusted the bells and are not turning back. We decided we are going to fight to reduce incidents and injuries, and there is no turning back."
The lunch time rescheduling is one of a number of measures taken at Barracks Road Primary after the school set up a Critical Incident Management Team (CIMT), a key component of its involvement in the Peace and Love in Society (PALS) Critical Management Incident Programme (CIMP). Barracks Road is one of 98 primary and all-age schools and 15 high schools under a PALS-Ministry of Education project which is addressing crisis management.
Potential Chaos
The period before the official start of the school day is also being addressed. With up to 500 students arriving well before the bell rings to call all to official order - some as early as 6:30 a.m. - it has been a period of low supervision. While this has undoubtedly been fun for the students it is naturally a situation fraught with potential chaos.
A recent incident, in which a student was injured by equipment at the school in this 'free' time, highlighted this area of weakness even as it underscored the CIMT's efficiency as it was mobilised to handle the emergency.
When the team met at Barracks Road Primary on Tuesday to continue its planning for the (CIMP), it was agreed that the 'early bird' students needed more adult supervision. In addition, the consensus was that each classroom would be equipped with a first-aid kit; all members of the CIMT would be trained in first-aid; and teachers and students would immediately check their classrooms for potential hazards.
Moving from decision to action was done quickly; by the end of the day, president of the parent-teacher association, Ricardo Wallace, had been contacted about the manpower needs and he will be enlisting parents' help for the required supervision.
The CIMT's safety assessment has also seen prefects and teachers monitoring an area of many schools where rough-housing and conflicts take place - the playing field.
Already there are signs of a change in the Barracks Road Primary School culture and Jones says "more teachers are now seeing safety as a collective responsibility". As one teacher says, "we are more alert and trying to be more proactive".
There are signs of a change in culture with Jones saying "more teachers are now seeing safety as a collective responsibility". As one teacher says, "We are more alert and trying to be more proactive", this as there is a preventative approach to safety and security.
There is much that the team still needs to address: creating another exit that would facilitate easier movement in an evacuation of the school's 1,700 students; creating codes that would signal the level of crisis and alert the whole school community that there is a crisis; developing strategies for quick mobilisation of the team; posting signs that would guide evacuation procedures; and identifying medical personnel who would be on call to the school in the absence of a nurse.
But the principal confirms one intangible, but very significant benefit he is already enjoying. With the programme and the team in place, in crunch time - as in when a crisis occurs - he has a structure in place that will give him the time and space to make informed, rational decisions.
And that could just make all the difference.
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