All calm at Combermere
STUDENTS AND PARENTS lined the entrance to Combermere School from well before 7:30 a.m. yesterday, ahead of the start of the Barbados Secondary Schools Entrance Examination.
Students of the eight primary schools assigned to take the test at Combermere arrived to a cool and calm atmosphere. Absent were the usual tension, teary eyes and anxious faces often associated with the 11-Plus Exam.
An excited Shadawn Connell of St Matthew’s Primary showed no pre-exam jitters, saying she hoped to pass for The Lodge School, where her brother was a student.
Suzanne Browne, a teacher at St Matthew’s, said: “We dealt with [the matter of anxiety] from early, so we do not have any nervous children.
“These children have been preparing for a while and we have consolidated the work. They know how to work within the time frame, so they would not be nervous.”
The 104 students of Lawrence T. Gay Primary School gathered together with Principal Beverly Parris and teachers and spoke excitedly about getting to the end of the exam.
“I cannot wait until the exam is over so we can go to the Hilton and relax,” Gabrielle Hinkson said, referring to an arrangement by some parents and teachers for students to have a pool party at Hilton Barbados afterwards.
But it was not only the students who were calm in the period preceding the exam. Many parents simply dropped their children off at the gate, wished them good luck, and told them to do their best. (LK) (Nation News)