Julia Hanschell is on a mission to offer a brand of education in Barbados that moves beyond the traditional academia and inculcates values, vision and creative thinking.
And come September she will take another step in that “journey”, when she formally launches what she says will be Barbados’ first private sixth form school.
For the past eight years, she has been operating the Learning For Life school in Lockerbie House, Brittons X Road, St Michael. It has a roll of 40 day students, ranging in age from eight to 18, and a teaching complement of 25.
It also caters to 175 “after-school” students, including those preparing for the 11-Plus right up to university students seeking extra tuition.
In 2005, Hanschell said she and vice-principal Katherine El Daher got cracking on an exciting idea.
“We discussed a vision for a learning support centre which would model integrity to, and nurture self-esteem in, young people, expand their minds beyond an academic curriculum, support each one on his or her personal journey and provide a family environment in which to learn and grow,” she said.
Fittingly, their last graduation as the Learning For Life school on Thursday night was hosted under the theme: Family.
During the ceremony held at 39 Steps in Hastings, Christ Church, Hanschell told the seven graduands, their parents, staff and well-wishers that their participation and support had made the school a success.
“At Learning For Life your child is family and the reason we come to work every day. Believing that we make a difference, that we truly touch the lives of each one of our students in a positive, supportive way, is where our collective hearts dwell,” she remarked.
She said they were now ready for the next level.
“It has been eight amazing years and it is time to move on to a new name which will embody who we have become . . . . Come September, it will be renamed Lockerbie College. We will be the only private sixth form school on the island,” declared Hanschell.
She later told the SUNDAY?SUN: “It was inevitable that we would become a private sixth form school because we found ourselves constantly having to plug the holes in the system . . . . Students didn’t get the individual attention they needed, and we found students at 16 years old who still needed a great deal of structure and the ability to deal with the gruelling nature of [tertiary education].”
And with a new motto: Carpe Diem (Seize The Day), Hanschell said they want students to grasp all the opportunities available to them and reach their full potential.
“We teach them how to think, and not just to regurgitate what they should think, so they can find their own voice,” she pointed out. (BW)