Nearly 40% of ESHS students make honour roll

Nearly 40 percent of the entire student population at Elmore Stoutt High School (ESHS) last academic year earned spots on the institution’s honour roll.

To achieve such feat, a student must have at least an overall score of 70 percent, or a Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3.0 or above.

During a special award ceremony this morning (February 2), ESHS Principal Sandy Underhill stated that the performance shown in the 2015/2016 academic year was better than the previous year.

While noting that the student population for last year was 1,313 she explained: “Elmore Stoutt High School honoured 497 students today for their academic achievement in the 2015-2016 school year. Students received awards ranging from an A+ to a B average achieved overall. This number represents more than 1/3 of the student enrollment last school year.”

“177 male students received awards, and 320 female students. There were 132 students receiving honours in seventh grade, 107 in eighth grade, 108 in ninth grade, 75 in tenth grade, and 75 students receiving honours in eleventh grade,” Underhill explained.

She continued to break down the numbers: “There were 186 students receiving Honours Awards (B Average), 287 students received High Honours (B+ average), and 24 students receiving CEO Awards for achieving an A average or above for the 2015-2016 academic year.”

Underhill, in the meantime, told BVI News Online that she has been putting measures in place at the Road Town-based school to improve student performance.

She is ecstatic about the ‘remarkable’ success now showing on the school’s honour roll.

“The reason our school is doing so well is because, in the past three years under my leadership – I don’t know what happened before me, we have gone through rigorous programmes that are aimed at identifying students from the very onset in the middle of the Advent term. And, at the end of the Advent term, we start to identify students who are failing in individual subject areas. We identify them; we set up conferences with parents; and we also set up tutorial for each area. That has aided in improving grades.”

“Also, we are reducing the retention levels – how many students would repeat per grade level. So the number of student who would have to do summer school; that number has also reduced. Summer school is another factor where we take up a lot of students who are at risk of failing, and their needs are addressed in summer school so they are not held back,” the ESHS principal said.

She expressed confidence that more students will make the honour roll in the future. That is among the reasons all students were made to attend the ‘honour roll announcement’ ceremony today, February 2.

“The entire school body was witness to the [honour roll announcement] ceremony – which we didn’t do last year. It was important for the other students to also feel a sense of motivation and enthusiasm from those students who were receiving awards,” Underhill told BVI News Online.

Among the students who earned spots on the ESHS honour roll are the recently crowned Mister and Miss Elmore Stoutt High School Calden James and Mya Walwyn.