Helene School is Growing

Helene School is Growing - 1/30/2006

Teacher TrainingGearing up for our fourth year, Helene Christian English School is offering a four to six week Teacher Training School to all returning teachers, interns, and new local workers who might have a love for children and the desire to pursue leadership in teaching. We are excited about having the time, opportunity, and staff to provide a training session prior to a full academic school year. Yes, we are going all the way from February to November! Pray for us as we each continue to build on the foundation laid before us…and learn from it (1 Cor. 3:6-13).

Student Progress

We are proud to say we are witnessing some great progress in student performance. There are reports throughout staff and returning Short Term Mission teams that attitudes and behaviors among our students and their siblings are at an all-time low–both inside and outside of class. We work hard to address appropriate behaviors and practice respect in class and at every turn. Our staff is focused on showing love through learning, encourage responsibility, and instill accountability among our student body. For all the rest, we trust God’s Word to be useful for correction (2 Tim. 3:16-17). Every year we see new progress in students in the areas of reading and writing. Students who couldn’t show they knew their alphabet sounds a year ago are now beginning to read. Focus and attention span is our biggest challenge, which means our teachers go to great lengths to be creative and include music and movement in their lessons. Needless to say, we have found consistency to be the key to all of our success.

New Classroom!

Our student body is growing by leaps and bounds–literally. Our standing waiting list of three years was almost resolved in 2005 as ten new students were registered. Thanks to the blood, sweat, and tears of staff and STMers throughout summer 2005, we predict to completely resolve the remaining list this year with the addition of our second free-standing classroom. Thanks to donations, it will be equipped with twenty-four new student desks which can stand alone or easily slide into groupings four. Although we value teamwork and promote group learning most of the time, we are choosing to revert back to the traditional classroom setting in order to bridge cultural gaps to invest responsibility, ownership, and accountability to our students. Our ultimate desire is to see every child come to Christ, nurtured and cultivated through love and learning, to serve the Kingdom of God through integrity, excellence, and leadership as is in line with our mission statement to Reach, Teach, and Send.Vision for 2006

We continue to pursue relationships with the local Spanish school teachers, with whom we are partners to provide the children of Helene a bilingual education. During 2005, we met almost once a month to provide classroom supplies and futbols. The school was also secured tightly when we braced the windows with iron bars and installed new locks on the outside doors so that supplies would not be stolen and the facility vandalized. We hope to one day meet regularly to offer computer training and share teaching ideas and resources with these Spanish-speaking teachers to help students better bridge the bilingual gap. Other working relationships between the school and our community involve weekly visits by educators with Coral Cay Conservation to teach reef safety and appreciation. Also teaming with Coral Cay, the workers of Clean Sweep visit with lessons to instill the value and power of each student in keeping our island clean.