Dellwood School Building To Reopen On Monday

September 17, 2017

Following a meeting with Dellwood teachers and parents on Friday, the Ministry of Education confirmed that Dellwood Middle School building will reopen tomorrow [Sept 18], with the Ministry saying that “students are expected to report to school as normal.”

On Friday, the Minister of Education and Workforce Development Diallo Rabain delivered a Ministerial Statement regarding the progress of the new strategic plan for the Department of Education, with the full statement printed below.

Mr. Speaker,
This morning I am pleased to share with my Honourable colleagues an update on the strategic planning process that is being undertaken by the Board of Education to develop a community-based and community-owned strategic plan for the Bermuda Public School System. Last week, in the 2017 Speech from the Throne, Mr. Speaker, the general public was reminded that the intent of this strategic planning effort is to transform the quality of public education.

Mr. Speaker,
Honourable members of this House will recall that the strategic planning process indeed commenced under the former Administration, and this morning we certainly acknowledge the work that has already been put in place to progress this critically important initiative.

Mr. Speaker,
Let me briefly recap this work for my Honourable Colleagues; as we have all had a long summer; and for this Government, Mr. Speaker a quite successful summer. Nonetheless, the intent of the strategic planning process was to implement authentic community engagement that is, truly hearing the voices of the community on the future of public school education in Bermuda.

Mr. Speaker,
Having been involved in some of the meetings and informational sessions I can attest that each time the opportunity was there for the community voice to be heard. In summary, the strategic planning process comprised three phases that included:
The Administering of a National Education Survey;
Hosting of several community conversations across the Island;
(i) Developing strategic plan prototypes for public feedback; and,
(ii)Creating a website www.educatebermuda.com to share all information about the public education strategic planning process

Mr. Speaker,
The feedback received from the community in response to the survey and community conversations provided sound qualitative and quantitative data for the Ambassador Design and the Strategy Review teams to develop and design five strategic plan prototypes. Each prototype was then shared with the general public for further feedback to reflect transparency and inclusivity for additional ideas.

Mr. Speaker,
The participation and response has been broad based and noteworthy. I deem it imperative to share the wide-ranging groups of organizations that were represented and who provided their input and support during the process. These included:

  • The Board of Education;
  • The Bermuda Union of Teachers;
  • The Bermuda Public Service Union;
  • School Principals, Preschool Administrators, school support staff and custodians, PTAs and students;
  • Bermuda College faculty and students, staff in Government Departments, various business organizations;
  • Private school leaders, both political parties;
  • Churches, sporting clubs, and social groups.

Mr. Speaker,
It is important that we celebrate the diversity of participation by these organizations and stakeholder groups. The internal and external engagement level is significantly higher when compared to the development of the previous Strategic Plan in 2010. This is truly indicative of the community’s desire to not only improve public school education, but also to ensure a school environment that will foster and enhance quality learning for the success of our children and Bermuda’s future.

Mr. Speaker,
The Board of Education is now in the last phase of the strategic planning process. As such, all key stakeholder groups will once again be engaged in the process to provide final input and feedback on the draft plan.

Since each prototype was developed and framed based on direct feedback and suggestions from the broad community, the content of the draft strategic plan will be no surprise. At this point the community has agreed in principle to five priority areas of focus that will structure public school education for the next five years 2017-2022.

These are:

  • Increasing academic rigor and student engagement;
  • Ensuring career, college and workforce readiness;
  • Enhancing the quality of teacher practice and principal leadership;
  • Improving infrastructure and instructional resources; and,
  • Ensuring System success.

Each priority area will include components covering action tasks, key outcomes and strategy for implementation.

However Mr. Speaker, we value and want everyone’s input. Therefore, as we promised in the 2017 Speech to the Throne, the Department of Education will host three town hall or community engagement sessions commencing next week.

Members of the general public who have not as yet had the opportunity to give feedback on the any of the prototypes are encouraged to take advantage of these three community engagement sessions that will be held:

  • Wednesday, September, 20th at St. Georges Preparatory School;
  • Thursday, September, 21st at Port Royal Primary School; and,
  • Monday, September 25th, CedarBridge Academy Cafetorium.

All community sessions will start promptly at 6 pm and end at 7:15pm. The draft strategic plan will be available to review in advance on the Ministry’s two websites: www.moed.bm; and www.educatebermuda.com.

Mr. Speaker,
In closing, I would like to specifically thank the members of the Ambassador Design Team and the Strategic Review Team who committed and sacrificed their time during the evenings and the weekends to review the community input and formulate the five strategic plan prototypes.

This was not an easy task but it was so pleasing to have so much talent on these two teams – educators, parents, police officers, retirees, students, business leaders, lawyers, other business professionals and community leaders – all joining together to add their measure for the delivery of this draft strategic plan.

These teams displayed authentic synergy that truly reflects the leadership principle that ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts’; and supports the intent of this strategic plan being developed by Bermudians for Bermudians.

Mr. Speaker,
This Government is committed to making public education a priority. We will continue to put our children and their future first.

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Comments (3)

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  1. aceboy says:

    and supports the intent of this strategic plan being developed by Bermudians for Bermudians.

    Plans for plans…by Bermudians for Bermudians.

  2. wahoo says:

    I think he is being honest this time.

  3. aceboy says:

    He sure is…all you need to do is change the “developed” to “planned”. He is actually saying they have plans for plans.