I’d like to thank everyone who came out to The Shore Club, last Saturday, 20th May to help us celebrate our 25th Anniversary. In all, we had about 140 guests.
I’d like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to our Master of Ceremony, Cynclair Musgrove, who was also a teacher at Provo Primary 15 years ago. When she heard about this event, she very kindly offered to be our host. Cynclair certainly kept us entertained as did our musicians, Perry Delancy, Brentford and Brenton Handfield and Tess Charles.
It was fantastic to see so many faces from the past, people who have supported our school throughout its growth and helped it to become what it is today.
There are a couple of people in particular who deserve a special mention. Theresa Hosman, who was also a Provo Primary teacher, between 1994-1997. Jenny Douglas, whose children Adam and Erik attended Provo Primary from 1995 to 2012, a span of 17 years, meaning that she was our longest standing parent! Jenny has also been a huge help to me with the accounting side of the school over the years.
Theresa put together an amazing slide show, which people enjoyed watching on Saturday. She felt it was important for people to see where our school started, and how far we have come since 1991! Sometimes this is easily forgotten, when we look at the school and what it is today. We did, however, have very humble beginnings!
Having come to Turks and Caicos in 1989 as vice-principal/principal at another school. I quickly recognized the need for a creative, meaningful approach to learning and decided to open up a small pre-school called Headstart Learning Centre. Within two years, it had grown to a fully fledged Primary School and so Provo Primary School began.
Our parents recognized from the very beginning that the quality of education at Provo Primary was embedded in the overall philosophy and the combined teaching team that made up Provo Primary. We’ve always lived by this motto that good teachers are our best resources and we have always tried to hire the best.
Having developed an excellent school, I wanted Provo Primary to be as accessible as possible to all students, which is why we established our scholarship programme, which has been in operation since 1994. One of the main contributors to this programme over the years has been Mark Pankhurst, who has generously donated his time and money to helping many of our students. Without Mark and Barbara Pankhurst, many of these children would not be where they are today. Ryesha Higgs is one of our multi-talented students who benefited greatly from our scholarship programme.
Over the past 25 years, Provo Primary is proud to have educated over 800 children. Some of whom came only for a short time, while others were at Provo Primary for 10 years. 10 years will have a huge impact on someone’s life, so it’s important that we get it right!
Nobody can take on this task alone and this is the time to recognize some of our wonderful teaching staff, led by our amazingly committed and dedicated Principal. Miss Sian has led Provo Primary as principal since 2008 and is responsible for developing our strong curriculum, and delivery and continuity of teaching throughout the school. I believe this is the key to our academic success. Sian has been teaching at the school since 1998, so has been with us for 18 years!
I’d like to thank Miss Myrna, who was at our school when it first opened in 1991 and after a 9 year break to teach in Bermuda, she returned to Provo Primary. Miss Myrna is an inspiration to us all with her teaching techniques and creative ideas.
I’d like also to take this opportunity to thank all our current parents and teachers who are constantly working to do all kinds of amazing things for the children and for the school generally.
I’d like to thank our PTA, in particular Lise, Kate and Steph, who have worked extremely hard, not only putting on our 25th Anniversary event, but throughout the year with various fundraising events.
I’d finally like to thank Sail Rock, Amayara and all the other businesses who donated to our silent auction and last but not least, Lauren Callighan, Stan Hartling and The Shore Club for hosting this event.
THANK YOU EVERYONE!
