11-year-old Halla Henry overcomes family trauma to secure The Queen’s ticket

Her parents were going through separation which had a massive negative impact on her academic performance.

But as difficult as it was for the St John’s Primary student she managed to refocus to the point where when the recent Primary Exit Profile (PEP) results were made public, she was successfully placed at The Queen’s School.

Henry was placed at her school of choice after accumulating a placement score average of 90% to the delight, as well as surprise of her mother

“I was super happy and shocked at the same time because I was expecting the grade four performance to bring her down,” Shaniel Henry said of her eldest child.

For Halla, who turns 12 early next year, “when I first saw the results I felt excited and anxious at the same time.” Anxious because she began to imagine life at the all-girl secondary institution and didn’t know what to expect, she confessed.

The separation was a difficult process the mother admitted, but it was in the best interest of all involved. Formal counselling wasn’t sought, she said, relying instead on her many, many years of experience being in the police force.

“She wasn’t doing anything really in grade four. Most of the days she had a headache where not even painkillers would help her. Most of the times she had panic attacks,” Henry said. “Grade four was a terrible year for her.”

“I try to open up the whole process to her,” the mother of three added. “I didn’t try to keep her in the dark or shut her out. So I said to her ‘this is why mommy had to leave and this is why mommy cannot go back. So the only thing we can do is build ourselves from where we are because there is no going back’.”

Importantly Henry makes it her duty that the children see their father who has access to them whenever he wants to.

“I don’t take messages from her to give him or vice versa,” she said. “I make sure I give her a phone and said to her ‘if you need to talk to daddy call him’.”

With the loving care of her mother and constant counselling, Halla started to improve gradually in grade five, as she found her purpose once again.

Henry recently took Halla on a tour of the Anglican school which officially opened its doors in 1954, just to give her a feel of what her new school would be like.

“It’s really huge, so children have a lot of space,” she said in amazement, while telling Old Harbour News she is wholly focused on becoming a lawyer in the future.

Shereen McKenzie is Halla's class teacher. Her assessment of her now former student, who enjoys swimming and surfing the internet during her spare time, is frightening in a good way based on the immense potential she sees in her.

"I'd definitely encourage her mother to push her in high school to be a bit more competitive because a lot of the students are very competitive," McKenzie said to Old Harbour News. "So I think if she was like that she could have surpassed her good performance."

"Whatever she can do she can do very well at it. I see her leaning more towards the language art subjects," added McKenzie who had a cohort of 37 students in which more than 85 percent of the class matriculated to the school of their choice.

Respected counsellor Dr Vivienne Kerr commended Halla’s mother for the way she handled such a sensitive situation, but also warns against possible dangers that may occur in the future.

“What I would have recommended is that she sought professional help. What you’ll find is some parents might not go for counselling but they read and do their research to find out what to do and it would seems like that’s what she did or maybe she got help from others in terms of guidance,” reasoned Dr Kerr, who also stressed the importance of children maintaining a relationship with the other parent they do not live with.

With the trauma seemingly now behind them Henry believes Halla is back on track to go beyond her new frontier.

“She’s technologically savvy. She’s intrinsically motivated and that’s when she performs at her best. When she finds her interests she applies herself and she excels,” she told Old Harbour News.

“I think for her she realizes what this whole thing (getting an education) is all about now. So it’s not just going to school because they sent you to school. She understands the importance of every subject area, she understands the importance of co-curricular activities and she has been reading up on the internet about high school life. So I think mentally she’s prepared for it.”