Bartons Primary alumni working to put their alma mater on top

This is the precise goal of the Bartons Primary Reunion Group, an assemblage of past students spanning three generations at least.

Formed a year before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic the group is making an impact already.

It all began as a light chatter among three friends – all now retired police officers – who received their education at what was then the Bartons All-Age School. The trio is Lloyd Smith, Roy Tulloch and Fitzgerald Gordon who graduated in the early 1970s. Together they decided to stage a reunion for past students irrespective of the era you left the school. But the global health crisis forced them to shelve the idea twice amid high interest in the event from hundreds of former students. Despite the delay to reunite old schoolmates they have embarked on several initiatives, with a computer lab being a top priority.

“Hopefully we’ll get to complete that project and have the reunion next year,” said Smith who noted that they have donated two desktop computers during the first quarter of the 2020 academic year. At that time school went virtual, an opportunity they seized upon to repair the main gate of the more than 100-year-old institution. The most outstanding academic performer will have the honour of having their name inscribed on a trophy, thanks to the group.

“We are trying to locate some containers to retrofit and make it as comfortable for the students,” added Tulloch in regard to the computer lab. 

Like any well-established business governed by rules and by-laws, the body is run by an executive inclusive of a treasurer (Sybil Francis), secretary (Levet Halstead-Watkins) and other key decision-makers of the group. Over 250 past students have already joined their Facebook group where ideas are shared as well as update on projects. Meetings are held at specified times while all donations are logged into a bank account created solely for this purpose for ease of reference, transparency and accountability, Old Harbour News was informed during a Zoom meeting with some of its executives. The executive body is a good mix of qualified and experienced professionals across several generations, a strategy its founders are deliberate about to ensure continuity in years to come.

“So when we decide to step aside they can take the ball and run with it,” said Smith who co-chairs the body along with Tulloch.

Established more than a century ago by the Bartons Anglin Church, the school has churned out countless individuals who have gone on to become noble professionals in “every sector that you can think of,” stated executive member Dr Carmel Roofe, whose full-time job is working as a senior lecturer in the School of Education at the University of the West Indies and deputy dean with responsibility for graduate studies and research in the Faculty of Humanities and Education. Their personal success, they believed, can be traced back to the invaluable lessons and character-building traits inculcated at Bartons.

“One of the lessons that I’ve learnt is respect,” remarked Gordon who served the Jamaica Constabulary Force for decades. “We’ve learnt to respect each other and for a major part respect our elders and to show a spirit of comradeship.

“We learn to be kind when we were growing up. We shared what we had. So if somebody has some ackee we may give them some breadfruit and so on and so forth. We were always spreading love in that community. It was closely knit.”

“What was good at the time,” Tulloch, another retired member of the JCF chimed in. “There were some teachers from the community [like] Ms Ramsay and Ms Bailey, who were very much in touch with the community.”

Smith, who spent more than 40 years as a law enforcement officer in New York emphasized the point that the community in those days felt like one big united family. “Every parent in that community looks out for every child in that community,” he said.

Those days are now far removed from the current realities in this rural community nestled in the inlands of northern Old Harbour. Nonetheless it’s a spirit they hope to rekindle by investing in an institution that one will be considered among the crème de la crème.

‘We are hoping to bring that school up to a level where it stands out,” said Smith.

As one who is passionate about education Dr Roofe was sold on the idea when she was approached to join the team as “it’s a school that is foundation to whatever else I would’ve achieved”.

“I gravitate to any mission that seeks to develop people, that seeks to give back, that seeks to contribute to making someone or something better,” said the university lecturer. “So I’m very excited to contribute because it is something worthwhile and it connects with our Vision 2030 goal of making Jamaica a place of choice for people to come back and want to do business, to live, work and raise families and not for all of us to go away.”

Considered as the baby on the executive team, Shania Ellison-Brown said she was “elated when they asked me to be a part of the group”. As a member of the Bartons Primary Graduating Class of 1995 and a current teacher on staff, Ellison-Brown is the liaison between the school and the group, a task she’s proud to take on.
“It feels good being with them,” she said of the other members.

“I believe since I’ve joined recently, a very short time, that we have a team that is committed to fulfilling this mission of impacting lives in a real and tangible way,” noted Dr Roofe who would have graduated in the mid-1980s.

During our almost hour-long interactive session one could feel a heightened level of togetherness and deep mutual respect among the members, even though they admit that they are still getting to know and learn about each other.

It is the kind of camaraderie the founding elders dreamed about and hope will inspire others to come on board and collectively build a legacy that will outlive them in the same way their alma mater left an indelible inscription in their hearts and minds.