‘I feel like a true champion’ | School principal George Goode reacts after special recognition

At the annual LASCO Principal and Teacher of the Year Awards, held February 3 at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, Goode copped the People’s Choice Award and the 2nd runner-up crown for Principal of the Year.

It was a surreal and momentous moment for the educator who entered the teaching profession in 2006.

“I am rather elated but humbled by this experience,” Goode told Old Harbour News in an interview. “It is really a wonderful experience to be recognized by others for the work that you have done. It is truly a good feeling. But when I work I don’t work with the intention that I’ll be awarded or that I will be rewarded. So to know that others are looking on at your work, it is really a wonderful feeling.”

One hundred and thirty outstanding educators were deservedly recognised at the 2022 Principal and Teacher of the Year Awards, an annual showpiece organized by the Ministry of Education and Youth and the Jamaica Teaching Council in partnership with corporate giants, the LASCO Group.

Dwayne Mulgrave, headmaster at Discovery Bay High, was voted the Principal of the Year, while Morant Bay Primary’s Jody Brown was named Teacher of the Year.

Goode, said he chose teaching following a life-changing conversation with one of his high school teachers at his alma mater, Tacius Golding High. 

“When I execute my job I do it with much passion and love,” added Goode who has been an educator of 17 years, all spent so far at Old Harbour Primary. “And I do it because a teacher made a difference in my life that is the turning point in my life when a teacher at Tacius Golding High School, Miss Novalin Leachman, took me and said to me that ‘George you can be anything that you want to be’. She said to me that you can achieve, work hard and she guided me along the way. And I have taken on that mantle that I want be an inspiration to others too, just as how I was impacted by a teacher.

“And so when I take on the business of education I take it very seriously as I want to see students improvement, I want to see school improvement, I want to see value added on people’s life. And it is really a wonderful feeling to know that I am contributing to nation building and others see the work that I have been doing and want to recognize me in this fashion.”

Described as a passionate people person, Goode, who became principal in 2016, has dedicated the awards to his staff, students, and extended school family because “this could not have been achieved without their support”.

“And so I want to express my gratitude to all the stakeholders who have been working with me as we work together to make Old Harbour Primary a beacon of excellence, not just in Old Harbour but certainly in St Catherine and Jamaica by extension,” he continued.

“To be among the top three in the island is a great experience. Over 1000 principals in Jamaica and over 100 nominated. I feel like a true champion. And I just want to give God thanks for His grace and His mercy over my life and for all those who have been supporting me, I’m really grateful for their support.

“It is really a joyous feeling. It tells me that the public is really happy with what is being done at Old Harbour Primary School and the leadership that is being offered there. I take it as a vote of confidence from the general public our parents, our teachers our well-wishers who have really seen all of us at Old Harbour Primary work to make our students the priority.”

 

 

 

 

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