The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

ST ANDREW'S School is aiming to become recognised as the "leading international school" in the Caribbean region, its principal telling Tribune Business that its newly-unveiled strategic plan would "shape us for the next eight-10 years".

Emphasising that the plan, St Andrew's 20/20, was a collective effort and not just his own work, Dr Glenn Canterford, the school's principal, said the document had been pulled together in just eight months - compared to the usual 15-18 months it normally took.

Explaining that the school's strategic plan looked at areas such as curriculum, financing and faculty, as well as revisiting the renowned private school's governance, Dr Canterford told Tribune Business: "Any school needs direction, and if you don't have direction, how do you know where you want to be.

"One of the things in the strategic plan is that we want to be the leading school, not just in the Bahamas but the region, and have people look at St Andrew's in the future and say: 'That's the way to do it'. We've got to have focus on where we want to be.

"I hope it takes us to the forefront as a leading international school in the region. I would like us to be recognised as a school where people say: 'You want to see how it's done, go to St Andrew's', whether that be in North, South, Central America or the Caribbean.

"I think we've got the teachers and community support to make that happen. In 2020, it would be nice to look back and say we're now recognised as a leading International Baccalaureate (IB) and international school."

Having arrived in the Bahamas to take up his post as St Andrew's principal last May, Dr Canterford said he spent a week listening to persons who described how they felt the school had "huge potential".

"Having listened to them, it felt it was time for a fresh approach built on the past," he explained, referring to the history of an educational institution founded in 1948. "It's our plan; it's not Glenn's plan. As everyone had their input into the plan, hopefully everyone will buy into it.....

"It's been a hard eight months for all of us. All schools like to take 15-18 months, and we've done it in eight months. Everyone's been fantastic in putting it together. Nicole Treco has done massive amounts of work in putting it together in the development office."

Noting that "almost" 100 per cent of St Andrew's graduates went on to further education overseas, in colleges or universities, Dr Canterford said of the strategic plan: "It's called St Andrew's 20/20, which hopefully will shape us for the next 10 years.

"It's not a plan set in stone, that can't be revisited. Some areas may come to the fore that have not been considered. As a school like ourselves, that sets ourselves out as an international school, we have to plan."

Dr Canterford said St Andrew's 20/20 had five goals as the "underlying driving forces" behind the plan, one being "the continued development of the International Baccalaureate philosophy throughout the school" over the next few years.

Between its pre-school and year 13, St Andrew's has some 810 students, and Dr Canterford told Tribune Business the school was seeking to expand its scholarship programme, something its Board of Governors was in agreement with.

St Andrew's was looking beyond pure academic achievements as the determining criteria for scholarship awards, and looking at gifted child musicians, visual artists and sportsmen as potentially deserving recipients.

And Dr Canterford added that St Andrew's was also working towards becoming a Green Flag school, under an initiative sponsored by the UK government, where it had to prove it was an eco-friendly institution.

"We've just started," he told Tribune Business. "Part of it is to reduce our carbon footprint." Outside consultants had already performed an eco and energy audit on St Andrew's, conducted over a three-week period, and Dr Canterford added: "Next year we will be driving to become more eco-friendly, collecting our own water and using solar panels. One of the things we want to do is reduce our carbon footprint."