The George Hicks High School's newly appointed school leaders and Deputy school leaders held a press conference last week to debrief the press on their findings during their recent visit to the UK.

The four school leaders, who made the weeklong visit, said that the trip centered around a very intensive professional development study on school development.  The trip, which was organised and led by Gareth Long, Strategic Development Advisor (education), was based at Ercall Wood Technology College (EWTC) in Telford.

The HeadTeacher at EWTC, Kathryn Own-Reece, and a number of her staff came to Cayman in March of this year, and spent much of their time with a number of the staff at George Hicks High School.

EWTC has filled the position of mentor for George Hicks High School and has also served as the Video-Conference link school, as well.

During their week at EWTC, the School Leaders and Deputies took part in every aspect of school life at the school and were able to attend staff meetings, and shadow existing instructors at school and see first hand, the day-to-day dealings at the school.

Mrs Owen-Reece from EWTC was also able to interview the school leaders from George Hicks, individually, and deal with their challenges, as well as, discuss their long-term strategic goals and visions.

Now that preparations have taken place for the upcoming school year, the Leadership staff at George Hicks High School (GHHS) is gearing up to launch their new concept model in September that will separate the existing campus of GHHS into four smaller campuses - that are divided by grade levels.

It is the hope that this new concept, which will eventually become the standard for all school campuses in the Cayman Islands, will take the educational experience to a higher level for both students and educators alike.

Another goal of the educators involved in this lofty project is to produce a competitive atmosphere amongst the four grade levels and to see that competition raises the academic standards at the High School.

"One of the things that we are looking to do is to instill a sense of competition amongst the students. With four schools with the same amount of students and the same resources we should be able to create a great atmosphere for competition amongst the schools," said Gareth Long, Strategic Development Advisor at the Ministry of Education.

In September, the Minister of Education, Hon Alden McLaughlin, the Ministry Chief Officer and Mr Long will be re-visiting the UK.

The visit is hoped to include EWTC, to further develop links and refortify the already effective working relationship in supporting GHHS; a meeting with the Director of Child Services and other senior staff at Telford to discuss their strategic thinking and implementation regarding new schools; and a two day visit with architectural designer, Professor Heppell, to look at concepts for the schools and classrooms of the future.