BAHS News

Perhaps you’ve given up hope of ever seeing anything new here!
But don’t despair - there’s always hope, even in times as busy as these!
Here’s news of some recent and not so recent events at Bishop Anstey High School.

To our readers, please let us know what you’d like to read about and we’ll endeavour to oblige!

With so much happening, it’s very hard to know where to begin, or in what order to write about the wide range of topics that you will read about here. We have neglected for so long to keep you informed that there’s now almost too much news to manage! So, there’s no particular order to this account - it just grew! We hope you find something to interest you and we know that you’ll be much better informed about BAHS when you’ve finished reading. But don’t forget to read the other items, too - the story of the revival of the Miss Anstey competition, St Hilary’s Day 1998 and, perhaps the most important of all, Project 2000 Update.

Five National Scholarships were won by Bishop Anstey girls this year, three of them being Open Schols. Congratulations to Sabrina Pollucksingh, Sasha Balkaran, Salma Seegulam, Kisha Piggott and Tracey Oliveira!

Can you imagine the Chemistry labs without Mrs Durham or the office without Mrs Ahow? After some 35 years of service each, Mrs Durham retired last April and Mrs Ahow at Christmas. There was a concert, a speech and a farewell gift on both occasions and both ladies are now enjoying their retirement. Mrs Durham is very active in her Church and Mrs Ahow is getting ever more deeply involved with swimming classes and Suzette’s computer!

MRS CYNTHIA BIRCH

After some 27 years at Bishop’s, Mrs Birch has earned her retirement; she left us at the end of the School year; our prayers and best wishes go with her.

Mrs Cynthia Birch, shortly to retire, reads about St Hilary during the 77^th Anniversary Service.

Letitia joined the teaching staff in September 1996, fitting very quickly into the role of History teacher, but her talents extend far beyond History into drama, public speaking and singing. At the beginning of the Easter vacation, she was married and is now Mrs Wesley Williams; we wish her and her husband all happiness for the future.

To those who might not have heard of the death of our much loved Security Guard, Miss Vilma Pilgrim, this news will come as a great shock, for who would have believed that this could happen? Her courage, cheerfulness and determination to get well were an inspiration to all of us but, sadly, it was not to be. Miss Pilgrim passed away in August 1997 and, even though it was vacation time, many of the Choir were at the Holy Trinity Cathedral a few days later to sing for her. The size of the congregation and the tears shed that day gave an insight into the number of lives Miss Pilgrim had touched. One of her closest daughters, Janelle Aaron, spoke beautifully and with great feeling of what she had been to so many of our students; it was clear that the love and affection shown were a source of strength to her close friends and family. May she rest in peace.

This took place in October at Queens Hall. In her well received address, Principal Ms Valerie Taylor gave an account of the year just concluded, referring to many events and achievements and to many persons who were thanked for doing so much to help us. She also noted the serious financial constraints under which we operate, with an anticipated shortfall of $250,000 this year between grants and expenditure. It might be useful to quote directly from her speech with respect to her overview of our situation.

We were forced for another year to marvel at the outstanding vision, foresight and sacrifice that led to the founding of this School seventy six years ago....... We were forced over the past year too, to give thought to the many societal changes and challenges which beset us and are impacting on the structure and intent of our education system. Not the least of these is the creeping ‘commoditisation’ of education and increasing currency of the view that education is a product, subject as any, to market forces of supply and demand.

These developments make it imperative that we of the Bishop Anstey community reflect at length on our founding vision and remind ourselves of the social, moral, and ethical principles that are at its core. We need, as a Church, as parents, teachers and friends, to be more alert to the developing trends, to be more concerned, more informed and to be prepared to take action in defence of our founding vision - a vision of quality education in its broadest sense made available to a wide spectrum of girls in Trinidad and Tobago. It is our duty to ensure that this vision lives on.

Congratulations are in order to Maricia Boodoo who earned a Business Scholarship based on her 1997 A level results. We were also very happy to note the late Scholarship Awards for 1996 to Natasha Sansavior and Tricia Barrow in the Business and Language groups respectively. Meanwhile Natasha’s sister Eva-Maria, herself the winner of the top Languages Scholarship some years ago, was awarded a First Class Honours Degree from Reading University in England.

This is one of several overseas-based organisations which aim to remain in contact with and to assist the School; in recent times we have benefitted greatly from the fund-raising activities of the Washington Alumnae Association. With the current better than 6:1 exchange, we were delighted to receive their gift in 1997 which permitted us to purchase more than 350 chairs for the School Hall. Many persons will agree that the gift was timely and exceedingly welcome, since these chairs not only look much better than most of those we normally have to use when we chair the Hall for a function but, of perhaps greater importance to those who have to sit there, they are very much more comfortable! We were very happy that Dr Patricia Niles was able to be in Trinidad for our Awards Ceremony in 1997 representing the Association and presenting the Association’s Shield for Effort and Improvement at the Form III level to Salome Hope. Dr Niles addressed the gathering and was then presented with a bouquet by last year’s winner of the award, Ardene Sirjoo. You can learn more about the Washington Alumnae by writing to 6609 16th Street North West, Washington D.C. 20012.

This organisation has functioned for a number of years and gives a bursary annually to the student from each of the Schools ‘who show the highest combination of academic excellence and financial need’. For their 1997 awards the committee selected, after much deliberation, Janelle Bernard and Jelliffe Jackson. Both are now ending their first year at St Augustine, Janelle studying Law and Jelliffe, Mechanical Engineering. If you wish to know more about this organisation, please write to Box 266, Adelaide Post Office, Toronto, Ontario M5C 2J4. Application forms can be collected at both Bishop’s and QRC.

With the assistance of parents, we have been able to organise an orientation programme for our incoming LVI students in September 1996 and 1997. The transition from life in Form V, doing Ordinary Level/CXC work to that in Form VI with Advanced level work is surely the biggest jump students are ever required to make; we know that these programmes have been very helpful and look forward to further development along similar lines.

Inspired by their Orientation Programme in September 1996, a group of students decided to make their mark in a very meaningful way! Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ was to be one of their Literature texts so they decided to put on the stage version of this novel. With Debbie McCollin as the producer they enthusiastically set about casting (with the male parts taken by students from QRC and, later, one from Fatima), learning their roles and constructing appropriate sets and costumes.

This project involved almost one year’s very committed effort for which very little adult assistance was available until just before the final rehearsal period. The students involved matured greatly with this effort and demonstrated outstanding qualities of leadership, self discipline, creativity and strength. The entire production, which ran for three nights in the School Hall, was highly acclaimed, with outstanding performances by all, but special mention must be made of Tonni Brodber as Elizabeth Bennett and Odesma Dalrymple as Mrs Bennett.

Led by our acting Music Teacher, Lorraine Granderson who was assisted by Mrs Vernella Pilgrim, we achieved great success at the 1997 Music Festival; three choirs and more than fifty students entered some seventeen classes, both vocal and instrumental and we even had a teachers trio, comprised of the Misses Aaron, Thompson and Brown. There were finalists in almost all classes and many winners, outstanding amongst whom were Kamaria Cupid and Mandisa Granderson who won the Girls’ vocal duet for age 10-12 in the North and Patrice Quammie and Donna-Marie Neaves who won the Girls’ vocal duet in both North and the Championships in the 16-19 age group.

Three of our instrumentalists did exceptionally well - Patrice Scipio won the Steelpan Solo, Reanne Aimey the North Euphonium Solo, while La Toya Wellington, a violinist, emerged as the Festival’s Champion instrumentalist.

The Junior Choir and the Folk Choir each placed second in their classes; and to save the best for last, the Senior Choir placed first in the Open Category, winning the TMA School Shield for the Best Children’s choir, the Marionettes’ Cup and the Prime Minister’s Challenge Trophy for the most Outstanding School Choir.

Between those involved in Festival and those in ‘Pride and Prejudice’ (and a number of students took part in both), it is difficult to say which group gave us greater pleasure, or made us feel more proud; suffice it to say that both were magnificent and both set excellent standards for others to follow.

The Hilarians Association donated the money with which we were able, at last, to purchase pans and start a small steel orchestra. We were extremely happy when it made its first appearance at the 1997 Annual Awards Ceremony; the proceedings began with the National Anthem and later the orchestra supported the choir in their rendition of ‘The Power of the Dream’ - such a powerful and moving performance that many in Queen’s Hall came close to tears.

There are always more quizzes and assorted competitions than can be handled, together with the work that must be done; we should note our participation with distinction every year in the Mathematics Olympiad and the Young Leaders Competition. Ria Chrysostom won almost all the prizes at the first Ciy of Port of Spain public speaking competition and, in the CLICO poetry competition of 1997, Ayanna Lloyd gained first prize. Sasha Balkaran of UVI recently made us very proud when she was announced as the winner of the senior category in the BWIA essay competition; she wrote the best response to the topic ‘Discuss the role of BWIA in the development of the Caribbean’. Her prize is two tickets to any BWIA destination so Sasha, a Maths/Business student, will get the opportunity to do the travelling which she desires.

Again we had a very successful Bazaar on the first Sunday in November, raising nearly $100,000. By turning the speakers to face in a different direction, it was observed that the ever-popular Disco caused somewhat less horrors than usual to the older generation who had assembled in the Music Room for tea!

The tea was organised, for the last time she insists, by Mrs Ambah Thomas who is handing over to a younger Old Hilarian. We thank Mrs Thomas for her sterling efforts on our behalf for so many years, in the face of many difficulties, (not excluding the competition caused by the Disco!) We must thank, as always, the group of committed parents who worked together with a group of teachers, in particular Miss Campbell, Mrs Mark and Mrs Gittens to ensure that our premier fund-raiser was a success.

You probably did not hear about the high drama which occurred in November 1996 when the large palm which stands beside the southern gate to the Chancery Lane car park was struck by lightning and burst into flames, presenting a clear hazard to the cars of the teachers, especially that of Mrs Birch which was parked directly below. The fire department was summoned and cars were speedily removed from the scene, but Mrs Birch was nowhere to be found having, as we heard later, gone on an expedition! Every student of the School converged on the scene (the 2.30 bell had just been rung) and cheered enthusiastically as the large and very promptly despatched fire engine arrived. At that moment, the heavens opened and the flames were quickly doused by the cooperation of man and nature!

Our first exhibition of the portfolio art of our CXC and Advanced level students was held in the School Hall three years ago. A better location was obviously desirable and in both 1997 and 1998, our Art students have exhibited their portfolio work at the Gallery 1234 in the Normandie Hotel. The quality of the work moved Mr Ken Crichlow to donate a very generous prize for excellence in Art - this prize was won by Marielle Barrow in 1997 for achieving this quality of excellence in her A level examination. Marielle, together with two of her fellow students, Kiola Swanston and Sarah Marshall, had their work shown in the Art Exhibition held in London, marking the thirty fifth anniversary of Independence of Trinidad and Tobago.

Just two short years ago, all we had in our Computer Room was a few old 286 and upgraded 386 computers. Now, after a year of focus on improving the technological base of the School, we are very pleased to be able to tell you that we have nearly twenty five 486 or better computers. This has come about with considerable help from friends and family of the Bishop’s community for which we are, as always, very thankful. We acquired ten Aptiva Pentium Computers, courtesy Amoco Trinidad Ltd., three Zenith 486’s, courtesy G-Tech Corporation, five 486’s through the assistance of Mr Alan Warner, three 486’s through the efforts of Corinne McKnight and Dr Claudio Grossman and two 486 computers from the bank of Nova Scotia. Individual donors have also contributed computer equipment. We have also been able to effect some extension and improvement to the Computer Room itself - not as much as we might like, but remember that Old Building, where the Computer Room is located, is part of Phase III of Project BAHS 2000. Our students are taking advantage of these new facilities, together with the new Library computer, where they can do their research on the Internet - and join the chat sites too, when they think we are not looking! We must record our very sincere gratitude to all individuals and companies who have made all this possible.

Valuable computer training has taken place through the courtesy of Royal Bank and the School Net Edu-Link project of Roytec.

This process was begun with the phased introduction of computer-generated reports, which started in December 1996 and continues, not without the odd hiccup over data which does not always wish to be merged and a printer of too limited memory-capacity! (This latter is one of the few computer problems with which the author can empathise!) But it gets easier each time. We owe very large debts of gratitude to Lennox Williams from Polytechnic, who devoted innumerable hours to assisting us and to A level computer student and Deputy Head Girl, Odesma Dalrymple, who was never too busy to help - at night, during vacations, when she was supposed to be at class, when studying in the library - whenever we needed her, Odesma was available.

Currently, Dr Patricia Dardaigne-Ragguet (better known to you, perhaps, as Patti Wilson) is working with our clerical staff, Mrs Yvette Roberts and Mrs Shirley Sagar in Computer Literacy with the aim of having many of the office operations updated in the very near future. In fact, Shirley’s desk has recently acquired a computer with, we hope, a printer to follow soon.

By now you will surely have heard of the huge success of the Carnival fetes run by the Old Hilarians in the School grounds in 1997 and 1998. In just two years, the Hilarians Fete has become one of the highlights of the Carnival season. The live music was provided by Andy Joseph and Traffik, Blue Ventures with Ronnie McIntosh and Roots with David Rudder; DJ music came from Johnny Q and DJ Ubiquity. With sounds such as these, abundant food and a well-stocked bar, a good time was had by all.

Subsequent press reports confirmed what we all observed - Hilarians know how to organise and enjoy a good fete. Next year clearly one will have to purchase tickets very early to ensure that severe disappointment is avoided! Details here.

We have been hearing much via the media about the drought and fires in the Northern regions of the Amazon, but far less attention has been paid to the effects of the unusually long and dry period in Guyana, particularly in the Rupununi Savannas. The great hardship and the danger of famine to the people of this area was addressed in School almost singlehandedly by Onyka Barrett who decided to revive a BAHS tradition of attempting to bring a measure of relief to whichever of our Caribbean neighbours found themselves in distress. [Remember the earthquake in Managua, the eruption of the Soufrière volcanoes in both St.Vincent and Guadeloupe, the hurricane and tropical storm victims in Montserrat and Saint Lucia and, of course, the victims of the mud volcano in Piparo? To our shame, we have not responded to the ongoing crisis in Montserrat - but where do you begin in such a situation?]

Items of food and clothing were delivered recently to the F.E.E.L. warehouse in the Fernandes compound and a sum of money was sent directly to Clive Pantin, who heads the organisation. Congratulations Onyka! As the new term began, Onyka and a group of UVI students conducted a morning Assembly focussing on Guyana and they introduced a new fund-raiser with the theme of counting your blessings and paying for your indiscretions; this involves small financial contributions for blessings received and penalties for such activities as wasting food, water, electricity etc - all to show our solidarity with the people of Guyana and, in particular, the Amerindians of the Rupununi Savannas. The School has made an appeal to the All Saints congregation to do likewise; Canon Joseph was happy to commend the idea to this part of his flock.

After about five years with no Miss Anstey competition, members of the Lower VI brought it very successfully back to life this year! Congratulations here go to Louise Franklin, Joanne Nanton and their hardworking committee.

A year of focus on technology was followed by a year when the spotlight was placed on Sport; in consequence, quite a number of exciting things has been happening in this area of School life. Our Volleyball team which, not too long ago, was the laughing stock of the league, had a highly successful season in which they won the Under 14 championship in the Secondary Schools’ National League, and came second in each of the U17 and U20 groups. As the season ended the team members, led by Patrice Quammie, conducted what almost everyone felt was amongst the best morning Assemblies ever. They related the improved academic performance which has accompanied their sporting success to the discipline and overall well-being brought about by their serious involvement in physical activity and gave God thanks and praise for their experiences. An inspiring beginning to a day’s work, indeed!

The Netball teams have also had an exciting season this year; the senior netball team won the March Past (where some fifty teams were entered) and the Junior team, though not permitted official entry to the March Past competition, were nevertheless highly commended! These are inexperienced teams and the measure of success on the court that they achieved augurs well for the future; the U17 team is currently playing in the Port of Spain league, where they should gain valuable experience.

Our very young and enthusiastic cricketers seemed to be heading for a season without defeats; every week, we heard about their successes! They reached the final of the Windball competition, but lost to St Joseph’s Convent. In football, our students also did very well, coming first in the March Past and third in the Schools’ League competition. Efforts are being made to revive hockey in the School, we were very pleased to hear very recently that UVI student Kecia Jones has been awarded a full hockey scholarship to an American university.

On Friday April 24 our Sports’ Day took place, as usual, at the St. Mary’s College grounds on Serpentine Road. The days activities were opened by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs, Miss Phyllis Augustus, herself an Hilarian. Along with our School Supervisor, Mr Alvin Brown and Principal Miss Taylor, Miss Augustus stood in the sun for a long time at the podium and took the salute.

The March Past was even better than ever - not just because of the colour and style of the uniforms of the students representing their Houses and the discipline, skill and hard work which had evidently gone into the preparation of the teams. This year we were treated to the Bishop Anstey High School Drum Corps, coached and led by Marielle Barrow; they provided the music for the marching teams and were received with great enthusiasm and appreciation by all present. With great difficulty the judges declared Trinity House to be the winners of the March Past, with El Tucuche in second place and Cerro Aripo third. At the end of a very hot day filled with excitement and competition, Trinity House was declared the overall winner, followed by Chancellor and Cerro Aripo. Individually, the Junior, Middle and Senior Champions respectively were Charisse Bacchus, Sommer Hunte and Shola Thompson.

Our athletes have also been very successful in the Zonal and National Championships, where Renée Clarke (pictured at left) was unbeaten in the Under 15 100, 200 and 400 metres, thus earning the title of most outstanding athlete: she went on to represent Trinidad and Tobago in the recent Carifta Games. The weekend after the start of the new term the ‘NEMWIL Top Ten’ sports meeting was held at the National Stadium - the fact that Bishop’s was invited says much for the quality of our young athletes. We placed third and our team gained many individual medals, but it was in the relays that they really excelled, placing first in a very exciting 4x400 metres and second in the 4x100 metres.

With all this going on in Sports, Mrs Mark is being kept very busy! We are very pleased that so many of her young charges are doing so well!

Now this section should not be part of School news but should come together by itself, as all Old, Less Old and Young Old Hilarians send information about themselves to Nicky Grant, who organises our Website for us. But perhaps some news that has recently come to us might be a start:

Lisa Phillip, currently at Barry university in Miami, entered one of her poems in a US national poetry competition and has reached the finals. Her poem, ‘Anger’ is to be published soon in an anthology entitled ‘On the Wings of the Wind’.

Karla Mark, daughter of our longtime PE teacher Mrs Ria Mark, is at University in North Carolina where she’s playing tennis, as you won’t be surprised to hear - but what may surprise you is that she’s considered too good for the girls’ team and is currently playing for the men’s team!

Arlene Peterkin-Alario, who you may see in the cabin crew when you fly BWIA, recently produced a beautiful baby girl, Mia.

Joy Rudder (née Cobham) is back in Trinidad, after a long time spent writing on Environmental and other issues in many Caribbean islands. She has also spent time in Vancouver and is the author of a very interesting and unusual book about Trinidad and Tobago, ‘Our Native Land’.

Mrs Pearl Graham (Pearl Suite), Mrs Theresa Netto-Ackrill and Mrs Norma Mewa all live close to each other in an area of Ontario, not too far distant from Toronto. Mrs Graham is retired, and much involved with her grandchildren while Mrs Ackrill and Mrs Mewa are still in the teaching business. They are in frequent e-mail contact with their friends still at BAHS, from whom we hear that liming and eating ice cream in malls is now a regular and much enjoyed activity. So, in case you ever wondered, there is life after BAHS!

If you’ve found anything to interest you here, please let us know and we’ll promise to try to do better at keeping you informed on a more regular basis, so that it won’t be so much at once next time!

The Internet and/or e-mail seems to be a good way for us to keep track of our former students – please keep us informed! Our e-mail address is boffice@wow.net and we can be reached by fax at (868) 625-7219, phone at (868) 623 6591. Don’t forget the GuestBook, which you can easily access, read, sign and leave your message.

The BAHS Web Site is maintained courtesy of Sputnick Limited
Page last updated 1st November 1998