SAN­DRA L BLOOD

Al­though it is not of­fi­cial­ly des­ig­nat­ed as a pres­tige school, achiev­ing that sta­tus has been a goal for stu­dents and staff at Wood­brook Sec­ondary School since its es­tab­lish­ment. That ob­jec­tive is ex­pressed in its mot­to, Aim High.

The ac­com­plish­ments of its grad­u­ates over the years, an im­pres­sive cadre of pro­fes­sion­als that in­cludes CEOs, busi­ness lead­ers, at­tor­neys, doc­tors, ath­letes and en­ter­tain­ers, are proof that this ob­jec­tive re­mains with­in reach.

Among the first of grad­u­ates, from the class of 1966 was Kei­th Swan­son, an in­ter­na­tion­al­ly-renowned sculp­tor. Oth­er no­table Wood­brook grad­u­ates are Den­nis Fran­cis, cur­rent Pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed Na­tions Gen­er­al As­sem­bly (UN­GA), for­mer net­ball cap­tain Sher­ill Pe­ters, Sen­a­tor Helon Fran­cis, a for­mer Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Monarch and Can­dice An­drews-Bru­mant, the first fe­male cap­tain of bp Rene­gades Steel Or­ches­tra.

Giv­en this im­pres­sive list of suc­cess­ful alum­ni, it is not sur­pris­ing that a for­mer Wood­brook Sec­ondary stu­dent is cur­rent­ly re­spon­si­ble for chart­ing the way for­ward for the 63-year-old in­sti­tu­tion.

She is Re­nee Ram­di­al, the act­ing prin­ci­pal, who is work­ing along with the staff to take the school to the net aca­d­e­m­ic lev­el.

Ram­di­al said the school is not just about aca­d­e­mics but pro­mot­ing holis­tic de­vel­op­ment and ap­pre­ci­a­tion for life.

“I can safe­ly say, Wood­brook has a very good fu­ture with these stu­dents. They give their all and throw their heart and soul in­to every­thing. They learn how to take pride in them­selves and their sur­round­ings,” she said.

Re­cent­ly, stu­dents of the 4H, In­ter­act and Vol­un­teer Clubs em­barked on a school beau­ti­fi­ca­tion project that re­quired team­work and man­age­ment and the Mod­ern Lan­guage de­part­ment cel­e­brat­ed Cin­co de Mayo.

These ef­forts were sup­port­ed by for­mer stu­dents Mar­cus Hart, Joel Stew­art, He­len Williams-Cum­ber­batch and Per­nel­la Dar­ling­ton who con­tributed prizes.

The school has al­so ben­e­fit­ed from a ded­i­cat­ed teach­ing staff that at one time in­clud­ed Ann-Mar­garet Robin­son, daugh­ter of for­mer Pres­i­dent Arthur NR Robin­son.

Teacher Ap­pre­ci­a­tion Week is a sig­nif­i­cant event on the school’s cal­en­dar and this year a for­mer stu­dent, C Karen For­tune used the oc­ca­sion to thank Math­e­mat­ics teacher David Lewis for his in­ter­ven­tion which in­spired her cur­rent pur­suit of a PhD in Chem­istry.

Ram­di­al said stu­dents have been in­spired to sur­pass the suc­cess­es, and she ex­pects to see that re­flect­ed in this year’s CXC re­sults.

In ad­di­tion, e-alum­ni lead Denise Dar­ling­ton is de­vel­op­ing an alum­ni busi­ness net­work and in the sport­ing are­na, the Wood­brook Sec­ondary foot­ball and net­ball teams en­joyed suc­cess­ful sea­sons.