Holland’s GLOW - The strides of Shanoya Douglas and Holland High

GLOW — Growing, Learning, Overcoming and Winning — as the acronym guiding the development of students at Holland High in Falmouth, Trelawny, is a graphic tale of the gallant strides of student athlete Shanoya Douglas and the academic performance of the school.

In the animated audience in the stands at the National Stadium, or glued to your television sets watching all that was gripping during this year’s Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships (Champs), you would have been struck by the repeated remarks of event reporters that Shanoya had steadfastly kept asserting that she was not interested in attending any other school but Holland High. Your interest would also have been heightened because it was a shared comment and sentiment of  schoolmate and running mate Johan Reynaldo Smythe.

Students from Muschett High in Wakefield, Trelawny, they were pursuing sixth-form studies down the proverbial road at Holland High in Falmouth, the capital of the parish — turning a deaf ear, as it were, to luring recruiters from ‘established’ traditional schools throughout the country.

That would again have stirred interest because, increasingly, in the world of sports, the transfer of promising student athletes from non-traditional high schools to more ‘recognised’ secondary school institutions has become customary. The process, the practice, is ingrained — entrenched — and it is perhaps prudent to note that the parents of Johan, Garth Smythe and Sancia Samuels, former athletes at Rusea’s High and coach and assistant coach, respectively, of both Johan and Shanoya, kept their son at Muschett even when he was eligible to attend a ‘known’ high school in Kingston.

The mother-and-father team earnestly believe in ‘growing where you’re planted’ and Sancia Samuels, in explaining why both student athletes have remained convinced about being properly developed in their own environs and have not been swayed by advances elsewhere, makes light-hearted but self-assuring reference to the biblical passage in Proverbs: Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it….

Why Holland?

Shanoya Douglas, the Under-20 World Junior 200 metres silver medallist (updated from bronze), who won the Class One sprint double at this year’s Champs — 10.98 in the 100 metres, the second-fastest Jamaican junior to do so, and 22.36 in the 200 metres, breaking the record of the decorated Brianna Lyston — says Holland, where she is pursuing nursing in sixth form, has a great academic staff.

“Here the teachers are more patient and hands-on with me — my grades have improved appreciably, and the school is serious about development.”

Johan, training partner (because Shanoya runs with the boys) and best friend and ‘brother’, who ran a personal best 10.24 to place fifth in the Class One 100 metres at Champs and, though injured, also placed fifth in the 200 metres in 21.6, says he is simply at home at Holland.

“I am more relaxed here; I have built a family here and that has helped with both performance and school work.”

Smythe, eyeing a career in sports journalism and marketing, speaks proudly of his teachers.

“They work on my weaknesses — everybody’s — and my work has improved.”

Coach Garth Smythe, founder of the Montego Bay-based Athletico Union Track Club in 2006, says Holland is a model of development.

“The way teachers interact with students is something to talk about. First, my son and Shanoya were accepted as if they were there from Grade 7 — and all students are cared for — they’re all stars and there’s no preferential treatment.”

“Teachers voluntarily… every day voluntarily, give an hour extra at the end of the day to guide the student body and there are weekly and monthly awards, so all students remain competitive with their subjects.”

Both Johan Smythe and Shanoya Douglas — recently breaking the 200 metres CARIFTA Under-20 record in 22.11 that had long been held by Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas — point to their own supportive roles at school.

“Though declining the offer to become prefects because of our tight training and study schedules,” says Douglas, “as sixth formers we automatically play our part in positively engaging other students.”

Engaging track and field student manager Debora-Ghail Livingston — the left and right hand of coach Smythe — is also of particular importance for all student athletes.

“In ensuring that everyone is properly prepared, on and off the track,” says the senior prefect, “my job is also to coordinate academic help. In making sure everyone is attending classes and abreast of their subjects, I am here to maintain contact with teachers as well.”

This GLOW of students at Holland High, the light beam of how they are driven, is also the very acronym for all that shines for teachers and administrators of the institution — Growth, Leadership, Opportunity and Wisdom.

The acronym, states principal Dayle Evans, is at the centre of the mission for the ongoing transformation of the school, which opened its doors in 2004 to pupils perceived by many as those being left behind.

Nestled in an informal community known as Zion — a place rich in spirit but burdened by social and economic challenges — Pauleen Pamela Reid, the founding principal, notes that of the 400 students assigned to Holland High, nearly 75 per cent were reading below the grade-six level.

“I still recall a ministry official remarking,” she says, “that Holland had gotten a raw deal. At our first meeting with parents, one candidly told the group that their children were now attending the dunce school.

“In those moments, my quiet resolve was simple: we must create a spring in this desert place. Many of our students lacked basic refinement, and some showed signs of mild developmental delays. We created a family setting — a community bound by shared purpose and mutual respect. Together, we shaped an educational leadership landscape defined by a schoolwide focus on student achievement, a commitment to improving and enriching school culture, and a spirit of collaboration among all stakeholders.

“The first principle we embraced,” she stressed, “was that accolades and acknowledgment must never lull us into complacency. Instead, they should fuel our resolve, reminding us that our success lies not in our history but in our destiny. Metaphorically, we had to function as a flashlight — working amidst the darkness of perceived negativity in a setting devoid of academic high-flyers — to illuminate what was positive and uplifting.”

Holland High was assessed by the National Education Inspectorate (NEI) in 2013 and was classified as ‘Good’, with the report highlighting several exceptionally high features, particularly in governance and school administration, innovative programmes, and student development programmes.

“This external validation,” she says, “affirmed that our systems, culture, and leadership practices were already operating at a level far above what our age as an institution might have suggested.”

In 2017, Holland High earned the NEI’s enviable rating of “Exceptionally High”.

“There were no highlighted weaknesses,” she pointed out, “and the descriptors used were expressed in a superlative degree, reflecting a school that had not only met national standards but had surpassed them with distinction.”

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