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encourage and support their children. She added that so far for the term, the programme was
going well. She emphatically stated that the CPEA was a “good thing” because it helped
students to communicate more proficiently and generally developed their skills. She opined that
the components of the book report were excellent and suggested that these be introduced as early
as kindergarten. She added that it was essential that teachers explain to students the genres of
writing they were working on.

Miss Arlene Hogan informed the Committee that the problem they encountered with the CPEA
was compiling students’ portfolios with the different genres of writing. She revealed that the
requirement to rewrite drafts was time consuming and delayed the teaching - learning process.
The Local Registrar informed the Committee that the rewriting of drafts was part of the writing
process, and that students should not be learning all the genres of writing in grade six; that by the
time they reached the exit grade, they should be doing more practice to enhance their writing
skills. She told the Heads of schools that if students were deficient in the various writing types,
they need to investigate what happened on their journey to grade six.

Miss Denelta Weekes informed the Committee that her teachers were reluctant to teach grade six
because of the CPEA programme. She said that teachers found it was a lot of work, and
adequate support was essential for the assigned teacher. She noted that the programme began on
time and was carefully monitored, but unfortunately, additional classes during the Easter break
were required to complete the projects. Timing was clearly a problem and she sought solutions
from the Committee.

In response to Miss Weekes’ appeal, the principal of St. Augustine Primary shared that deadlines
were set for the completion of the different component of the requirements. For instance, the
final copy of the book report was due at the end of October, and two genres of writing should be
completed in term one. Persuasive writing, which is more challenging than the others, must be
one of the two. Projects were identified by the third week in November. Other suggested ideas
were teaching students to effectively manage their time and allowing students to take along their
drafts of grade five compositions to grade six where they could continue to improve them.

The Local Registrar informed members that her concern was about what happened when
students reached form one at secondary level after been exposed to the CPEA methodology.
Was there continuity? She pointed out that if the methodology was practised at the secondary
level, when the students reached the fourth and fifth forms, the problems teachers were now
encountering to get students to complete SBAs would be significantly minimized. The
Committee was reminded that the first batch of CPEA students was now in fourth form; and the
Local Registrar encouraged Mrs. Bramble-Browne to investigate to see how they were coping
with SBAs. She also recommended that the teachers of lower secondary and grade six meet to
align their teaching approaches. She pointed out that regardless to which programme was taught