History Of The St. Matthew's Primary School

The St. Matthew’s Primary School formally known as St. Matthew’s Mixed School was founded between 1830 and 1834 on land deeded from Friendship Plantation. The first building was similar in architectural design and structure to the former St. George Boys’ School. The entrance to the school was through the churchyard which still opens onto Jackman’s Main Road to this day..

The sexes were separated in 1897 and individual schools were established for both boys and girls. The first building became the St. Matthew’s Girls and the newly constructed hall became the St. Matthew’s Boys.

In 1967, an annex was built. By 1981, it became a composite school and in 1989 the school was renamed St. Matthew’s Primary School. In 2002, the school underwent extensive renovations and extensions to facilitate the introduction of Information Technology.

 

        ☝Learning Support Rooms 

A Special Unit Programme was also introduced in 2002. Students with learning disabilities were admitted to the school. Students of different age groups were assigned by the Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training. The students received individual guidance in the area of remedial Mathematics and Language Arts from trained teachers in the area of Special Education from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon. 

The programme was referred to as The Inclusion Unit because students returned to the mainstream classes in the afternoon from 1:00 - 3:00 p.m. to be included the subjects taught at that time like General Science, Physical Education, Social Studies etc. as well as other class activities working side by side with their peers. 

To date in 2022, many changes have been made to the Special Unit Programme. In order for the students to benefit more from the special education programme, the Special Education Officer of the Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training, though it best to have a programme where students can receive more instruction from the Special Education teachers for the entire day(9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.)

Floating teachers were then able to interact with students in the teaching of Games, General Science, Social Studies, Health Science, Music and Information Technology. So the concept of inclusion still plays a significant role in the school. 

Currently, the roll of the St. Matthew's Primary School is one hundred and fifty-two(152) students, under the leadership of the principal Mrs. Coleen Gilkes-Collymore. The students range from three(3) to eleven(11) years old. There are a few students who are twelve(12) years old, and this is due to students who would've been deferred. 

The number of teachers is eighteen(18). Other ancillary staff includes: two(2) janitors, two(2) servers, two(2) monitors and four(4) parent volunteers.