Global Education Meets Excellence

How does a school transform from "satisfactory" to "good" in just four years? Sheldon Thomas, Jamaica's Principal of the Year for 2025, joins us from the ASCD ISTE Conference in San Antonio to share his remarkable leadership journey at Ferncourt High School.

Website: spotlight4success.com

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Boat
Company.
I am Devin Pintosa, your host.
We are here in sunny SanAntonio, Texas, at the ASCD ISTE
Conference and we are soexcited to have with us the
Principal of the Year forJamaica for 2025.
This is Sheldon Thomas withFencourt High School.

(00:27):
Thank you for joining us today,Sheldon.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Thank you for having me, and it's a good opportunity
for me to share what's happeningin Jamaica and at my school on
this platform.
Thank you for having me, oh,wonderful.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Can you tell us about what is going on at Sheldon
High School that led to youbecoming Principal of the Year?

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Okay, sure.
So in 2024, our school wasinspected by the National
Education Inspectorate.
During that inspection, ourschool previously was rated as
satisfactory.
But when they visited FernCourt in February of 2024, we
were rated as good.
So that is a big improvementfor Ferncourt High School, all

(01:07):
the way from St Anne.
Also, when they look at ouraccomplishment as a school
because I took over as principalsince February 2020, right, so
they have the improvement of myleadership over the period.
I would have seen greatimprovement as it relates to
academic performance,stakeholder partnership with the

(01:30):
community, with alumni, andalso improvement in students'
behavior during that periodbetween 2020 to 2024.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
Wonderful, yes, wow.
So what a big change in a shortperiod of time.
Sure, so what do you think?
What kind of leadership skillsdid you use, or initiatives, to
get that rating higher for yourschool?

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Okay.
So when I took over in February, I started with the vision what
is my vision of the institution?
And getting buy-in from thedifferent stakeholders.
So at the start, in terms of ateach meeting, I always say to
my parents, the students,academic staff, my vision of the

(02:17):
school, where I want to takeFerncourt in the future, and
that is what we use, and wewould have different discussion
how we can take Ferncourtutilizing that vision.
And our vision is engagingstakeholders in acquiring
knowledge, developing skills andbuilding character to function
globally.
So that's the mission, thevision of the school.

(02:41):
So in different meetings, whenwe identify, identify problems,
we see how best we can get theirback in.
So I use a collaborativeleadership style in terms of
listening to persons the goodand not so good at times.
Sometimes it's a bitchallenging but I have to listen
for the bad or the negativefeedback and see how best we can

(03:05):
put forward solutions toaddress it.
So that's how my style iscollaborative leadership.
Oh, that's so wonderful.

Speaker 3 (03:12):
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(03:34):
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Speaker 1 (04:04):
And can you tell me what brings you here to San
Antonio today, to the ISTE Right?

Speaker 2 (04:08):
So, because of being the principal of the year, I've
been funded by the LascochinFoundation to fully paid trip
here from Jamaica, here to SanAntonio, texas.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
Very nice.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yes, yes, it's part of the prize package.
Wow.
And I also have here personshere with the Teacher of the
Year is also here as well, andour TV Teacher of the Year is
here, so the three of us arehere from Jamaica.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
Yes, yes, oh, that is so great, great.
Thank you.
I hope you get a lot out of theconference here.
Sure, sure.
What are you hoping to get outof the conference to bring back
to Jamaica?

Speaker 2 (04:50):
Well, so I'm trying to learn some best practices
that I've seen so far and willtake it back to Jamaica to share
with other educators as well,because being part of the this
award means that I have to gointo schools to assist where
possible, so that's part of thepackage as well to share what
I've learned here, to see howbest we can get Jamaica as well
to be part of the globallandscape as it relates to

(05:12):
education.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
That is so awesome, sheldon.
That is a great mission, evenfor this trip.
Sure, do you have somethingyou'd like to share with the
ASCD ISTE community, theeducational leaders, the
technology specialists,everybody involved that are here
at this conference now, amessage you'd like to share with
them?

Speaker 2 (05:32):
All right, so I would want to say that, for me,
professional development isimportant, very important, and
part of this conference.
It means that we are preparingeducators for the future, that
we are preparing educators forthe future, or we can go into
our schools and change thelandscape so that our learners
can be better equipped for thefuture.

(05:53):
That's awesome.
Thank you so much Thank you forhaving me, Sheldon Thomas.

Speaker 1 (05:58):
Principal of the Year for Jamaica.
Thank you so much for joiningus today.
Thank you, thank you.