WHEELCHAIR BOUND STUDENT GETS TO GO TO SCHOOL

Over the past several days young Britannia Stephenson has been a picture of happiness.

The 13-year-old wheelchair-bound student, who has been diagnosed with encephalopathy, had been sitting at home for almost three months anxiously waiting to start her high school education, after it was revealed that the Hopewell High School, where she was awarded a place after sitting this year’s Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT), had no ramp and as such, could not be accommodated at the Hanover school.

After the Sunday Observer highlighted the plight of young Britannia, a native of the deep rural community of New Milns in Hanover, late last month, and the subsequent intervention of personnel from the Ministry of Education and Member of Parliament for Hanover Eastern Dave Brown, plans were finalised for her to attend the Dr Fidel Castro Campus of Anchovy High School in St James, where classrooms and other facilities are located on the ground floor.

But even after young Britannia was accepted there, her mother, Cecilia Hill, a single parent, was uncertain if her daughter, who have never walked since birth, could start school before next January, due to financial constraints.

The prospect of not having to begin high school until the start of the Easter term, coupled with her absence from school for almost three months, had left Britannia depressed and dejected.

But all of that changed last Monday when the youngster turned up for classes at Anchovy High.

When the Sunday Observer team caught up with her on Thursday shortly after the end of classes, Britannia could not mask her joy

Sporting a broad smile and exuding confidence, the former Watford Hill Primary student gleefully told the Sunday Observer that she was very happy to be back in school.

“I feel happy to be back in school. Already I have found a lot of new friends and I have been learning in class,” said a smiling Britannia.

Suzanne Bucknor, Home and Family Management teacher at Anchovy High, described Britannia as “a bright young lady who is very timid”.

“She was very excited to see the compound; she said it’s very big, much bigger that her old school. I told her I hadn’t heard of her old school, but she showed me a picture of it on her phone and what the uniform looks like and everything, and that there are two students here who she went to school with…. she was really, really just excited to start school,” said Bucknor.

According to the teacher, during the reading assessment, which formed part of a series of tests aimed at determining the Grade 7 class best suited for Britannia, it was discovered that the child was performing “more or less average for her age group”.

“She was ready for Grade 7, in terms of her reading skills,” Bucknor stressed.

She noted that he classmates appear to be “getting comfortable with the idea that there is a physically challenged student in their class”.

The only student that is physically challenged at the school, Bucknor said she was a bit surprised that by the second day of school most of the grade 7 students already knew her name.

Hill, who is shadowing her daughter at the school, noted that the teenager is happy, and has several new friends.

“I feel good for her now that she has started school. So now she won’t be that worried, she is very comfortable, and the other students are very nice around her. She has made a lot of friends and she is very, very comfortable and relaxed,” Hill stressed.