Grateful Hill Primary School Aid!

     Welcome to Grateful Hill Primary School, a school nestled in the hills of St. Catherine, Jamaica in the community of Glengoffe. Historically, Glengoffe has been an agricultural community focusing on various crops including bananas, sugarcane, mangoes, coconuts, breadfruit, and more. The most rich and valuable fruits of this community, however, are the youth whose joy, genuine excitement to learn, and desire to succeed serve as the basis of their determination to achieve.

     Grateful Hill Primary School has cultivated generations of young leaders since 1870 and at its present location, since 1938. It has done so by creating a space in which family, excellence, and hard-work are emphasized as pillars of success. This school has nurtured thousands of children throughout the years, my mother, aunts, uncles, and cousins included.

      Recently, Principal George Moodie was gracious enough to give us a tour of the school in which he indicated areas of need for the students and school at large. While the school has changed since my mother’s time there as a child, the school’s infrastructure remains the same. Molding ceilings as a result of deteriorating rooftops, stripping paint, damaged and deteriorating foundations of the school, and in-and-out electricity all impact the learning experience of the students. Most grades share a large room in which blackboards are the only partitions to separate classes. This can adversely affect students’ learning experience and ability to focus.

     Like real Jamaicans and a school who puts its students first, Principal  Moodie and each teacher and staff member have dedicated their time and talents to ensuring that the students receive the best possible education despite present circumstances to best prepare them for high school and beyond. Principal Moodie’s infectious enthusiasm and love for his students are overwhelmingly apparent and the student’s reciprocated love for their principal show just how much the school runs on love, encouragement, academic excellence, and support, key elements that cultivate a love to learn in any child’s education experience.  


     We entered Grateful Hill Primary with a mission and purpose: to aid in revitalizing, remodeling, and resourcing the school and its students with the necessary tools to further promote their education. Our primary goal is to establish a library and computer labs for both the infant and upper level grades to ensure that present and future students are able to have direct access to technology and books to improve literacy and expand their imagination of the spaces that they imagine themselves in. Jamaica’s literacy rate currently stands at 88.7%, which in Jamaica is defined as any individual 15 years or older who has ever attended school.

     We believe that our mission to aid Principal Moodie in renovating the integrated studies building into a fully equipped library and computer lab will contribute to improving the current literacy rate and desire to learn of generations to come. 

     We also hope to aid Principal Moodie in establishing a music department dedicated to inspiring students to express themselves unapologetically through the arts.. Additionally, we hope to establish a mentoring program, both digitally and in-person in which students will be able to have direct access to professionals and “big brothers and sisters” to aid in their development.

Your gracious donation, of any amount, will aid in the following immediate projects: 

1. To establish a fully equipped library and computer labs for the infant school and upper level grades. Library books include novels, children's books, fiction and non-fiction books, history books, etc.

2. To aid in the establishment of a music department equipped with a keyboard, guitars, and materials to aid students in learning and reading music. 

3. To aid in remodeling classrooms (constructing walls, repairing damaged foundations of the school, and deteriorating ceilings and rooftops). 

Our mission is to begin projects, our immediate project being the computer labs and library, in the fall of 2018. 

Our passion is to ensure that youth, throughout the world, continue to receive this form of empowerment, to become ROOTSSTRONG. The roots of our society are our youth, the generations of young people whose cultivation as young leaders directly impacts the strength of society and our future.

No donation is too small. Your support and donations towards this cause are greatly appreciated. From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you for taking the time to learn about our mission and for giving to this cause. God bless.