Bishop's High School begins centennial celebrations

A GALA awards ceremony, a fashion and music extravaganza, a panel discussion on education and a youth forum are just some of the activities planned to commemorate the centennial of Bishop’s High School, Tobago.

The school, which began with an intake of just 27 students and three teachers on September 14, 1925, boasts a noble and storied past.

It was founded by Anglican Bishop Arthur Anstey and was the first public secondary school in Tobago. The school’s first principal was a Barbadian, Rawle S Jordon.

Since its inception, the school has produced students who have distinguished themselves in various fields, including medicine, law, politics, science, sport and the humanities.

Some of its notable alumni include the Prime Minister, former Caricom secretary general Edwin Carrington, Chief Justice Ivor Archie, former independent senator Dr Eastlyn Mc Kenzie and current Tobago House of Assembly Chief Secretary Farley Augustine.

The theme of the celebration is Honouring the Past, Celebrating the Present, Charting the Future, by God’s Grace.

Zelma Cowie, chair of the Bishop’s centennial committee, highlighted some of events during a news conference at the school on September 13.

The briefing followed a service at the St Andrew’s Anglican Church, Bacolet, which honoured the school's founders launched its the centennial celebrations. Anglican Bishop Rev Claude Berkley, a past student and teacher at Bishop’s, celebrated the service.

Berkley also led a lively march along Milford Road, Scarborough, where solemn proclamations were made in keeping with the milestone.

After the walk, the committee also launched its website, Facebook page and Instagram account.

Cowie said Bishop’s contribution to the national education landscape can never be overstated.

“We believe that Bishop’s history is indeed Tobago’s legacy,” she said at the media briefing, which was also attended by several past students and teachers.

She added the events were organised to celebrate the role the institution has played in the lives of Tobagonians.

One of the high points of the celebration, Cowie said, will be men’s forum in leadership.

“We are looking at our leaders in the space, locally, nationally and internationally. We want these men to come together in one space to have a very deep and meaningful conversation with them so that they will share with us how Bishop’s High School impacted their leadership skills.

“They are all leaders in their various spheres, and we believe this is going to serve as an inspiration to our young men, to our young people, that where these gentlemen have reached, it is possible for them. Dream big and work hard.”

Similarly, Cowie said a documentary featuring the achievements of the school’s trailblazing women is also on the itinerary.

“We plan to track all of our successful women, our entrepreneurial women, who have been doing so well all over the world. We are going to try to capture them in a documentary and share with the world.”

She said a 100th-anniversary mural project, combining the efforts of past and present students, is also on the agenda and will be unveiled in 2025.

Cowie said the celebrations will shift into high gear in June 2025 with a series of small events aimed at giving back to the Mt Marie community which helped to nurture the school.

She said alumni groups have already expressed keen interest in working alongside the school’s students on projects or activities in the area.

Cowie said another eagerly anticipated event will be a sports and family day at the Dwight Yorke Stadium, Bacolet, on September 15. It will essentially be an inter-generational battle of the school’s houses – Anstey, Bowles, Davies and Reid.

She added the committee is also planning to buildt a centennial house as a means of honouring Bishop’s legacy. It will be a modest but impressive structure that will replicate the façade of the original Peru Cottage, the first school building, on Bacolet Street.

“It is intended to be an archival library and is expected to house the history of Bishop’s High School in every sphere – visual arts, literary works, research papers, digital archiving, memorabilia. It will be a heritage house of display where we will have pictures of our founders, principals through the ages and celebrated BHS alumni. It is going to serve both as a literary and arts centre to showcase the works of our people.”

She said the house will serve as a research library for students and history buffs across the country.

“We are confident that it will be the first of its kind in TT and perhaps in the Caribbean as well. So we are very committed to realising this and we believe it can also become a UNESCO heritage project.”

Berkley, in his turn at the podium, likened the milestone to a harvest celebration.

“It is a time when we come to add up that which has been progressive for us. What it is we are celebrating is like the fruit of a mission, the mission extended by Arthur Henry Anstey and Archdeacon Davies and all other members of clergy, principals, teachers and heads of organisations, board members. it has been teamwork that has created this very noble institution that has caused it to endure until now,” he said.

Berkley said Bishop’s has been an integral part of the Tobago story.

“You cannot say Tobago without mentioning Bishop’s High School, even though that sometimes annoys some people. But it is only because it is of a high standard. Sometimes high-standard things annoy people.”

Saying the school has had an impact on every village and organisation across the island, he added one of the things that always fascinated him was its rules.

“The first rule: a breach of common sense is a breach of the school rules. And the school has 99 more rules to explain that first rule.

"That, in itself, has impacted every student that has passed through this school in a particular way. But we inherited that and we moved on with it.”

Berkley said students, particularly in the early years, also benefited from a multicultural approach to education, as there had been teachers from the UK, Canada and other parts of the Caribbean.

“That brought something and I continue to call it an impressive socio-religious and cultural experiment, the results of which we are seeing and celebrating.”

He thanked stakeholders for their contribution.

“Working together, we have done very well. We have produced something world-class right here in Tobago, and wherever people from this school and island find themselves, they are agents of change and they constitute the building-up of new standards and new qualities.”

Berkley also extended kudos to the school’s board of management, which he said, has always played a very important role in its life “by listening to what people were saying about us and how they could adjust the curriculum and whatever else was needed to bring us into good order.”

Principal Cindy Ramnarine said the centennial theme captures the essence of Bishop’s High School.

“For nearly a century this school has stood as a pillar of excellence grounded in the values of our founders, who believed in the transformative power of education,” she said.

Ramnarine said the celebration was organised to honour their legacy by “recognising the sacrifices, triumphs and the unwavering commitment that has shaped generations of outstanding students.”

She added, “The vision that I have embraced with my staff and students over the past nine years as principal is to build a world-class educational institution, one that embraces new, positive perspectives, transcends the ordinary, nurtures people and leads meaningful change.”

Ramnarine said the school has focused not onlyon the academics but on the holistic development of its students by promoting resilience, empathy and critical thinking.

“Through our wide range of co-curricular activities, growing more and more every day, the demand for excellence that we hold and our focus on spiritual development, we seek to provide a space to promote equity, empowerment and sustainability.”

She believes the school’s strength lies in the community that has nurtured it.

“As we chart the future, we do so with a clear vision and a deep sense of responsibility. The world as we know it is evolving rapidly and it is our duty to prepare our students not just for the challenges of today but for the unknowns of tomorrow.”

Wendell Bernard, chairman of the board of governors, said a centennial observance is a cause for celebration.

“We recognise that this is no ordinary celebration of a little social. We had to do something much more, something that would be lasting and speak about our legacy,” he said.

Bernard said the milestone presents an opportunity for the school to think futuristically.

“What happens after September 14, 2025? Do we go about the same old, same old? Or do we seek to innovate? Do we seek to rebrand ourselves? Do we seek to build upon the foundation in terms of this legacy?”

In going forward, he encouraged all past students to be a part of the alumni association to ensure the school’s continuity.

Bernard’s hope is that everyone to whom Bishop’s High School had been their alma mater and their bedrock "will turn around and pay it forward.

"It is about equipping a new generation with the tools to ensure that the school’s legacy continues.

Ann Natasha Second, technical adviser, Division of Education, Research and Technology, said Bishop’s represents the true spirit of the resilience and determination of a people.

She said the humble dream of the Anglican church and its visionaries created an educational institution to uplift the peasant class.

“Those early sacrifices have been rewarded so that the Bishop’s graduate leads in every walk of life, everywhere in the world today,” Second said, adding the school has experts in every conceivable discipline.

She pledged the division’s support to the school’s centennial celebrations and all its future endeavours.