Corozal’s Mary Hill, Methodist Schools Also Celebrating
Most top scorers in the P.S.E. are from the City, but while on assignment in Corozal, we dropped by the Mary Hill Primary School where there was reason to celebrate. The district performed the best overall in this year’s exams and at Mary Hill we found two brilliant students who did remarkably well placing in the top layer of achievers. Another student who also scored high hails from the Corozal Methodist School. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.
Duane Moody, Reporting
This year, the Corozal District saw three students from the public school system make the list of top twenty-five scorers for the Primary School Examinations: Dharsh Nagrani from Corozal Methodist School and Sarah Hernandez and Aron Ortega from Mary Hill R.C. School. It’s the tenth consecutive year that Roman Catholic school has placed on the list and once again captured the top place overall for the entire Corozal district.
Guillermo Pech
Guillermo Pech, Acting Principal, Mary Hill R.C. School
“This has been a trend for the past ten years here at Mary Hill, always having students at the top twenty-five and district level in the top ten. But this year, we have two students that will be in the national and four in the district level, I believe. So for us that is a great achievement.”
Twelve-year-old Sarah Hernandez placed 6th overall. While she was not too confident in the Social Studies paper of the exam, she persevered and got three hundred and seventy-six of the four hundred points. Hernandez was overjoyed by her performance.
Sarah Hernandez
Sarah Hernandez, Std. 6 Student, Mary Hill R.C. School
“At first it was very nerve-racking, but then it was very oh my gosh. It was unbelievable for me and I felt so excited and happy and very proud of myself.”
Duane Moody
“Did you expect to do this well in the exam?”
Sarah Hernandez
“No not really. I was really achieving to at least in the top twenty-five; that was really my goal. And to make it this far is even better. I studied all my notes like all day and it was really crazy. I would quiz my friends and we would quiz each other so that we would be ready. And I think it paid off.”
Duane Moody
“Any one exam that for you was the most challenging?”
Sarah Hernandez
“For me I think it would probably be social studies.”
Her classmate, however, was sceptical about his performance on paper two of the English exam, which featured expressive writing. Ortega nevertheless honored his school by coming in twenty-fifth on the ranks.
Aron Ortega
Aron Ortega, Std. 6 Student, Mary Hill R.C. School
“I just felt excited and I couldn’t believe it, like how my friend said.”
Duane Moody
“In terms of preparing for the exams, tell us what that was like for you.”
Aron Ortega
“Well I just studied and read and lot and I just followed the advises that my parents and teachers told me.”
This was not without hard work from the three standard six teachers, including Acting Principal, Guillermo Pech and parents. He says the results is proof that the formula emote by them is working.
Guillermo Pech
“I taught them problem solving beucase I also taught standard six this year….well every year I teach standards six. We have three teachers: Miss Viola Lanza, Miss Evelyn Vargas and myself. We did all the core subjects. We did evening classes, we had Saturday classes and sometimes during the holidays we used to come. So they got the extra work that they needed to do this.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
