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About Barbados:
Barbados is a very small country in the Caribbean and has a population of about 287,371 people as of 2020. This results in the schools in Barbados not having middle schools. The school system starts in nursery which means a child spends 7 years in primary/elementary school (8 years if the school has a nursery in it). After every school year, you must take a standardized test to see how much you have learned in the 3 terms (it's like a semester but there are more frequent breaks, the summer has less weeks and Christmas and Easter breaks are longer.) At the end of the 7-8 years you spend at the primary school, you take another standardized test but in another school. This standarized test is called the 11+ (eleven plus) and your test results deterrmins what high school you go to. if you get a high score, you are given the choice to attend any school, including the top school in Barbados. I you have a low score, your choice is very limited. In high school, you're meant to gradutate at 16, meaning you spend 5 years in high school. If yoou wish to not attend college, some schools give you the choice of staying an extra 12 years before university.
What My Schools Were Like:
The school I went to was a private school and I spent a total of 7 years there. The school hours last from 8:30 to 2:30 lasting 7 hours with a number of 4 classes every day with a 30 minute break at 10:30 and an hour-long lunch at 12:30. The classes include: P.E. (Physical Education), Music, Computer class, Spanish, English, Swimming, Religious Studies, Science and Maths. The seven years are all named after the level of the class, the initial of the teacher's last name and sometimes start with a J for juniors. For example: J4I; J is Juniors, 4 is the number of years you have been in the juniors section and I is for the teacher's last name. I always had the same classmates and on different days, our schedule always changed. For a few years, Wednesday was the only day we went to swimming class (this lasted from the 1st grade until about the 3rd grade) and the other years instead of swimming, we had computer class. Thursdays were Biblical Studies and Fridays we always had P.E. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, we have assembly for 10-30 minutes before school where our principal would either address what we are doing in the school and whether it was right or wrong, she would have us singing and doing activities that we enjoyed or some other topic came up like wanting to read a story or giving badges for students' courtesy, conduct and effort. We are required to learn every singe class and none are electives although we are only tested on English and Maths in the 11+.
Secondary School:
In Secondary school (high school), we have no assembly, no breaks, just lunch but we aren't required to learn computer class or swimming. Instead, we are required to learn HFLE (health and family life education) and French. None of the classes are electives and you only get to chose certain subjects in your third year at the school (around 8th grade).
After hearing that we must do school from home, I found it pretty exciting since we wouldn't have to focus on rushing to school in so much traffic but even if school seemed easier through a computer, it was also quite challenging. The wi-fi was not available to everyone and physical education was also quite difficult since our rooms aren't built for exercising (the rooms were either too squishy, the lighting was bad, it was hot/bright, etc.) Either way, I appreciate that we had an opportunity to move to America because if we hadn't, we wouldn't have found this school and its amazing features.
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