History

Set on a hill overlooking Consett Bay, in the eastern, rural parish of St John, amidst rolling fields and agricultural orientation, with a splendid vista of the Atlantic coast, is a set of buildings that, at first sight, standing in the shadow of the Anglican Church of the Holy Cross, appear the product of an age gone by, timelessly elegant in their renovated form.

And, indeed, they are, for these lovely buildings house one of the more special schools in Barbados. They are the buildings of The Codrington School, which, with its global perspective and international dimension, offers a very special education both to Barbadians and to internationally mobile expatriate children who, for a few brief years, make Barbados their home.

Codrington began as a boarding school for girls back in 1917 and there are still many “old girls”, both from Barbados and all over the world, who have splendid memories of “days of yore”. Indeed, grown “Codrington girls” often dissolve into fits of laughter as they remember both the pomp and the pranks of the boarding school of yesteryear.
Sadly, in the eighties, the “old Codrington” closed its doors and it might have seemed that never again would the sound of ringing laughter from children at play be heard within the ancient walls. But, fortunately, there were people around who shared the “Codrington Vision” and who were determined to see the school alive again. Two swift metamorphoses followed before, in 2002, the “new Codrington” opened its doors, this time to both boys and girls, offering a curriculum based on the highest standards of Barbadian and international educational research and best practice.

The pioneers of 2002 were led by the vision and determination of one woman, Sylvia Johnson, who is recognized by the Codrington community as the founder of the “new Codrington”. Sylvia had been a teacher at Codrington in the 1970s and shared that love for the place which seems to affect all who are privileged to see the school in all its loveliness, set as it is in three acres of wooded grounds, which include gardens and shady mahogany trees that are more than a century old. By her efforts, and those of a group of like-minded people, who shared both the nostalgia for years gone by and the belief that the school could rise again, the doors opened in September 2002 to a small group of children. Today, The Codrington School, staffed by educators with internationally-recognized qualifications and a deep love for children, offers a programme for primary school and secondary school children which is second to none and which offers students the opportunity of studying to the highest levels of national and international excellence. The personnel at Codrington are proud of the school and always ready to show it off to visitors. Appointments to view may be arranged through the school’s admissions office.

January 2008