Mother of Free Town Primary top boy ‘on Cloud 40’
Published:Friday | July 15, 2022 | 12:07 AMCecelia Campbell-Livingston/Gleaner Writer
YOLANDA RICHARDS, mother of 11-year-old Mark Richards Jr, could not contain her joy when she spoke with The Gleaner about her son’s achievement.
Mark Jr, who is the top-performing top male student at Free Town Primary School, did it while missing two months of face-to-face classes. He returned to the formal classroom settings one month prior to the first Primary Exit Profile exam.
“You hear dem talk about Cloud Nine, I was on Cloud 40. Mi sey man, I shouted thank to you Jesus! Mi scream,” she shared in between outbursts of laughter.
As for her son who will be attending Glenmuir High School in September, he kept asking her to “pinch me, Mommy, tell me I am not dreaming!”
It is no dream. His 375.6 score is there to prove it. Commenting on his performance, Mark Jr said that he was nervous when he first looked at the test paper, but he quietly whispered a prayer which saw the nervousness giving way to confidence.
“So, I decided to do the test paper full of confidence. I was glad the first test was over and could make preparations for the other one,” he quipped.
Yolanda admitted that when school opened for formal settings in January, she was so afraid of him contracting the virus that was still on the rise so she did not send him out. His teacher Mark Blair could not facilitate online classes simultaneously with face to face and so her son had no other choice but to “help himself”.
“He studied his books, he had no teacher, but I bought practice papers and gave him additional books. Plus, he watched Mathantics, a learning channel on YouTube, and taught himself,” she explained.
When he finally showed up at school one month before the ability test, she said his teacher was surprised as he blended right in with the lessons as if he was never absent.
Mark Jr, who lives in Longville Park, said come September he is looking forward to his new school and he will be heading there with “a good frame of mind with the hope that I will continue to excel in my grades like I did in primary school, still be good in my subjects and still work hard and study”.