Passionate headteacher has been in the profession for the past 34 years

DENISE Lindee is one of those persons you meet and feel as though you have known them all your life. Chatting with her is easy, because of her cultured disposition and open-door policy as the head teacher of Lighttown Primary/Nursery School, East Bank Berbice.

Lindee has been at the helm of the school for the past 10 years and is fulfilling her purpose to serve the community by fostering good, healthy relations with parents, learners and the community.

She told the Pepperpot Magazine that she started teaching at Lighttown Primary/Nursery in 2013 and when she arrived, the building and compound were in a bad state.

It was then she realised there was a lot to be done and she partnered with the community to get the place to an acceptable standard that was safe for all. Today, the school has a well-kept building and compound.

Lindee reported that she finds teaching very fulfilling because she loves working with children, and she knows her role.

She stated that it gives her real joy to play a part in the lives of children who are left in her care during school hours.

“It is moving learners from not knowing much to becoming productive people from the nursery level right up to primary, Grade Six. And they would return to you at some point in their adult life to thank you for playing a vital role in their academic achievement after they are employed and become somebody in society,” she said.

Lindee told the Pepperpot Magazine that moulding minds is very attractive to her. It is something she craves and her job isn’t a means to an end at all, because she sees it as a lifelong job.

The educator pointed out that she really likes what she does for work. It has been 34 years since she started her career as a teacher and she is two years away from retirement.

“I wanted to become a nurse, but when I looked at certain things like the blood and the late shifts, that did not appeal to me, and I have a phobia with blood, so I had to rethink my options in career choice,” she said.

Lindee added that she had to switch careers and she patterned herself after her secondary school Biology teacher, whom she admired.

The head teacher reported that she spent five years learning from that Biology teacher and after completing high school in the city (Richard Ishmael Secondary), she knew what she had to do was become qualified as a teacher.

Her eyes were, however, set on high-school teaching, but she applied and was accepted as a primary-level teacher and there was no turning back.

“The best part of teaching for me is interacting with the children daily and getting to know them on a one-on-one basis. When I show up for school in the morning, no matter what kind of day I am having, when they greet me instantly, my mood is transformed and I can’t help but smile,” she said.

Lindee stated that it is the little things that matter most to her, and the children really make her day and she would apply techniques based on the needs of each child to ensure that they are in the know.

However, she is of the view that parents should also get to know their child or children because often they pattern themselves after their parents, and they are crying out silently for individual attention in the home.

Lindee advised that parents should spend time with their child or children and pay attention to what they say and the way they speak to them and just observe them to see if they are imitating them.

The educator noted that when children misbehave, it is often a clash of personalities and in that part of the country, the people don’t have much going for them and the literacy level isn’t high, so all that needs to be considered.

Lindee believes that if she helps parents she is also helping the children in a holistic way and over the years she has developed a strong bond with both learners and parents.

She would host a parent/teacher association seminar once a month to keep parents updated on all happenings at the school and they have an E-Government Wi-Fi system, but it goes off at 06:00hrs when the solar power is off.

At Lighttown Primary/Nursery School, there are 28 pupils in the primary section and 11 children in the nursery level with a total of six teachers.

Lindee disclosed that she has applied for a 10-foot extension of the school building on both storeys to accommodate an E-Library, a staff room, adequate space for the learners and a sick bay.

She reported that secondary school students would visit the school to use the internet since all secondary schools are outside the village and they are disadvantaged because there is no electricity.

Lindee is from Glasgow Village, also on the East Bank of Berbice, but likes Lighttown Village because of the amount of time she spent there.

For her, the quiet and peace of the community are calming and she would like a plot of land to erect a house there to cultivate crops and rear livestock.

Lindee is originally from Kimbia but was schooled in the city and relocated to Glasgow Village when she secured a job as a teacher at Lighttown Village.

Delano Williams photos saved in a folder in Graphics as Berbice Juliansburg etc. Feb. 21, 2023.