Boosting school leadership and academic standards is necessary - but it's also important for principals to forge community links and teach their students good manners.

That was the message from Archdeacon Arnold Hollis, Rector of Sandys parish, as he addressed a meeting on education reform last night.

"I'm a former educator at Harrington Sound School and there's one thing that does continue to concern me, and I believe you've left it out," he told Education Minister Randy Horton, Consultant Executive Officer Henry Johnson and Interim Executive Board Chairman Philip Butterfield.

"This is something that will travel down from the principals to the teachers. You've left out the need for these principals to know their community in which they're teaching. There's something else that's vitally important, and that's that they teach their children courtesy."

His comments were welcomed and echoed by Mr. Horton, himself a former school principal. The exchange of views came during a question and answer session at the meeting at St. James' Church, attended by around 40 people.

The latest in a series of Island-wide sessions, it was designed to educate the public on the progress of reforms to public schools suggested in last year's damning Hopkins Report.

Attendees were given a run-down of proposals ranging from staff development to improving the leadership of principals, and from increased accountability to closer links with the business community.

The speakers were frank about the real challenges the Island's schools continue to face.

Dr. Johnson explained that school performance tests will kick off for the first time early next month, with the first reporting of school results slated for June 2009.

"It's gonna make some people feel uncomfortable. It's gonna make some teachers feel uncomfortable, it's gonna make parents uncomfortable, it's gonna make several of us uncomfortable but it's what we need to do to get better," he said.

He also referred to the situation in his native USA where it can be easy to predict school performance results based on the characteristics of the zip code area. In Bermuda, the approach will not simply be to show the best and worst performing schools, but also to focus on "added value". This, he explained, means measuring the improvement of struggling students year-on-year in context.

"The exciting thing about that is there are a lot of schools that add value well above what you can typically expect, regardless of the background of the kid and the kid's family," he noted.