A note of thanksDecember 12, 2011Dear Sir,As I prepare to close my home school, Star Academy, on Friday, December 16, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to everyone who supported me and my students over the past seven years. Regrettably, the recession has seen student enrolment drop significantly. First of all, I would like to thank my family for always being there for me when I needed them for any occasion. Thank you to every person in the community who gave of their time to share a skill, give words of encouragement, or to just spend time with my students. To all the businesses which allowed us in to see the inner workings of your companies, I thank you for the opportunities you provided to help my students expand their minds for future career options. To every business that has allowed my students to come and help out in some way one day a week for the past three years, your generosity has been invaluable. To the members of the public as relatives or friends of the students, or general members who just wanted to support young people, I thank you for your assistance in all our fund raising events which helped us to travel overseas for our educational tour.Thank you to Mt Zion AME church where we began in 2004 for the first two years, and to Christ Church, Warwick where it all comes to an end. To all the parents who have entrusted their children to my care over the years, I am extremely grateful to you. To the parents of the remaining students, I thank you for hanging in there with me right to the end. Last but certainly not least, I want to say a huge thank you to every child who ever attended Star Academy that made school such a good place to be. I’ve done my best to treat each child that enrolled at Star Academy as my very own.I have enjoyed entering the doors of Star Academy every day for seven years and helping to educate the minds of the future in an interactive, flexible and comfortable learning environment. Those who visited our school over the years were always impressed with what they saw and heard when they interacted with my students. My future is uncertain, however as each day gets closer to the actuality of final closure I am saddened because I have been afforded the opportunity to teach and to touch the lives of our young people in many ways that others have not been able to do and am now faced with the unavoidable task of saying goodbye. But I shall have endless memories that I will cherish for a lifetime. My prayer is that as my students move on that they will continue to progress and shine and become the productive, successful citizens I know they each have the capabilities to be. I encourage each student to continue to pray daily as we did in school and to etch in your hearts the words of our school creed. Again I thank everyone for your part in making my childhood dream of opening my own school a reality.SHAWNETTE O SOMNERPrincipal, Star Academy