CedarBridge Academy is a much better learning environment since the removal of about 50 students with behaviour problems at the start of the new term, it has been claimed.

In a rare interview, principal Kalmar Richards said the atmosphere in the building was more conducive to learning since the Ministry of Education had transferred the students to alternative educational facilities earlier this month.

"The atmosphere is very calm and very peaceful. It is positive," said Mrs. Richards. "It has improved - it has been taken to a new level and we will go on to work diligently to strengthen it."

The Royal Gazette reported earlier this month how the Ministry had answered pleas to establish alternatives for children who did not fit into mainstream education.

As a result, The Educational Centre (TEC) has been expanded to take 40 students from its original eight, and CARE Learning Centre has received a one-year contract to take 30 students from CedarBridge Academy and the second public senior school Berkeley Institute. The need for action came to a head last December when the entire teaching staff at Cedarbridge held a sit-in in protest at the increasing bad behaviour of some students. Teachers complained they were in fear of going into school and found it impossible to teach as some students were so disruptive. Schools complained they needed an alternative where students could be transferred if they were continually unruly.

But in an interview with The Royal Gazette after the annual meeting of the school's Parent Teacher Student Association, Mrs. Richards said the move by Government seemed to have paid off. "For the list of students (who needed to be transferred) that we put forward to the Ministry, I would say 99 percent of them were placed in the alternative schools," said the principal.

"The parents, when I contacted them, understood why it had come about. I presented it as an opportunity for their children. Their only concern was the lateness of which they were being informed. The alternative schools have smaller classes, smaller environments and a system where the students can get the extra attention they need."

The new chairman of the PTSA Robin Richardson said both the teachers and students he had spoken to since the new term began two weeks' ago had noticed a big difference in the environment. But he said it was not that the children were trouble or problem students, but simply that they found it difficult to fit into the large environment of CedarBridge and needed more individual attention.

"It seems that there is a lot less tension in the air. That's the general consensus," said Mr. Richardson. "The kids are more relaxed and they feel they can be themselves. The don't feel they they have to hide in a shell anymore in case they get beaten up by someone or harassed. "We feel that something has really been achieved. We are celebrating our fifth year and we feel that this is a new beginning."

Mr. Richardson said teachers no longer felt anxious when they went into the school, either.

"Students are coming to school to learn and teachers are coming to school to teach," he added. "They are not coming to school afraid. It's really refreshing. And, from what I can tell, the number of students that were transferred was sufficient for now. But we know that the contract with Care Learning Centre is only for a year, so the PTSA will be working closely with the Ministry of Education to find out what will happen after that year.

"We need to know before the contract runs out what the plans are for next year."

Mrs. Richards said she had seen a new commitment from her students this year.

"We have commended our students on how they are presenting themselves; how they are going about conducting themselves; and how they are responding to what we are doing in this building."

She had been inundated with calls and messages of support from people claiming that Cedarbridge students were looking their best ever.

And she said she believed that if students were encouraged to dress smartly, then they would act smartly, too.

"We want the children at CedarBridge to do excellently well, not just well, and to do excellently well, the bar has to be high," she said. "It means that we will stretch children and it means that we will stretch parents, but what is of most importance to us is that parents support us when we stretch children and we hold them accountable for meeting whatever rules, regulations and standards we have in place."