Head teachers at some of Government's middle schools have promised to "keep up the pressure" to ensure that their classrooms do not become solely driven by academic subjects.

They said despite an external report claiming that the middle school curriculum contained too many subjects and should be cut back, they hoped the Ministry of Education would allow them to continue teaching a wide variety of different disciplines.

Five years after middle schools were first introduced to the public school system, the Ministry is introducing some new measures and training initiatives to improve student achievement and academic ability.

From next month, all middle schools will have a revised mission statement, along with a renewed vision of what middle schools are set to achieve.

Many of the new initiatives are a result of the Gatewood Report, which was commissioned to review the first three years of middle schools and was released to the Ministry last year.

But while principals said they agreed with some aspects of what the report claimed, they hoped that not all of the recommendations would be followed up by Government.

They said they disagreed with the Gatewood claim that middle schools taught too many subjects and should therefore drop some of the encore subjects, such as music, languages, art and design.

And they said although Government had agreed not to greatly reduce the curriculum for the time being, they were eager to ensure that no drastic changes were made in the future.

Gail Graham, who has just retired as principal of Whitney Institute, said she was concerned because four of the five middle schools will have new headteachers this September.

"What frightens me to death is that with four of the five of us now gone, the Ministry will take this opportunity to undercut some of the great strides that the middle schools have made and some of the things that the former principals have fought for," said Ms Graham.

"We all believed very strongly that the encore subjects should be kept in the curriculum and last year we fought very hard for that. I hope that the new principals keep up that pressure and continue the fight."

She said middle school was seen as a time when students could explore subjects to find out what they liked and what they were good at.

Ms Graham said not all students were academic, but excelled in the arts.

She added that classes such as music, art and design often broke up the day and made the academic classes more bearable for many students.

She added: "It's so important for students to be able to find their strengths and weaknesses and if the encore subjects are reduced to make way for more of the core subjects, they won't be able to do that."

Principal of Sandys Middle School Melvyn Bassett will be the only remaining headteacher of the middle schools this coming year and said he would continue to promote the encore subjects.

He said: "I don't think there will be a major reduction in the encore subjects, I think it will be minor, but I will continue to express how I feel on the matter. It is vital that the encore subjects remain. The middle school is designed to encourage exploration so students get some idea of their own aptitudes and interests."

The Ministry of Education said it had looked at the issue of reducing the number of subjects, but had agreed to monitor the situation.

A statement said: "Initial proposals for reducing the number of subjects led to vociferous objections from staff at the middle school level in June, 2001.

"The issue was discussed again during the past school year and decisions were made on less restrictive reductions in the curriculum.

"These reductions will be reviewed further, based on annual evaluation of student achievement at the middle school level."

And the statement said a second proposal for dealing with the issue was that instruction be better integrated across all subjects, so that students be given one particular topic to study, for example the topic of measurements, which could then be applied in every subject.

Training on that proposal will start in September with a view to implementation in September 2003.

Chief Education Officer Dr. Joseph Christopher said: "We will be in continuing discussion with the principals as to the most effective way to improve the performance of students.

"The encore subjects are important, there is no question about that. That is why we introduced middle schools, but they have been in existence for five years and there should be on-going review.

"The Japanese have an expression that the only way to succeed is by improvement. That's what we are looking at."

Mr. Bassett said, in his opinion, the Gatewood review was carried out too soon after the middle schools were launched.

And he added: "To redesign the middle school programme to focus only on the core subjects would be contrary to the whole philosophy of middle level education.

"I believe we are seeing successful middle schools, and I would caution the Ministry or anyone else against tampering with them to make them more core related."

One of the new headteachers, who did not wish to be named, said they would continue on with the cause to keep middle schools places of wide variety.

The principal said: "I would like to see middle schools continue as they are, where children can explore until they leave and go to secondary school.

"I worry that a lot of the arty subjects will be lost and that would be a great shame for Bermuda."

Following the Gatewood Report, the Ministry has sought to introduce a number of measures to improve results for middle schools.

The report identified the need to improve student achievement, and so a programme has been recognised that will raise teacher expectations and student results.

Training has already been given in that area, with specific additional training for maths teachers.

However, teachers are also to be given training next year to help them develop different instructional methods, to ensure that students understand what is being taught, regardless of their ability.

And a plan has already been initiated to improve technology resources in the middle schools. Some equipment has been updated, and Internet connectivity has been improved through support from TBI.

A survey on IT needs was conducted and training sessions held over the summer for selected teachers, who will in turn help to develop the IT skills of colleagues in their schools.