A West End school opened its doors to the community yesterday and invited prospective students, parents and even politicians to pay a visit.

Sandys Secondary Middle School held the Open House event from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. to give the public an insight into the school's working day.

Parents were able to eat lunch with their children, visit classrooms and listen to performances from the orchestra, choir and individual pupils in the assembly hall.

Meanwhile, youngsters from local primary schools who will be attending the school in September watched lessons unfold and were given a demonstration of the school's model car race track.

Government MP Michael Scott was among those taking advantage of the chance to view the school.

Reading specialist teacher Natosha [NOTE]correct[\NOTE]Butterfield, chairman of the Open House committee, said: "We have students greeting the visitors at the door and tour guides to show people around. We just want to show people what we do at Sandys."

Earlier that day, the school held its quarterly honours assembly when about 100 students were rewarded for academic excellence. Sandys celebrates those students attaining high marks with either merits or places on the honours roll or principal's list.

This quarter, 83 percent of the students on the honour roll from Middle Three were boys - a statistic which bucks local and international trends of girls performing better.

Principal Melvyn Bassett said: "It's probably because it's reflecting the heavy emphasis that we have placed on the academic performance of our boys. People have really tried to do the best to encourage our boys and I don't think it's at the expense of our girls."

The school, which has about 300 pupils, places a huge emphasis on literacy and has a special programme - Reading Counts - to encourage children to read books. As well as core subjects such as maths, science and English, the school has an "encore" programme offering subjects including family studies, design and technology, music, art and Spanish.

Parent Teacher Association president Dawn Simmons said: "Today has been excellent, starting off with the honours assembly. It's nice to have an open house during the school day because we are actually seeing the students at work."