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Wednesday, July 23, 2025

Gloster Lodge celebrates 130 years but hopes for new school building

by

27 days ago
20250626

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@cnc3.co.tt

Dressed in vin­tage at­tire and full of pride, stu­dents at the Gloster Lodge Mora­vian School brought his­to­ry to life yes­ter­day, as the in­sti­tu­tion marked its 130th an­niver­sary by cel­e­brat­ing a rich lega­cy while re­new­ing calls for a long-over­due new school build­ing.

“June 25th is our of­fi­cial birth­day, and we felt it was im­por­tant to mark the oc­ca­sion,” prin­ci­pal Claudette Gov­er­nor said.

“Our theme this year is ho­n­our­ing the past, em­pow­er­ing the fu­ture, and to­day’s cel­e­bra­tion was a way to help stu­dents un­der­stand the strength and his­to­ry we come from.”

Chil­dren went to school dressed as el­ders or fig­ures from past eras, par­tic­i­pat­ing in a day of re­flec­tion and learn­ing.

“Some dressed as old peo­ple, oth­ers in cloth­ing from dif­fer­ent pe­ri­ods. It was a chance to help them feel what it might have been like,” Gov­er­nor said.

With roots go­ing back to the era of slav­ery, the Gloster Lodge Mora­vian School was born out of the Mora­vian Church’s mis­sion to ed­u­cate the op­pressed, she said.

“As a born Mora­vian from To­ba­go, I know the lega­cy well,” Gov­er­nor ex­plained.

“John Mont­gomery came here to teach en­slaved Africans, and that mis­sion has con­tin­ued. In To­ba­go, we gave our schools to the gov­ern­ment, but Trinidad re­tained two and Gloster Lodge is one.”

But even as the school cel­e­brates, it is fac­ing se­ri­ous in­fra­struc­tur­al chal­lenges.

“We have out­grown this build­ing. We have no space for play, no space for re­al ac­tiv­i­ties. If you look around, the walls are lit­er­al­ly crum­bling,” Gov­er­nor said.

“We have been ad­vo­cat­ing for a new school be­cause our chil­dren de­serve bet­ter.”

Cur­rent­ly, stu­dents trav­el to the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah every Thurs­day for phys­i­cal ed­u­ca­tion class­es due to the lack of fa­cil­i­ties on site.

De­spite these chal­lenges, the school re­mains de­ter­mined to cel­e­brate its 130th year through­out the next aca­d­e­m­ic term, start­ing with a church ser­vice and grad­u­a­tion cer­e­mo­ny to­mor­row.

“We have pro­duced great minds, and we are com­mit­ted to con­tin­u­ing that trend,” Gov­er­nor said.

“But to do that, we need the sup­port to re­build not just phys­i­cal­ly, but in spir­it. To­day’s cel­e­bra­tion re­minds us of our strength, but we must al­so build a fu­ture wor­thy of our past.”


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