Queen's College (Barbados)

Queen's College (Barbados)

Queen's College was established as a result of the recommendation of an Education Commission whose report suggested that Barbados required a first grade school for girls. The school focused on academic excellence and its mandate was to produce an education for girls similar to that in the top educational institutions in Great Britain.

The school commenced operation at Constitution Road (Bridgetown) on January 29, 1883 with thirty-three female students. Their ages ranged from three to nineteen. The school was managed by a Board of Governors and the first Headmistress was an Englishwoman, Miss Helen Veich-Brown.

The school roll steadily increased and in 1946, the place of Queen's College as an institution of academic excellence was firmly established when Elsie Pligrim became the first female in Barbados to be awarded the prestigious Barbados Government Scholarship.

In 1970, Elsie Payne (née Pilgrim) became the first Barbadian Headmistress, and during her tenure of office, co-education was introduced, when thirty eight first form boys entered the school (1981). After Dame Elsie Payne's retirement, Mrs. Colleen Winter-Brathwaite was appointed Headmistress of the school in 1985. She was followed by Mrs. Coreen Kennedy in 1997. The school's first headmaster, Dr. David Browne, was appointed in July, 2008. In 2003, a Continuing Education Programme was introduced after school. This catered to adults who wanted to upgrade their qualifications.

Queen's College existed as an all-girls school until 1981 when it became a co-educational secondary school.

Queen's College was relocated from Constitution Road to its present site in Husbands, St. James in 1990. It is a multi-racial school with students drawn from a wide cross section of the Barbadian community. The school offers secondary education to approximately one thousand students. It comprises eleven departments in which approximately thirty three subject areas are taught.

Consistent with its mission statement, the school offers a wide range of sporting and extra-curricular activities which assist in the process of character building and the development of a positive value system.

The school has a long tradition of excellence and achievement in the academic area and in extra-curricular activities as well. There is an outstanding record of performance in the regional examinations of the Caribbean Examinations Council at both the ordinary and advanced levels. Annually a high percentage of Queen's College graduates enter Universities in the West Indies, Great Britain, Canada and the United States.