On a Tuesday visit to Half Moon Fort Primary School, a tiny educational institution tucked away in Clinketts Gardens, Barbados, President Jeffrey Bostic delivered a stirring message to the school’s 38 students, urging them never to let their school’s small stature cap their ambitions.
Opening the day’s events, students led the gathering in the school’s traditional morning prayer, before Principal Orlaine Benn extended an official welcome to the president and visiting guests. Benn framed the school’s identity perfectly: “Our school quietly nestled in Clinketts Gardens is very small, but within these walls live big dreams, bright minds, and limitless potential.” This year’s institutional theme, “Dream big, aim high”, aligns tightly with the school’s motto “Beyond the moon to the stars”, which emphasizes that no achievement is out of reach for driven students. Benn explained that the core ethos taught at Half Moon Fort is that with determination, discipline, faith, and consistent hard work, students can overcome any barrier and reach goals they once saw as impossible.
For Bostic, the visit was a deeply personal one. Drawing on his own childhood growing up in a small rural community and attending a small primary school himself, he shared how those formative experiences shaped his entire career and trajectory. He described his upbringing in a close-knit neighborhood where neighbors knew each other by name and showed up for one another like family, a contrast to many disconnected modern communities where residents rarely know the people living next door.
President Bostic extended this idea of small origins creating massive success to the entire nation of Barbados, reminding students that the country’s small geographic size has never limited its global impact. “Barbados is a small country maybe compared to others. But we don’t think small, we think big,” he told the assembled crowd. He repeated this refrain to students directly, emphasizing that a small school’s scale never has to limit what they can achieve: “Being a small school does not stop you from thinking and dreaming big. Being a small school does not stop you from learning well. Being a small school does not stop you from reaching high heights when you get older.”
Beyond encouraging big aspirations, Bostic pushed students to take ownership of their own paths, leading the crowd in repeating his core mantra: “If it is to be, it is up to me.” He broke down the simple, powerful phrase, noting it is just ten short two-letter words that carry a lifetime of meaning. “At the end of the day, it’s not up to anybody else where you go from here but you yourselves. It’s up to you,” he said. He lightheartedly called out students who let parents complete their homework for them, joking that this habit only wastes their own potential, drawing laughter from the audience.
The president also offered reassurance to any students disappointed by their performance on the Common Entrance Examination, framing the test as just one single moment in a long lifetime of opportunities. “That’s a one-time examination,” he said. “There are people who have not done well at common entrance, not gone to what they call the better secondary schools, but who have done exceedingly well.”
After his address, students treated guests to a series of vibrant cross-lingual performances. The junior section recited an original poem, while the infant department delivered a bilingual Spanish-English rendition of the classic hymn “This Little Light of Mine”. The school also staged an original dramatic production titled “The Sound We Carry”. Bostic specifically praised the clear Spanish recitation from a young Cuban student, noting the student’s impressive skill even after moving to the school with no prior English language skills. Principal Benn expanded on this progress, sharing that when the two Cuban students first enrolled, neither could speak English, and staff worked tirelessly, as a close school family, to support their integration. Today, the younger of the two students speaks fluent, confident English, a testament to the staff’s dedication and the school’s supportive environment.
Benn emphasized that Bostic’s visit held unique meaning for the school’s small student body. “Having the opportunity to meet someone who serves with purpose and leadership helps them to see that success is not something distant or unreachable. It becomes real, attainable, and inspiring,” she said. After the performances, Bostic answered questions from students and faculty, covering everything from his favorite Bajan dish to his pre-presidency career and the best part of serving as head of state – a question one student posed entirely in Spanish.
The visit wrapped up with Bostic joining students to plant a strawberry sapling in the school’s existing community garden, which already grows a range of fresh herbs and vegetables including chives, broad leaf thyme, and rosemary. As he prepared to depart the campus, dozens of excited students crowded around to hug the president and thank him for his visit. Benn summed up the day’s mood in a post-event statement, echoing Bostic’s core message: “We might be small, but we are mighty.”
