Javaun ready for GSAT
Published:Wednesday | March 23, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Laura Redpath, Senior Staff Reporter
His smiling eyes, framed by long lashes, were alive with energy having just escorted his mother to Denham Town Primary School in Kingston.
Twelve-year-old Javaun Williams is the head boy of Denham Town Primary and was eager to start speaking with The Gleaner.
"I have to be on my best behaviour," Javaun said as he spoke about his position as head boy.
The youngster is used to being responsible for his peers in a familiar setting.
But tomorrow is the start of change, bringing the promise of a new school in which to carve his niche, when he sits the national Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT).
The pre-teen has had to set a good example for all students at his school, and has had to break up fights, but the social studies section of the two-day exam looms.
"I have a hard time remembering names of valleys," Javaun said of physical geography.
But he has no problems with mathematics and science.
"I always hear him say, 'formulas are easy to remember'," his mother, Sandra Irving, chimed in.
Javaun smiled cheekily.
Absorbing information
As part of his exam preparations, Williams spends roughly eight hours on select days, trying to absorb as much information as he can.
"He likes to study outside in the yard," Sandra said.
"No I don't," was his quick response.
"Oh," Sandra said, taken aback. "I thought it was in the yard, sorry."
Javaun enjoys studying in a fort he made, and based on his mother's hand movements as she tried to describe the structure, it seems collapsible.
Sandra, who enjoys watching Schools' Challenge Quiz with Javaun, has been there with him every step of the way.
"He has a sister and brother who help him study too, but I help him to make sure he understands what he's done. Some little things boggle his mind and I help him through.
"I just wish I spent more time on the social studies," she said.
The young man, who is also a member of the National Youth Orchestra and plays the violin and the viola, would like to be a music producer one day.
The desire to produce music will lie low until he's old enough to make it a career. For now, he will continue to throw himself into football and marbles.