Okay, so as you all know, this week is Combermere Week or as us Combermerians, like to say, “Iz Cawmere Week”. The time we post our schools crests, our throwback pictures, wear our hoodies, shirts, and ties and show off our school pride.
Let me just say now, if you’re not a Combermerian and you’re just here to hate, kindly leave.
It’s not good for your health, I wouldn’t want you be sick over us. However, if you’re a Combermerian or someone who just wants a general understanding of why we celebrate this lovely event.. WELCOME!!
Let me first say that the celebration of Combermere Week is not a celebration based solely on our achievements. We celebrate and during this week and we place special effort in exhibiting camaraderie, reuniting with friends and other old scholars, and looking back on the memories we created while at our secondary school. The best secondary school in Barbados.
It’s no secret, Combermerians like to have fun together. So we put a full week aside every year to make sure we do that.
Some of the fun things about attending Combermere were our classroom, lunch time and after school shenanigans.
I wasn’t at Combermere yet, but I remember stories of an underwear on a flagpole after school. And I’m sure those who were there for it, would remember the best harlem shake of all time, in which the entire school seemed to participate in. I remember Mad Modeling where some of the athletes would wear skirts and heels just to have a laugh, and the several hard court jams after sports. I remember playing the fool in the front courtyard after school, doing things like crossing the road in single file, tiny steps, just to confuse the parents and other traffic passing through the school yard. And Honestly, even if you weren’t the one doing it, you would still have a great laugh.
Some of my hardest laughs came from hearing stories that a class tricked “Ms. Muffet” in to thinking she had lost her hearing, or when we shut the door and closed all the windows thinking she would leave and think we were not there. Laughing, and making up ghost stories about Lord Combermere’s ghosts roaming the school halls, and dying at just about everything that ever happened in ‘de breezeway’… that’s all I’m going to say.
Besides classroom shenanigans, the fun included the multitude of special events happening throughout school year. These included, cultural day events, movie nights, school fetes (which sprouted some of Barbados’ top DJs), Mr. and Ms. Combermere Pagents and Set It Off model shows to name a few.
Interschool sports was always hype, and even though drums were banned, Combermerians became innovative and beat up some tin cans, for “when you don’t have horse, yuh does ride cow”.
Chanting things like (If you know de tune, you know de tune):
“C-A-W….M-E-R-E”
“Dumplings in my soup, AYEEE, Dumplings in my soup”
“Ring Ding Ding, hear dis ting, we getting on bad wid a biscuit tin! A BISCUIT TIN!”
“Cawmere hype and de rest of dem is shhh…AYE”
Other prepared special events which went way better than according to as planned, include stuff like our Christmas Concert when the teachers sang their version of the 12 Days of Christmas and Ms. Marshall 6:30… and of course, sitting through the events of Combermere week and praying that assembly would cut into first period every day for the week.
Assembly shenanigans such as only singing the last line of the school hymn ‘To be a pilgrim’ and you sang it LOUDLY! I recall one morning Mr.Parris tried to get us to sing it properly.. we sang it about 3 times that morning and yes, we sang the full song that time, but the last line was still the loudest.
Mr.Parris always used to say “If it is not excellent, don’t do it”… A quote many students who have passed through Combermere in his time continue to say to this day, either in all seriousness or as a gaff.
But if we are going to celebrate Combermere school’s achievements, here are some facts and history on the Combermere School, some of which we are definitely proud of.
1) Combermere is the oldest secondary school in Barbados.
2) Combermere is amongst the oldest in the entire Commonwealth.
3) In Barbados, it was the first to offer secondary education to the lower class blacks.
4) It is considered one of the top schools in Barbados
5) Combermere offers an excellent music program. One of the best on the island, and winning several NIFCA awards.
6) Combermere offers a balanced and well-rounded curriculum to its students.
7) Combermere continues to be ubiquitous in most of the local sporting competitions, including local hockey, cricket, football and volleyball tournaments.
8) Combermere was originally an all boys school, before making its transition to Co-ed in 1695 and 51% of the schools’ population is now female.
9) Combermere has Alumni associations as far as New York, Canada and the UK.
10) Combermere alumni are some of the persons who have contributed to building Barbados’ positive regional and international status.
In thinking about our school’s song, the lyrics of the song speaks exactly towards the attitude in which all Combermerians have, encouraging us not to give up the fight in our pursuits of progress. And our favorite part of this is “Up and On!”, a saying we use almost as if it were our actual school’s motto and also doubles as a greeting for any Combermerian we may come across.
I could go on and on about memories at Combermere School and things that have made me proud to be a Combermerian but this blog post would be too long.
So with that being said, the quote for this blog is “Up and On!” and that goes for every Combermerian who comes across this blog.
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Thanks and catch up in the next blog!
Ciao!
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