For Bermuda's five primary schools deemed to be failing in the basics of reading, writing and math, the last year has not been an easy one.

They have had to sit back, take a hard, honest look at themselves, and then begin to take apart, and put back together again, the sections of their learning processes that were not working.

There could be many reasons for the lack of success, including poor teaching methods, lack of motivation and will by students, or a void of parental involvement, besides others, but blame was not the issue.

What did matter was that improvements were made, and made quickly, before young children were able to slip through the net to a place where they were unable to catch up with their peers.

But it is now 12 months down the line, and Education Minister Paula Cox believes improvements have been seen.

She and principals accept there is still a way to go before standards of excellence are reached at every level, but said she believed Bermuda was now on the right track.

And two headteachers involved in the improvement programme agreed.

With the help of the Reading Recovery programme, which offers additional one to one tuition for those primary two students who need it, and the launch of the Literacy Place initiative last year, particular strides have been taken in reading and writing.

Ms Cox said: "The result of the TerraNova tests taken last June show that all five schools are improving.

"When we analysed the results for students in Primary three to primary six, we found that in all of the participating schools at least three of the four year groups had shown improvements in language and mathematics, compared to last year.

"In reading, four of the five schools showed improvements in three year groups, while the fifth school showed improvements in two year groups and, in a number of cases, these are significant gains.

"All of these schools are moving in the right direction.

"I congratulate all the staff in the five schools who have clearly worked hard and I look forward to seeing this trend continuing."

Former principal of Prospect Primary School Marva Outerbridge was appointed as director of the programme and has been working with East End, St. David's, Victor Scott, Northlands, and Purvis primary schools during the last year.

But the headteachers and the school staff of the schools have led the way on making improvements.

Roseclaire Bulgin, who took over as principal of Purvis Primary School in Warwick in September, said she was hoping for great things this year.

However, she said she was not afraid of failing and said she and staff would continue to try until her pupils reached their potential.

Since she arrived in September, she has implemented a pilot daily math programme and has massively pushed reading and literacy in a bid to not only see students ability improve, but also their enjoyment of books increase.

Getting them to enjoy reading, she said, was half the battle.

Mrs. Bulgin has launched a reading programme where children record how many minutes they read at home each evening.

In the first two months alone, the 155 children in the school recorded an impressive 127,722 minutes, and are now aiming to reach their first half a million this year.

When they do that, the school will host a celebration party.

And she rewards children who perform well, and is seeking to enable every child to think on their own two feet, to work problems out logically, rather than to expect the answers to be given to them by a teacher.

"When I came to this school in September, I said I wanted to push reading and writing - I wanted the children to read everyday," said Mrs. Bulgin.

"I expected my own children to read everyday, so I would expect no less of the children here.

"The way I look at, if it wouldn't be good enough for Lee and Paul Bulgin, it isn't good enough for Purvis Primary.

"The children are now excited about reading, and the parents love it too.

"They understand the importance of it.

"I want our children to read at the expense of other things.

"I'm requiring that children write a journal in class every day, so their writing is becoming more fluid, and as they read and write more, their vocabulary is increasing."

And she said she expected the improvement in reading to have an automatic knock-on affect to raising the standard in not only literacy, but every other subject, as well.

"In the past, reading scores were low," she added.

"The teachers worked hard every day, but there was some significant areas in reading strategy that needed to be worked on.

"I think we have moved away from a culture of reading and writing to a culture that is centred around the TV, and it makes it tough for schools but I believe we have to reverse that culture, and parents have to play a part in that.

"I think one of the big things that will help us is inviting parents to be a big part of this school.

"I want them to come in on classes, to walk into the school whenever they feel like it, and to be volunteers."

Mrs. Bulgin said she had been helped in her attempts to pull up the school by programmes already in place.

She said she was able to "piggy back" on the Ministry initiatives.

However, she said,she believed much achievement was reached through attitude of both the teachers and the students.

A Bermudian, who has worked in a number of schools, including in New York where she taught boys with emotional and behavioural problems, said: "I believe all children are geniuses, but we have to find out what they are geniuses at.

"I say that if a child can't read, then let's read for him. I had a youngster in one of my previous classes and he was a low functioning sixth grader, but his thinking processes were much higher.

"We read for him because he could not read and we found out that he could think to a much higher level and could communicate with his peers.

"He used other means to get his point across.

"What I say is let's found out what children can do and then use that as a spring board for further learning.

"We want all children here to achieve to their highest potential.

"I have asked teaches to use multi-faceted approaches to teaching because not all children learn the same way or understand things in the same way.

"And I have told teachers that we don't want to teach content.

"The content should not drive education, we need to teach skills.

"It's much better to teach children to think, rather than simply how to do things."

Dr. Gina Tucker took over at the helm of Victor Scott Primary School in September last year.

She said: "Victor Scott School was poor at all of the subjects, but there were some levels that were a little less severe than others.

"Problem-solving was very challenging, and, from what I understand, problem-solving makes up a significant part of the test, so not doing too well in that area had a great impact.

"But we are already beginning to see results.

"The previous principal (Esme Trott) had already begun to make inroads.

"We have a teacher at the primary six level who has seen significant improvement in just the ability to read left to right, and has taken grand steps in the literacy ability.

"I know it has taken a lot of work...., but I believe that what our perceptions are, what we believe we are capable of, and our expectations, drive us.

"If we all work on that theory in the school, we will succeed."

The new principal said with continued effort from both pupils and the staff, and maybe different methods in teaching and tackling problems, she believed the school could see vast improvements.

"It has a lot to do with the leadership, instructional leadership, the climate of the leadership and the atmosphere.

"All of these things play a part in the students esteem and desire to succeed," she added.

"I would not say it is all down to teachers.

"I think the principal plays a very very important part.

"I'm providing very strong, aggressive instructional leadership, supporting teachers and engaging them in strategic teaching.

"I want them to understand exactly where every pupil is at and then focus very clearly on moving them up their own ladders of success.

"I believe that ten minutes of quality instruction is worth far more than an hour of general instruction, or fluff, as I call it.

"In providing the quality instruction, we must ensure that the high fliers are pushed and continue to be challenged, while making sure that we engage everyone in the classroom, making sure they fully understand what is being taught.

"We can't afford to push the high fliers at the expense of others - we have to move everyone along."

Dr. Tucker said when she began at the school, she sat in a number of lessons to get a grasp of the teaching ability, and the students.

She added: "If the teachers continue to provide the same kind of quality instruction that I'm asking of them, I think we can see a lot of improvements.

"In fact, I think we can even do better than I have predicted.

"We know that in order to pull the school up to where it should be, we have to go above and beyond.

"But the teachers have gone the extra mile and have put in the extra effort and I commend them highly for that."

She added: "If students are feeling good about themselves and they have high self-esteem, they are more motivated to learn.

"That is what I'm trying to achieve. I want children to be happy to come to this school, and I think they are happier.

"I speak about this school as though it is a home.

"I want children to feel able to show their weaknesses here, so we can work with them, and I want parents to get involved and work with us. Getting parents involved is paramount.

"I believe all parents want the best for their children, no matter what, and I want them to be an integral part of the Victor Scott family."