Our school history in words

The history of Barataria North Secondary School goes back to April 17th, 1972 when the school was established; headed by Mr. Talbot Paul; the school’s first principal. Mr. Paul served from April 17th, 1972 through 1979. At that time the school was known as Barataria Junior Secondary School The motto of the school at that time was "PREPARE TODAY FOR A BETTER TOMORROW".
Barataria Junior Secondary, like all other Junior Secondary Schools at that time, was operated on a shift basis – morning shift (A.M.) and afternoon shift (P.M.). The A.M shift hours were from 7:15am to 12:15pm and the P.M shift from 12:30pm to 5:15pm. The A.M shift students were green and white-green trousers/skirts, white shirts/blouse, while the P.M shift students were yellow shirts/blouse with green trousers/skirts. Regardless of
the shift, the school was always represented by students from both shifts at competitions such as football, netball, cricket, basketball, graduation exercises and so on.

Mr. Lionel Bain was the second principal of Barataria Junior Secondary School. He served from 1979 through December 1990. After his departure, the Ministry of Education took a while before Mr. Bain was replaced by an appointed principal; in the meantime, Mr. Smith who was Vice Principal on the P.M shift, acted as Principal, until July 1993, when Mr. Alvin Persad (deceased), became the principal until his untimely death in January 1997. During his tenure, the school produced a Christmas Concert at City Hall in Port of Spain, where the teachers performed as a choir, and the entire school participated. It was quite a success.

After the passing of Mr. Persad, Mrs. Cleopatra Hosten assumed the position of Principal (Ag); until Mr. Muchison Sylvester was appointed principal to Barataria Junior Secondary in September 1997 until he resigned in June 2002, to move on to greater pursuits.
It was Mr. Sylvester who implemented the school mission statement which was: ‘BJSS is committed to the holistic development of our children and dedicated to bridging the gaps between home, school and society.

Mr. Bevon Spencer acted as principal from July 2002 until November 2005 when Ms. Merlyn Scott Duffy became principal. She was the first appointed female principal, whose tenure however only lasted seven months. She fell ill in June 2006 and never returned to fulfil the duties as principal.

Once again Mr. Bevon Spencer became acting (Ag) principal, until Mr. Gregory Francis was appointed Principal of Barataria Junior Secondary School in December 2006 . In September 2008, Barataria Junior Secondary was de-shifted to a whole day school from 7:45am to 2:00pm. This change in the status of the school, in addition to a name change, saw a change in the uniform, and the redeployment of five teachers. The school was officially re-named by the Ministry of Education in August 2008.