Island Academy Belize: Inside the School at Mahogany Bay

Lady Dixie Bowen had a simple reason for keeping a Beginners year at The Island Academy: a small child still learning to hold a pencil needed time to get ready for everything that would come next.

She wanted that year to include phonics, early reading and hands-on learning, with room to develop the fine motor skills children would need in Infant One. The decision reflected the kind of school she wanted to run.

Three decades after the school opened, its older pupils are publishing a newspaper and learning robotics. The Island Academy now has a growing high school alongside its primary classes in Mahogany Bay. For parents looking into schools in San Pedro, Belize, there is an unusually personal story behind that progression. There was also a point when it almost ended.

The school they nearly lost

Sir Barry and Lady Dixie Bowen founded The Island Academy with families who wanted another educational option for their children in San Pedro. In September 1995, it opened on Coconut Drive with 36 pupils, according to Lady Dixie.

Years later, when the school needed to leave that beachfront site, finding somewhere else proved difficult. Lady Dixie considered closing it.

By then, Wilema Gonzalez had good reasons to want it to survive. Born and raised in San Pedro, she had come to the school from banking, initially hoping the work would give her more time with her own children. She found something that kept her there even when better-paid opportunities came along.

“I’m here with the heart of a mom,” she says.

She wanted children to enjoy coming to school and to have the opportunities she wanted for her own family. As executive administrator, she also saw the commitment parents were making to pay for that education.

David and Lisette Mitchell provided a new site at Mahogany Bay. In 2021, the school relocated. Gonzalez calls the move “our rebirth.”

For a newcomer, this may be the first time they have heard of The Island Academy. For San Pedro families, it is a school with a history worth preserving. Leadership says most of its pupils are local and most of its teachers Belizean. A child arriving from overseas joins a community already deeply rooted on the island.

What that commitment looks like in a school day

Lady Dixie describes the aim as “to educate the child as a whole, as a whole person.” Academics, physical activity and learning to live well with other people all have a place.

The school’s published routine even includes Wednesday Formal Lunch, when teachers and pupils eat together under the palapa. Dining etiquette and social behaviour become part of the lesson.

Here are the practical details school leadership shared:

• Small classes: Designed around 15 pupils, with many currently smaller and occasional groups of 16 or 17.

• A growing school pathway: Beginners through Standard Six, followed by the high school’s current First and Second Form classes.

• 75 minutes of maths each morning: From 9:00 to 10:15, followed by recess and language arts until lunch.

• A broad curriculum: Science, social studies, Spanish and expressive arts, with Generation Genius supporting primary science and CommonLit used in upper-level language arts.

• PE three times a week: Physical activity has a regular place alongside academic work.

• Work with a real purpose: High-school pupils are learning robotics; school leaders reported two completed editions of their student newspaper.

Parents can take that information into a visit with a clearer idea of what to explore: the class their child would join, the work pupils are doing and how the teacher approaches the areas where their child needs help or a new challenge.

Giving older children somewhere to grow

The high school is giving older pupils opportunities to write for readers, work with technology and take more responsibility for their thinking. Subjects include biology and mathematics from pre-algebra to geometry.

The school also plans to introduce responsible AI teaching, with pupils learning to use the technology while continuing to exercise their own judgment. Further forms are planned, with the details of those next stages still being developed.

That expanding local option matters to families whose children are approaching the end of primary school. The question becomes what they could continue to build here as their children grow.

Gonzalez already sees one answer in the former pupils who return to visit. She speaks proudly of graduates who have become doctors, lawyers and engineers. What moves her most is that, when they are back in San Pedro, they still come through the school's door.

“They come back home,” she says.

The children who arrive today may begin with phonics and a pencil. Lady Dixie and her colleagues are building toward the day those children have lives of their own and still want to come back.

Arrange a conversation with the school

• Where: Mahogany Bay, San Pedro, Ambergris Caye.

• Who to contact: Office Manager Luis Galeano, at +501 226-3642 or islandacad@gmail.com.

• How placement works: The office arranges an assessment with the appropriate teacher.

• What to confirm: The child’s year group, current fees and availability for the intended term.

Start with The Island Academy's enrolment information. Its primary admissions page includes a waiting-list process; contact the office directly about high school.