Sundial School staff enjoy 9th annual Retreat

 

PHILIPSBURG, Sint Maarten — Sundial School staff went on their wildly anticipated 9th annual retreat with their School Coach on Friday, March 6, 2026

The Retreat started after the passing of Hurricane Irma to facilitate teachers and staff of Sundial School strengthening interpersonal connections. The yearly activity is highly anticipated and facilitated by the School Coach who plans and organizes this annual event.

The Retreat this year remained on-island, where staff enjoyed the J.W. Marriott St Maarten Beach Resort & Spa’s (the former Westin) beautiful location in Dawn Beach.

Staffers were present in the Government/TelEm parking lot at 7:30am, where they were picked up by bus, and were then driven to the J.W. Marriott Hotel.

The morning session – held in one of the conference rooms at the Marriott Hotel – consisted of staffers paying tribute to 3 colleagues who’d be leaving Sundial School in the new school year. Then staff got into teams to put together floor puzzles. The puzzle activity has been an ongoing activity with the school’s staff all school year long, which culminated with the Retreat having this as part of several tasks. Staff also teamed up to talk about experiencing setbacks and how that shaped them. Their thoughts were put on coloured numbered paper, which were then arranged into numerical order. The point of this was that no matter how different we are, we all form part of a puzzle. A trip to Africa in 2028 was presented right before lunch.

After the morning session, staff enjoyed a delicious meal prepped and served by Marriott staff (which included a former Sundial School student) who went above and beyond in their service. Special thank you to Events Manager Shanice Powell, who worked with us to make this a truly memorable experience. Her patience, understanding and top-notch hospitality put our staff right at ease.

After lunch, Sundial staff headed outside to “The Garden” for the annual “Wake-up exercise!” The activity entitled: “Dino Run” had staffers race each other wearing inflatable dinosaur suits. It was green dino versus purple dino. And purple won! Staffers laughed uproariously while cheering for their respective teams. At the end, the School Coach gave out tokens, which included personalized number plates, and puzzle-shaped gold pins, to express her appreciation for her team.

Staffers were bussed back to the Government/TelEm parking lot, to close off the day. 

Sundial School would like to thank the following businesses, establishments and individuals that contributed to this event. Without their contributions, this would not be possible:

SVOBE, Shoppers Stop, Designer’s Choice, GEBE’s Paula Gordon, Shanice Powell and Solaika Serbony of the J.W. Marriott, and Serge Abraham of the Bell Bus Co.

Special mention goes to: C&G Events on the Go, who planned and organized all activities.

The theme for this year’s Coach Retreat was: “Retreat to release, relax, reflect, rejoice, refuel and proceed”​.

The Coach Day Retreat is exclusively for Sundial School staff. For more pictures and updates go to their Instagram page: school_coach_lejuez or for any inquiries or suggestions, contact the School Coach directly at Lej@svobe.org or corinne.lejuez@svobeschools.sx.