We don’t just renovate and build schools. We preserve a sacred time in people’s lives: childhood.

For decades, Negril students' and the wider community's only option was a 500 square foot library with minimal resources and no technology. In 2009, after extensive consultation and with the Jamaica Library Service and the “Friends of the Library” committee, the Rockhouse Foundation modernized and expanded the landmark structure, creating Negril's first new civic building in more than 40 years. Its award-winning design by Kingston architects, Chris Stone and David Douglas, seamlessly blended classic Caribbean feel and colors with contemporary function and beauty. Free access to computers and the Internet, as well as thousands more book titles than the original structure created a vibrant learning environment for community residents of all ages.

The Foundation's first exclusively early childhood education project centered on Bunch of Stars Pre-K in Old Hope, approximately 15 miles east of the Rockhouse Hotel. For 20 years BOS has been a community fixture, initially located on the veranda of its founder, and then for 13 years in a small, two-room, rudimentary structure absent even the most basic early childhood supplies and amenities. The Foundation completed a full renovation and expansion of Bunch of Stars in 2011 and in 2021 undertook an extensive overhaul in anticipation of a 2022 reopening. Bunch of Stars will soon welcome back an expanded student population onto a newly revitalized compound abundant with supplies, furniture, a vegetable garden for sustainable school nutrition, and a rejuvenated spirit.

After decades of neglect, the Moreland Hill Primary School had an enrollment of just 32 students in 2012 and was slated for closure by Jamaica's Ministry of Education. Over the summer of 2013, the Foundation completed a total transformation of the Moreland Hill Primary School and, alongside a dynamic new principal, welcomed 100 pre-K – 6th grade students who had previously traveled long distances in search of a better education. Now, almost a decade later, Moreland Hill continues to be the school of choice in their area and was fully prepared for in-person learning as it gradually recommenced in January 2022.

Little Bay often feels like a forgotten community. It remains largely unchanged from the time more than 30 years ago when Bob Marley used to journey to the small fishing village for peace and quiet and a little roast fish on the beach. The Little Bay All Age School, like the community, was full of promise but had seen better days, so its foundation to rooftop renovation and expansion in 2010 ushered in a sense of pride and possibilities that are embedded in the school community today. Technology and teachers feed the minds, an organic garden feeds the bodies, and a revitalized facility feeds the community spirit.

Negril's only public elementary school was originally constructed for 100 students, many of them children of fishermen and farmers whose simple lifestyle had defined the community for generations. As Negril turned the page on a new millennium its school held nearly 500 children in over-crowded, outdated buildings with leaky roofs that suffered from years of deferred maintenance. Negril All Age School was in desperate need of assistance.

Negril Basic School, the primary feeder pre-K for the Negril All Age School and located on the same compound suffered from decades of neglect and minimal funding. The Rockhouse Foundation followed the transformation of Negril All Age with a similar makeover for its companion pre-K. Expanding the space and painting with the same bright colors and filled with new early childhood furniture and educational supplies, games and toys, Negril Basic took on the same rejuvenated spirit as the “big school”. These original two Negril projects were focused on physical transformation of the spaces after which there was not an ongoing commitment.