February 2012

A New Year:

Term began on the 11th January with a training day at the school. We welcomed on board three new members of staff, Blossom Raphoto our Community Development Worker; Sheila Polisa a newly qualified Primary School Teacher and Katie Wyatt a Primary School Teacher from the UK.

Information Technology:

At the end of last term Emyezweni was very grateful to be the recipient of a brand new computer specifically for young children; it was donated by IBM as part of their community action programme and was installed by a team from the company. This connection was made through HCC member Sean Robinson and his sister Verity was the driving force behind the project.
The children (and staff!) are really enjoying using the computer and it has considerably enhanced our IT curriculum.

Literacy and language:

As a staff group we made the decision this year to move to being an English first language school from Grade1-3; this means that the majority of lessons and our resources will be English. We still continue to value the Xhosa language and promote the use of it; however we feel that grounding the children in as much English as possible will best serve them when they leave us and attend other schools at the end of Grade 3.

Homework Club:

Homework Club is also a new venture for Emyezweni, each Wednesday afternoon from 3 until just after 4 o’clock we open our doors to ex-pupils and children from the community. Our aim is to provide an environment in which children can get help with homework, have a snack and access to basic resources such as pens, paper, glue and scissors. We have invited members of Helderberg Christian Church to come along as facilitators.

New Staff:

Blossom researching literacy resources in Cape Town.

Blossom will be working with various members of staff and outside agencies to develop our holistic care for the children and the wider community. Part of her job will be to setup a Parent and Toddler group and to run an Emyezweni homework club with ex pupils. Later in the year she will also be involved with our plans to run a Family Literacy Scheme from the school.

Sheila working with some of her Grade 3 children.

Sheila will initially work alongside Rachel in our Grade 3 class and she will be responsible for developing our Xhosa curriculum across the school.

Katie sharing a class story with her Grade 2 Class.

Katie will teach the Grade 2 class releasing Deb to work on school development and community projects. She is an experienced teacher but will face new challenges working in another culture and language!
We are very excited to be growing and developing as a school in this way.

Toddler Group:

As part of our Community Development programme we have begun a Parent and Toddler Group . This group of 12 parents meets once a week for a time of play and training. Our aims are to prepare the children to enter school, to give the parents a forum in which to share ideas and concerns and to offer some parenting training on topics which are relevant to our community. The photos below are from our fist Toddler group session.

Parents making name badges to introduce themselves.

Toddlers learning to share and explore new toys.

Looking Forward To Term Two:

As Sheila begins to take over more responsibility for the Grade 3 class next term Rachel will be able to spend more time helping children across the school that have special educational needs. She will be setting up individual educational programmes for these children and helping class teachers to implement them.
We will be joining in the Olympic preparations with our own school sports programme and thinking of a school fundraiser with an Olympic theme.

Please pray for us that we will grab God given opportunities to grow and develop our children in every possible way.
Deborah Gregory.

Emyezweni Principal.