The School Corridor Tatler

This year the Centre for Conservation designed their Heritage celebrations around the twenty eight "Heath" schools. The Heath region covers schools in the Diep River, Plumstead, Southfield, Heathfield and Retreat area. The youngest school is the Cafda School of Skills in Retreat while the oldest school is St. Anne's Primary School in Plumstead. The term "Heath Schools" was chosen as a tribute to the erica verticillata, commonly known as heath. That is where Heathfield got its name. The erica verticillata, a beautiful plant that belongs to the Fynbos family is now extinct in the wild. The Heathfield and Retreat schools are situated in areas that were once covered with vleis and wetlands where these ericas with their tubular flowers grew prolifically. Lourier Primary School. Daniel Jansen, a veteran teacher at Lourier, read an extract from Adam Small's poem. Adam Small's father was a former principal at Lourier Primary School. Sigi Howes, th...

While I was waiting to convene a grievance meeting at a school, I had an interesting conversation with two school management team leaders - a deputy principal and a head of department. The main topic of our conversation was the difficulty to get their own children into schools of their choice. The head of department was disappointed because her daughter, a high achiever (95% average), was not accepted at the school that was their first choice. She spoke about the competition to get into good schools and bemoaned the powers that these schools wield. Is the school principal responsible for the school's success? Inevitably, the conversation turned to the difference between poor schools and wealthy schools and the role the principal plays in managing and leading the school to success. Here is where the conversation became interesting. There was definitely a sense that the two senior management members believe that  only the school principal is accountable for the success of...

Schools that do not protect teaching time have the most problems. This is a fact.  There are many contextual issues that play a role, but class teaching time is the teacher's domain.  Before we look at the external issues, we need to ensure that the classroom environment is structured in favour of good, solid teaching and learning. There are certain fundamentals that must be in place when we talk about protecting teaching time.  Firstly, teachers must be in their classes on time.  If teachers are habitually late or absent from their classes, children will take over the space. This is not rocket science. There will be a breakdown in discipline because the children have been allowed to  run wild.  If this situation happens, then the teacher must take responsibility for the chaos and the waste of teaching and learning time. Secondly, there must be a deliberate intention to devote the lesson time to  disciplined teaching and learning...

Walk in the shoes of school principals and their staff. I often wish folk could have the opportunity to see what schools are doing against great odds. Perhaps then, we will have greater community applause for what principals and their staffs are doing to make school an excellent learning space. People need to walk in the shoes of principals and staffs before they crack down on them on a whim. Not everybody is blessed to visit schools as I do. But social media like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are also used to share good news. There are school newsletters and community newspapers that can help school celebrations reach the masses. There are text facilities like mass SMS texting. I don't get all my school news from visits only. I visit school Facebook pages, their websites and many schools share their highlights with me. I thrive on good news! Here are a few amazing transformational highlights that took place in the past week or so at just a few schools in our circuit...

I visited Prince George Primary School in Lavender Hill this morning to perform routine administrative work and as a bonus, I met one of the children actors who will be starring in the film, Shushh. Petite Tashanay looked like a seasoned actress as Meg Rickards, the director of Boondogle Films, congratulated her for being selected as one of the actors in the f ilm, Shushh . "She is a natural", said Meg. "She knew all her lines at the audition and she immediately got into character.  There were many other hopefuls from the school and other local school, but she shone." Tashanay is congratulated by Alyxia. The film, Shushh, is based on the book, Whiplash, written by Tracey Farren. The film will be shot in Muizenberg that is about five kilometers from Lavender Hill. Tashanay Daniels, the Prince George Primary School learner, will play the role as the daughter of Bonita, a prostitute. Our young star is the perfect match for this role. According to Lame...

I know many schools have their own Staff Appreciation Day and that's brilliant.  And, I HOPE they include all the non-educators on this day as well. There are SO many wonderful souls working at schools.  I am, of course, privileged to interact with the non-teaching staff members at schools when I visit. After having been off sick for three weeks, I am now visiting the schools again. The reception I receive at all the schools makes me feel like the prodigal son! Before I can engage the school principal, the admin staff and the ground staff also want to chat and welcome me back. They show no reserve. We get ourselves all tangled in hugs, greetings, health enquiries and well wishes until everybody is satisfied that all is well. I love the response of the school heads when these exchanges take place. They do not try to stop these conversations and often just stand in the background, enjoying and silently approving this display of mutual affection. At one school, just after ...

Maurien Jacobs, the principal of Blouvlei LSEN school and Doreen Parker, an educator at Levana Primary School, will be retiring at the end of this term. Between the two educators, they have served  the Steenberg-Lavender Hill community for a whopping 98 years! Maurien Jacobs taught at Blouvlei LSEN for 16 years. For the past seven years, Maurien was the school principal of the school. Over the sixteen years Maurien travelled every school day from Wellington, a Cape Winelands town situated 85 kilometers from her school. She covered roughly 544,000 km to and from school over the sixteen years. That is about twelve times around the world! This sounds crazy, but this is what Maurien did without batting an eyelid. She would report for duty every single day at 7:15 and frown upon those who came late to school. Maurien Jacobs  Maurien Jacobs, School Head of Blouvlei LSEN (right) and me  I asked Maurien what motivated her to travel her so far. "Many people have a...