The School Corridor Tatler

First, The journey of Maths teachers of three schools on the Cape Flats Aarnout Brombacher and the teachers reflecting on the term Three of our primary schools - Harmony Primary, Steenberg Primary and Prince George Primary - are in a sponsored Maths coaching programme with Brombacher and Associates. The focus is on Foundation Maths teaching. Learners are being taught number sense by learning to count, manipulate, problem-solve and practise. These schools meet once a term with Brombacher to reflect on the successes and challenges they are experiencing. Today was one of those reflection meetings. The teachers are excited because they are having more fun teaching and their learners are learning better and faster. The teachers were lyrical about the coaches linked to them. Muriel from Harmony Primary School raved about the phenomenal strides many of her learners have made in the past six months and expressed the ambivalence she experienced. " Many of my children have impro...

Ernst Esau (far right) standing with the welder and the school caretaker Impromptu visit to Harmony Primary School at the request of the Principal I visited Harmony Primary School today at the request of the principal, Ernst Esau. We had spoken on the telephone earlier and our conversation centred on Ernst's frustrations with their "plankie" school building and the high maintenance bill the school had to foot. Ernst has also been watching the renovations at other schools and our apparent disregard for their plight dominated our discussion. I listened patiently and offered advice as best I could. Then Ernst said, if I had time, could I please pop in at the school because he had a few documents he needed to process. I know our principals fairly well by now and I know the narratives behind such requests. It is the end of term one and the pace at schools is demanding. Throw in budgetary constraints, social issues, teacher fatigue and systems demands, and you know that you ha...