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...

If you want to learn how to build relationships with learners, go to the gurus in the field of building relationships. Find a school and ask them to take you straight to the foundation phase teachers. There you will find teachers who are passionate and willing to try various strategies to unleash children's capacity to learn. Foundation phase teachers are always hungry for new ways to reach their little ones. Take today's Maths conference run by Foundation phase teachers for eighty two of their peers at neighbouring schools. The presenters were energetic young teachers from Capricorn Primary, a school tucked in an informal settlement and a more experienced, live wire teacher, Cheryl Thomas and Ashley from Kleinberg Primary school in Ocean View, another depressed working class area. I joined Melissa and her Capricorn Primary school team to hear what they are doing in their Maths classes. The topic was on teaching the South African currency. The next minute we were all fir...