FLIPPING BOOK CHRONICLE 2024

In terms of Eduhelper development, each term the MCPT conducts workshops that cover curriculum training, pedagogical skills, personal leadership courses, IT training and job readiness, as well as further empowering material. All our Eduhelpers are interviewed, screened and mentored to ensure they are suitable and able to perform their roles with passion and conviction. The Eduhelpers are a key resource in our mission to improve instructional functionality and learning outcomes. Our Eduhelpers provide an essential link between the MCPT and the partnership schools, also assisting the schools’ principals with due diligence submissions, checking availability and convening workshops. As a result of the PPN policy, essential activities like reading classes, computer classes and sports have taken a back seat to the official curriculum. Through our training our team of Eduhelpers are taught to facilitate and manage classes, but they add much more value than teaching alone. Their efforts include: resuscitating school libraries; ensuring that children have access to reading material, and have library sessions on the school timetable; filling gaps in the curriculum; and running computer labs that help children learn to use computers. Our Eduhelpers have formed authentic bonds with one another and rely on one another for best practices and support when they feel they are overwhelmed. We currently have 26 Eduhelpers placed in 11 of our footprint schools. BOYS’ SERVICE ADOPT A SCHOOL TO ASSIST WITH READING, HOMEWORK, SMALL MAINTENANCE JOBS, SPORTS, ART, ETC Service to surrounding communities is an integral part of the learning journey for Michaelhouse boys. Through the MCPT the boys can channel their service time towards valuable interventions in our partnership school communities. Emphasis is placed on the boys’ actual service to the schools rather than it being simply a tick-box exercise. Activities such as assisting with homework, reading, sports and art are encouraged. In 2024 each of Michaelhouse’s ten Houses adopted a school, focusing on where value could be added. Founders enjoyed much success with service to Crystal Springs Primary this year. This was particularly owing to the dynamic leadership of Siyo Finiza and Stuart Neilson (B Block). Regular feedback from the school principal, Mrs Ngubane, and Chris Mashimane was that the boys showed initiative and respect at all times. The boys assisted mainly with sport, including rugby skills, exercise and ball skills with younger grades. Under Peta Roberts’s leadership, Boys’ Service has been particularly deliberate, becoming considerably more focused on adding real value to our partnership schools through service. Project Champion: Akhona Sikhakhane

is an enabler of careers in science, technology and engineering; it is an excellent vehicle for teaching thinking. In 2021 only 35 percent of Grade 12s wrote the final Core Mathematics examination, only 20 percent passed and only 5 percent passed with 60 percent or more.” Paul, under the auspices of the MCPT, has set up Shaya Izibalo Mathematics Institute (SIMI), which hosts in-person teaching and revision workshops for learners and their teachers. Each attendee receives a write-in-workbook which drives the teaching and learning, while ensuring engagement, coverage and efficiency. The workshops are available online to teachers and learners to participate remotely, allowing for scale and geographic reach. These workshops have been endorsed and promoted by the Department of Education. Paul’s ambition is to expand the programme nationally by developing its online functionality and spread. Our other mathematics intervention programme is the Ligbron e-Learning System, supported by Edward Snell & Co, and rolled out in Jabula Combined and Shea O’Connor. The materials and equipment are delivered to the schools, and safety is ensured. Online classes are delivered to the learners, with the sessions being recorded and kept available online for the schools to access and recap when needed. LITERACY CAPACITATING GRADE 4S WITH READING; BOOK DASH; READING FOR MEANING; SMILE PROGRAMME The MCPT has raised the funds for a literacy programme to be implemented in Grade 4 in our ten primary schools. We have partnered with an NGO named A Better Africa for a remedial intervention with our Grade 4 learners. The Better Africa Foundation (registered in South Africa as Spell It Tutoring) initiated and launched the African Spelling Bee in 2016 in eight countries. The bee now involves more than 20 Anglophone countries and involves more than 20 million children participating in national competitions across the continent. A further ten countries have been involved in setting up the Epelle Moi (a French spelling bee) since 2020. The vision of the African Spelling Bee is to give all African children the opportunity to reach their full potential and become assets to their communities, nations and continent. Through a partnership with a leading private university, MSA IIE (previously known as Monash South Africa), the Better Africa Foundation has been able to put up tuition scholarships for the winners of the competitions in South Africa (since 2010) and the African Spelling Bee (since 2016). Seventeen winners have been awarded these scholarships, with a few already having completed their degrees at MSA IIE. The Better Africa Foundation is, however, more than spelling bees. Its extensive literacy enhancement programme involves teacher training, the promotion of multilingualism and job opportunities for young people as teacher assistants. These assistants provide a structured remedial literacy intervention called the spell2read2write programme. Project Champion: Paul de Wet

Project Champion: Peta Roberts

MATHS PROGRAMME SATURDAY REVISION FOR GRADES 9, 10 AND 12; TEACHER CAPACITATION

Paul de Wet, who initiated the programme, writes: “Mathematics

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