HISTORY Our school’s motto is SCIENTIA LIBERAT, translated from Latin as Knowledge brings Freedom. Our vision is: to create a conducive educational atmosphere in order to develop knowledge, skills, values and norms. In April 1985 3 teachers, Ms Joernaal, the late Ms Gabriël and the late Ms Richards, from Berzelia Primary were transferred to Kerria Primary. The school was officially opened on 1 July 1985 with the late Mr M.G. Farmer as the principal with 8 teachers, until 1987. From 1988 – 1992 the late Mr H. Lategan became the principal with a staff of 18 teachers. The school’s enrolment rose to 1300. In 1992 Mr D. Walbrugh became the principal until 2002. From 2003 to 2008 Mr J. Julius was the principal. From 2008 to 2012 Mr M. Amsterdam was the school’s principal. Mrs L. Alexander acted as principal until March 2014. In April 2014 Mr R. Andrews, the current principal, was appointed. The school was initially an Afrikaans medium school, but since 2002 it was changed to a dual medium school with English Home Language and Afrikaans Home Language as Languages of teaching and learning. The school also offers IsiXhosa as a Home Language. Currently the school has 1434 learners with 41 educators, 2 admin staff and 3 ground staff.
BACKGROUND Kerria Primary is a South African public school situated in Atlantis, Western Cape, South Africa. The school draws learners from the suburb of Protea Park, the adjacent informal settlement of Witsand, farms in the surrounding area and a number of learners from other suburbs in Atlantis. Atlantis is a creation of the previous political dispensation where non-white citizens were removed from the metropolitan areas into separate towns created to keep people of different races apart. Industrialists were incentivised to open factories and were given tax relief and other benefits for a specific period of time. After the initial period the incentives were removed. This led to factories being closed and industrialists leaving the area. Currently Atlantis has approximately 80 000 citizens of which many are unemployed as a result of the closing of factories. Many citizens are forced to live in shacks and backyard dwellings such as Wendy houses. The area has a continuous influx of people moving from the rural Eastern Cape Province in search of a better life in the Western Cape as well as an influx of foreign citizens from different African countries like Zimbabwe, Somalia, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo and from countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and China.
COMPILED BY: RUSSELL E.S. ANDREWS (PRINCIPAL)
Many learners come from broken homes, single parent homes, grandparent homes and foster homes where there is a high rate of unemployment and parents are dependent on government grants. The school has been classified as a non-fee paying school which means that parents do not pay school fees. The government pays a subsidy per learner to compensate for the fact that parents do not pay school fees. The government also pays an amount of money to cover expenses such as municipal accounts for electricity and water, minor maintenance, cleaning materials and for learning support material such as textbooks and stationery for learners. This funding is never sufficient and the School Governing Body has to find means of raising extra funding to cater for other expenses such as fundraising drives and by finding possible sponsors and donors.
GOVERNANCE & MANAGEMENT The school is managed by the school principal who is supported by the senior management team who are educators/teachers. The School Governing Body (SGB) is responsible for the governance of the school. The SGB consists of 5 parents of learners, 2 educators, 1 non-teaching staff member and the principal.
LEARNER NUMBERS
The school offers classes from Grade R to Grade 7. The school currently has 1434 learners. The breakdown of learners in classes are the following:
CURRICULUM FOUNDATION PHASE - GRADES R-3
Home Language First Additional Language Mathematics Life Skills.
INTERMEDIATE PHASE - GRADES 4-6
Home Language First Additional Language Mathematics Natural Science & Technology Social Sciences (History & Geography) Life Skills (Personal & Social Well-being, Physical Education and Creative Arts).
SENIOR PHASE - GRADE 7 Home Language First Additional Language Mathematics Natural Sciences Social Sciences (Geography & History) Technology Economic & Management Sciences Life Orientation Creative Arts.
EXTRA-MURAL SPORT
CULTURE
The school
The school has a
participates in
junior choir, senior
different sports codes
choir, drama group
such as athletics,
and it participates
rugby, netball, soccer,
in folk dance, choral
cricket, mini-cricket,
verse and creative
tag rugby, karate,
arts. The school has
chess and table
recently started
tennis. Golf is a sports
teaching recorded
code started in 2019.
lessons.
ADDITIONAL Growsmart (Literacy, Mathematics & Science) Project WOW (Words opening Worlds – Afrikaans) Literacy Project Learning Academy Worldwide – Wisehub Summits for Staff and learner leaders Development opportunities for school such as Growing Leaders training Networking with schools and organisations in other countries
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS Since 2014 the school has been pushing to optimise the learning and development experience for all learners. Through networking with the private sector the school managed to have a school hall built which was handed over in November 2017. A private Foundation became involved and provided funding for the employment of a library assistant and four language assistants. A sports foundation developed a sports facility which was handed over in October 2018. The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) declared the school as a “Model School� in the E-Learning Game Changer Project where all classrooms were converted into Smart Classrooms with ICT equipment and devices for every educator and every learner from Grade 1 to Grade 7. Learners and educators have access to e-textbooks and internet provided by the Education Department. In 2018 permission was granted by the WCED for 5 classrooms to be built at the school. Four classrooms were completed in the first week of January 2019. The fifth classroom is currently being erected. Due to safety and security concerns the WCED also approved the replacement of the school fence and access gates. This project should be completed by the end of February 2019. The school aims to educate our children holistically and therefore we expose learners to academics, sports and culture. To manage the cultural component and for the choir and drama group to be able to run smoothly the SGB decided to appoint a Co-ordinator on a voluntary basis with a small stipend. This resulted in our choir and drama group participating in competitions and receiving numerous awards. The junior choir also participated in a competition which resulted in them appearing on national television.
CHALLENGES AND NEEDS The Education Department cannot provide in all the staff requirements of the school due to limited funding coupled with the teacher/learner ratios which are currently in place. The school has to employ additional educators at great cost and has to raise the funds to pay these educators. At the same time the 3 cleaning staff cannot manage the cleaning and maintenance of the school and the school has to employ an additional general worker. The phenomena of Bullying is becoming a concern for the school and in order to have a programme presented to address this challenge private professional experts would have to be contracted to drive such a programme. This obviously has cost implications. The school is in an area where gang activities are common and this is becoming a concern for the safety of the learners, but also for the long term development of individual learners who are drawn into these activities due to the poor socio-economic conditions at home. The management of the sports and cultural programme of the school is also becoming a challenge as it requires constant planning and co-ordination which makes it difficult for educators to manage because their numerous academic responsibilities. Fundraising is always a challenge because parents are either unemployed or are in low income jobs where they do unskilled labour for limited periods of time.
INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIP
The school started participating in programmes of Learning Academy Worldwide in 2015 and since then have attended the annual Wisehub Summits held in Bloemfontein, Cape Town and Durban where the principal, deputy principal and Grade 7 Head of Department and the 2 head prefects were the delegates. During its annual gathering, called, WISEHUB, we connect with other schools, leaders, private sector and specialists to address crucial knowledge- and skills gaps within Professional Character and Competence Development, Deaf Education, Mathematics and Science, Health and Education and Projectsbased learning. Through a series of vibrant and innovative pedagogical structures that include a series of informal dining and networking opportunities, interactive and thought-provoking sessions, relevant and inspiring keynote addresses, robust panel discussions, need-based breakout sessions and strategic planning workshops, the gathering enables us to share good practices and build national and international partnerships.
CONCLUSION
The staff and SGB of the school has it as their mission to continually improve conditions for learners in order for them to be successful and to open the world of opportunity to develop successful citizens for Atlantis, the country and ultimately the world.
CONTACT admin@kerriaprimary.org.za +27-(0) 21-572-7093 www.kerriaprimaryschool.org.za
Kerria Avenue Protea Park, ATLANTIS South Africa, 7349