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The Trustees and Management of The Knysna Education Trust, like so may worldwide, read the international press and knew that South Africa was not going to be spared the effects of this pandemic. Well before the lock down was announced the decision was made to initiate a Work From Home regimen, and the office was staffed by just a skeleton team.
In preparation for the coming lock down and closure of ECD Centres, staff contacted the principals of our 79 affiliated ECD schools. Work sheets to assist parents to stimulate their children were distributed.
Work from Home, despite being well planned, with specific tasks assigned and regular communications between team members, was not without its challenges. Not all staff had access to data or Wi-Fi; modems did not all work well. And, as time went on, some staff did not have enough work to do at home. Accordingly, some staff were placed on compulsory paid leave. Our Managers and some other team members had plenty to do, writing reports, communicating with all our stakeholders, catching up on work, and staying in contact with principals and teachers.
It was immediately apparent to our team that nutrition was going to be a challenge in lock down for many. Too many learners only get one decent meal a day at the schools they attend, and now they were faced with not even getting that one meal a day. Getting food parcels and food vouchers to the most vulnerable families became a priority. Working with the school principals, our team compiled a list of those most in need. This was passed on to the Municipal Joint Operating Council and Rotary, where the experience of the Knysna fires enabled them to set up proper distribution channels and controls. Our own school, The Learning Tree, was able to source food parcels for the parents. These were generously donated by Land Rover and Nutriwell.
As the lock down was extended we were compelled to request every member of staff, including managers, to take some compulsory leave. Many were reluctant as they still had mountains of work to get through, but the team spirit among all the staff has been fantastic, and they have all helped each other to get through this difficult period.
The Trustees are concerned that funding will become difficult over the coming months and maybe years. With this in mind we have, most reluctantly, postponed salary increases until the future financial picture is more certain. Other projects with major implications for KET’s balance sheet have been put on hold. We have ensured the donors have been kept informed of our work over this period, and we are in regular communication with the sponsors of major projects.
Our attention has now turned to possible scenarios when the government announces a phased exit from lock down. As this becomes clearer we will plan for the re-opening of ECD centres, we will advise principals s and teachers on the recommended protocols, and we will assist with planning to catch up on the various curriculums. Ensuring young children have access to excellent education remains KET’s primary focus.
Our Department of Social Development projects, registering of schools, and testing children and assisting those in need to for school readiness are also vitally important. Our teams will devise plans to make up the lost time and make sure no school in our area does not get appropriate assistance, and that every learner who needs help gets access to the tools needed.
In times of crisis one can see the worth of an organisations people. At KET we have amazing managers and a committed and hard-working team. They have all been brilliant during this difficult time.
The Knysna Education Trust (KET) is honoured to partner with the Jim Joel Foundation in the work being done in the Early Childhood Development sector in the Knysna and surrounding communities.
The Jim Joel fund, through an agreement with Biblionef SA, 20 KET affiliated sites received a wonderful donation of book boxes, each containing 30 storybooks and 5 educational toys.
KET’s primary focus is to ensure young children thrive through quality Early Childhood Development programmes, competent teachers and caregivers, in safe, healthy and enriched learning environments. For many of the ECD sites supported under the KET umbrella, access to daily classroom learning resources such as stationary and reading books are simply unaffordable.
All studies point to the importance of early literacy and the enormous benefits children glean from reading, and yet as a daily resource in the disadvantaged community based ECD sites, good quality readers, reading books, and educational games are often completely out of reach of their budgets.
The teachers can be commended for the dedication which they put into creating usable classroom resources from donations and recycling. Despite the challenges, they persevere, because they share KETS belief, that every child should attend a safe registered preschool, with qualified competent teachers, where literacy, numeracy and life-skill lessons happen daily.
While KET provides the training, on-site mentoring and support that teachers and parents need to ensure their children reach crucial developmental outcomes, a gift of this nature, just enables a teacher to be the best she can be and maximise learning experience for the young children in her classroom.
The team at the Knysna Education Trust, along with all the selected sites, would like to extend our heartfelt thank you to The Jim Joel Foundation for funding these truly wonderful boxes.
It has and will continue to make a significant difference in the learning of the young children which attend these facilities.
2019 will be the 3rd year that KET has the opportunity to present the Intensive Intervention Program (IIP). KET, the IIP team and the schools partaking in this DSD initiative are looking forward to helping, empowering and improving the skills and abilities of not only the children in the project but also the teachers in these schools. The IIP Team are half-way with the pre-screening process which happens at the beginning of every year. The team are aiming to screen 500 children by the middle of March 2019. These pre-screening tests will determine who will be included in the therapy groups starting at the beginning of the 2nd Term. Therapy groups are presented twice a week for 45 minutes at each school. This year, the team are using tablets to pre-screen the children, saving a lot of time, effort and money on printing and paper. The team consists of 3 teachers and 2 occupational therapists. The pre-screening tool is designed to evaluate and determine the numeracy, literacy, fine-motor, visual perception and thinking and reasoning skills of the children born in 2014. Children turning 5-years-old in 2019 are included in this program in 22 different ECD centres from Plettenberg Bay, Knysna, Rheenendal and Sedgefield.
Happy Festive season to all our sponsors, volunteers, students and staff. This was a very busy year and there is so much to share.
Knysna Education Trust is in their third year of presenting FET accredited Pre-school teacher qualifications. With a strong service provider, Professional Child Care College, KET offers part-time courses to students who work, while simultaneously accessing quality training within the Garden Route. A total of 27 students completed their courses at the end of this academic year.
Fifteen students completed the Basic Child Care Course. Six students graduated on a pass level, receiving on average, marks above 60%. Two students received marks above 75%, which is considered a merit, and six students received a distinction, above 80%, for their overall mark.
This year 12 students completed their Preschool Teacher's Course, which gives them a full NQF Level 4 Preschool Teacher qualification. With this they can register with SACE (South African Council of Educators).
Intensive Intervention Programme 2018 – This was the second year of this program and many positive changes were made . We started off with pre-screening 400 children in February and had 220 children in the Therapy Groups. A total of 24 weeks of Therapy Groups were presented twice a week at 18 different sites. Between all the hard work there was time to share fruit with the children, some tasting strawberries (for the first time) during our theme "Healthy food" and all the children in the groups each received their very own soft toy to cuddle when we discussed "Our feelings". The boys especially loved our theme "Transport". Wonderful books like The Hungry Caterpillar and Handa's surprise was read and discussed weekly and really aroused the children's interest not only in books and stories but also about the world around them. It was difficult for the team to say goodbye to the children in the therapy groups we have come to love them and is sad to see them move on to Grade R.
Our Parenting workshops were all well attended and we were able to upload the CareUp app on 350 parents' phones. In October the parents, teachers and schools who used the app the most was rewarded with certificates. All schools in the program received a certificate for participation. This year 50% of the children in the therapy groups were tested on the ELOM (Early Learning Outcomes Measure) to determine how successful the program and therapy groups were this year.
There are currently almost 300 children on the ACE (Adopt a child's education) programme, and thanks to the loyal support of our kind donors these young children are able to attend preschool where they previously would not have been able to. There is an on-going drive towards increasing these numbers annually. The only way to tackle the alarming national literacy and numeracy statistics is to teach these vital lessons to pre-schoolers. The ACE Programme continues to be a top priority for us.
To further assist with the Literacy and Numeracy development of the young learners we serve, the FONIX literacy and NUMICON mathematics programmes are implemented daily in 75 preschools in our area. These programmes tackle the essential skill of learning to read and count, in a fun and interactive way – Play is after all the best way for children to learn.
We remain humbled by the dedication of our preschool teachers who despite scares resources, trying conditions and a lack of fee paying parents, still strive every day to make the preschool years count, for every child in our community. WE salute them!
Regards from the KET team.
Published 18/12/2018
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