The School Corridor Tatler

Angelica sitting alone, waiting for her athletes. I met Angelica Ohrn, a Swedish volunteer at Sullivan Primary School.  Angelica is one of the Dreams to Reality volunteers. Like her peers, she has travelled to South Africa at her own expense, to do voluntary community work.  She works as a sports coach at the school, the area that she had chosen to offer her skills. It was Friday afternoon and she was waiting for her cross-country runners. "I will be spending five weeks volunteering. I really love the place, the children and the new friends I am meeting at Dreams for Reality. When I go back home, I will go and study,''said a bubbly Angelica. Soon after one of Angelica's runners arrived, ready for the race in his school colours. Angelica and one of her cross-country athletes. When volunteers like Angelica come along, they imbue the schools with youthful freshness and help to strengthen the sports and arts programmes at the schools. The volunteers the...

When I visited Lourier Primary School yesterday morning, the school was abuzz at 7h20. I was there to sign a few documents en route to the Circuit office. The documents became a side issue.  I walked straight into a random reflection of the amazing wellbeing programme for staff that Lourier Primary has introduced. "Meeting on a Wednesday before school starts is one of the changes we made when we came back from the SMT Leadership Conference," said Rashida. "We also went ten-pin bowling, said Venetia, the bubbly Foundation Phase Head, and shows me the picture of the staff at the ten pin bowling arena, mounted on the wall. Daniel and Abubaker arrived and the ten-pin bowling experience became the focus. I think the four SMT members were flooded with memories of their staff outing. The entire staff - teachers, administrative and support staff-  went by bus to spend an afternoon having fun and building relationships. "Another new development since the SMT con...