The School Corridor Tatler

For the past three years, we have been actively promoting independent reading at our schools.  In 2013, Colleen Diedericks, then the Foundation Phase Subject Adviser, and I implemented a Literacy Improvement Strategy in our circuit. The Literacy Strategy was designed to meet three objectives. THREE OBJECTIVES OF THE LITERACY STRATEGY Firstly, we wanted schools to explore and interact with research that sought to explain how schools themselves entrench low literacy levels because of organizational and classroom teaching problems. Secondly, we aimed to help schools expand their peer networks so that they could have access to more resources and support. Thirdly, we believed that a corporate book reading campaign would help to galvanize school's literacy improvement programmes and energise them to lift the reading levels at their school. That is how the Reading 40 Books Per Learner Campaign came into being. Let me give you an overview of the build up to launching the Re...

Lavender Hill is a community that is under siege, but Lavender Hill will never be a trending favourite with mainstream media. Yesterday, children as young as eight years old, who were on their way to school, saw once again, how one gangster was killed by another rival gang member. The shooting took place at about 8 0'clock on an open field opposite Hillwood Primary School. School children use the very same open field as a thoroughfare to their schools. You will see children in their various school uniforms from Zerilda Park Primary, Hillwood Primary, Levana Primary, Prince George Primary and Lavender Hill High School, walking to their only real hope to help them escape the poverty and other evils of their neighbourhood. When the shooting happened, the children were there on the field, caught in this crossfire. Young children watched the shot man stagger across the field and then saw him jerk before finally dying.  These same children are writing their final examinations....

On Tuesday evening, Cape Town Opera in collaboration with St. Mary's R.C. Primary School staged Mozart's "The Magic Flute". The performance was exquisite. The school children held their own against the professional opera singers as The story of The Magic Flute unfolded on the stage. The colourful stage  The children made the opera a magical, accessible story to the audience of doting parents, grandparents, siblings and friends. As Prince Tamino wins the battle to save his sweetheart, Pamina, from her evil mother, the Queen of the Night, the children danced, sang and acted like professional actors. They slipped effortlessly into their various roles as they transformed into birds, crocodiles, snakes, fire or the ocean. The energetic opera created the ideal platform to showcase the talents of these young school children. The appreciative audience applauded the singing and acting throughout, creating a fun, enjoyable experience for those on and off the st...