SAPA Principals visit Pinelands North

In September, we hosted 60 principals from around South Africa, at our school. Instead of introducing the principals to the school myself, I, asked pupils from grade 3 to 7 to motivate why they wanted to be tour guides for individual principals.

These are a few of their responses –

‘I have respect for the school; for instance I pick up papers and I look after the Art garden, so please pick me.’  Noah Syndercombe 3

‘I love different accents of South Africa, love seeing people smile and saying, ‘What a wonderful school!’  Aidan Isaacs 3

‘I would love to let people know that PNPS is a loving school which has a good education. PNPS is very special to the pupils.’  Lerato Sello 3

‘I think I can do it because when I drop something on the floor, I pick it up because it is my responsibility to do so.’  Odwa Jonas 3

‘I am responsible, intelligent, kind, helpful and loving. I can show them lots of things, and I might also introduce them to a couple of my friends.’  Caleb du Plessis 3

‘I want to be an ambassador because I have a voice that all can hear, and I know the school like the back of my head.’  Logan Daniels 3

‘I think I would be a great person to show people around because I love PNPS. I love how clean it is, inside and out. I love how many pets we have. I love how many books we have in our library.’

Rana Ebrahim 3

‘I have respect for the school and always will have. When I see a paper on the floor, I pick it up. I recycle every Friday – I bring a bag or two – not a lot but it makes a difference!’  Casey Coetzee 3 

‘I should be chosen because I am up for anything and I am a people person. I would do anything for my school.’  Zara Abrahams 4

‘I am also respectful because if they are talking, I will be kind and listen to them. They might have something important to say.’  Chandre Mentoor 4

‘I am not shy and I would like to show them this school because it has been the best school of my life.’  Janus Taylor 4

           

‘I am very proud of my school. We have beautiful buildings and our teachers are talented. Our school is organized very differently from other schools. I would like to show the principals the relationship between the teachers and the pupils – we appreciate the input our teachers have in our learning. I’d like to show the principals our wonderful teachers and principal - we have the best principal because she cares for us, is very helpful and also plays sport.’  Danesha Daniels 5

‘I’m confident, love to speak to visitors and I’m good at answering questions. I would like to show them how wonderful our school is without actually boasting about it.’  Sethu Xamlashe 5

‘I would love to show how wonderfully grateful I am to be in such a wonderful school, and some children don’t realize that. I would give anything (except the teddy I sleep with at night) to become an ambassador for the school.’  Shana Paulus 5

‘I like people, children and babies but I really like principals – they help you with anything.’ Yumnah Toefy 5

‘I want people to see how we look after our school and how we respect each other’s religions. I want everyone to see our proud history. I also want people to see how wonderfully our principal runs the school and how funny she is.’  Nikita Dawood 5

‘I would like to show how honoured I am to be part of this school, and how privileged we are to have most things. Our school is also very talented with our art and technology creations. The nicest thing though is what wonderful teachers, pupils and peers we have; people who respect each other and make them feel at home.’  Ruvimbo Tasara 5

‘I want to show what a great school we are – how kind and talented our school is, how respectful we are to older people, and I want to show how responsible we all are.’  Kelly Emtoch 5

‘I have always wished that one of these days I would become a principal. To be a principal is a very tough job but you have to live with it.’  Ivanah Meyers 5

‘PNPS is a unique school, a school that accepts people for who they are.’  Michaela Flanders 5

  

‘This school means a lot to me and everybody feels like family. I just love to meet new people.’ Caylin du Toit 6

‘I would love to show the principals around our beautiful school – I want to show them our eager children who want to learn, our excellent staff and hardworking cleaning staff, and of course our PNPS trademark – the ducks!’   Adrian Endley 6

‘I would like to be one of the 60 students because I believe I would do it well – I am a very enthusiastic person who would love to answer questions that principals might have.’  Micaela Wanamaker 7

‘I feel that I bring out the best in PNPS! I’d be proud to show the principals around because we show the true meaning of what a school should be!’  
Kailin Smith 7

‘I am a well spoken person, speak with confidence and one day want to be a public speaker and this would be a good start for me.’  Tyla Sissing 7

‘I would be perfect for the job because I know a lot about the school and have lots of positive stories to tell and feedback to give.’  Courteney Alberts 7

‘I feel I can bring out all the best at PNPS. I can be courteous and represent the noble core of our amazing institution. This is all I can give – absolute perfection!’  Andrew van Wijk 7

African Convention of Principals: Maseru, August 2010

On reflecting on 2010, I realize again that I have been privileged to attend amazing conferences this year.

The most personally fulfilling was the one I attended in Maseru. The African Convention of Principals was held in Maseru in August, and was attended by principals from Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho and South Africa.

Although academic for four days, the Wednesday in the middle was an opportunity for principals to share a day out together, visiting places of interest around Lesotho. Principals went to Katse and Mohale dams from the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, some went to Thaba Bosiu, the historical place of birth of the Basotho, Kome Caves, and I went to Semonkong and the Maletsunyane Falls, the highest falls in southern Africa.

What a long journey and a wonderful personal experience! We travelled for four and a half hours in a full sixty seater bus, alighted in a rural village and blindly made our way into the mountains on foot for an hour of fast walking to find the falls. The return journey was slightly faster and after leaving in the very early morning, we returned to Maseru in the dark.

The personal connections between very different people were initiated. Principals from foreign African countries ended up sitting next to each other for hours on end, or ended up walking with someone who, in real life, they would never have met. I walked through rural Lesotho, a lone white woman, deep in conversation with two Basotho principals and surrounded by Basotho people young and old, all who greeted me in Sesotho, as a fellow human being. I was unaware of my difference until a young child stopped, stared and burst out laughing. Only then did I realize that, yes, I had a white skin, and that the child probably had never seen someone like me!

I returned to Maseru, and then to Cape Town, humbled by my experience, and with the thought, again, that our Pinelands North pupils are so privileged to be at a school like ours, in South Africa in 2010. Walk through our doors – you will love what you see and feel!

International Conferences

What a privilege it is to be the principal of Pinelands North Primary School! This has been the year of international conferences for me, and because of the Governing Body’s belief in growing our staff, and paying for it, they have sent me to two of these conferences this year.

The first was in February in Cape Town: The Art of Thinking conference run by the International Association for Cognitive Education in Southern Africa. Rose-Anne Reynolds and I attended this three day conference on behalf of the school. I don’t think I have ever been in such esteemed company! Only about 180 delegates attended but about a third of these were foreign, and most of the foreign delegates  were professors! Rose-Anne and I networked at every opportunity and so had the privilege of having indepth conversations with Professors from Israel, Singapore, United Kingdom, Norway and USA, and with several from South Africa.

The discussions revolved around thinking skills predominantly; how to teach these in schools, how to train teachers in the skills first and how to find out whether schools were in fact teaching thinking in their schools. The reason we attended was to increase our knowledge for our Creative and Talented programme. This programme is run for our talented and diverse thinkers in the school, and I came away inspired to continue our task of producing bright pupils who can solve world problems, and to research the subject further!

Two years ago, in 2007, the Governing Body sent me to Auckland, New Zealand, to an International Principals’ Conference where I first decided to start a programme for our brightest students. This year I again had the privilege of attending this international conference: this time in Singapore. I spent seventeen days away – the first in Singapore and then the final five in Thailand.

Wow! The conference was initially affected by the Novel N1H1 virus, but that didn’t deter the 1500 principals from getting excited about improving their schools back home. Interestingly enough, only 7 principals from Cape Town attended, but there were 200 from South Africa in total (the second largest group attending)! We visited schools, even though this was difficult in the health circumstances, and we networked with principals worldwide.

I returned renewed, and beaming, having again realized what a super school I belong to – our primary school in the small enclave of Pinelands, provides an exceptional world class education! Nothing I saw in Thailand or Singapore was unusual for me – we compare very favourably internationally.

Having had that reaffirmed, makes these two conferences worthwhile! Thank you, Pinelands North, for always being at the cutting edge of learning around the world, and for including me in this learning – I love it!

'It takes a village to raise to child'

There is an African proverb which says “It takes a village to raise a child”. This became a topic of conversation at one of our new teachers’ meetings this year. Pinelands North is the epitome of this proverb. The whole community takes responsibility for the development of your children – from Karen in the tuckshop who watches your child’s nutrition, to Cathy in the uniform shop who kits out children of unemployed families with uniform donated by you.

Discipline is also one of the ‘whole village’ issues. Some children arrive at Pinelands North from other schools unable to control their behaviour, and they leave in grade 7 as different children – in fact, when Valentine, our Deputy, was first at the school he asked me one day if a particular child had been at the school for his full primary schooling. I looked at him strangely as it was so – the child had only been with us for two years. On querying why he had asked, he replied that he could see the difference in this child compared to the rest of his class! I was astounded, and very pleased that people could see such an obvious difference. We all make a difference to every child here.

Even though zenophobia raged all around us earlier this year, our children of all colours, religions and countries, stood together to decry the situation, and they asked, with puzzled expressions, ”How can people behave like this to each other?” Discrimination is so foreign to them because our school ‘village’ includes all peoples of the world.

The ‘village’ of Pinelands North includes you, the parents, pupils, grandparents, neighbours, past pupils and families, Pinelands community members and teachers. Because we all care, our children grow into exceptional human beings who are able to hold their own in society at large, and in our wonderful country in particular.

Thank you for the part you play in the village, in this our sixtieth birthday year, with pride in your achievements. You made the year what it has been, and together we will continue to raise our Pinelands North children for the next generation.

Truly African School in Pinelands

The other day I pondered on how Africa and its problems are affecting our school, Pinelands North. We are currently advertising several posts – teacher aides, a teaching post and a sports’ administrator. We have been overwhelmed by the number of refugee teachers applying, not only for teaching but for anything! We have also, this year, had several refugee families join our school family. Most of these families have left their homes, families, excellent jobs and possessions because of unrest in their own African countries.

South Africa is a haven for them now and we need to remind ourselves every day of the privilege of living in this country rather than in any other on this continent. Even though we hear daily about escalating crime,

most of us are seldom affected. When I interview prospective parents, several ask about the security of the school and I tell them that the reason we originally erected the fence was to protect our copper pipes!

As a school we really are privileged; we have supportive families who ’buy in’ to our school ethos, excellent staff who we can still handpick, facilities that rival many a private school and education standards that most new children to the school can not attain!
Thank you to all those who have made this possible; the past and current staff, parents and governing body members and the pupils who daily follow our motto – Aim High! Visit us to experience this wonderful ‘haven’ firsthand, and visit our website at www.pnps.co.za.

World Class Ubuntu in Action!

Flying back from Johannesburg on the eve of our school’s 58^th birthday, I sat next to an Australian ophthalmologist and his Chinese wife.  They were flying to Cape Town to attend a world ‘retina’ conference and had never visited Africa before.

After finding out that I was a principal, they quizzed me on education in South Africa.  After the usual question of how many white and black children we had, I proudly informed them about our wonderful ‘world class’ South African school – about how I didn’t in fact know that answer – I knew we have 451 pupils and about 40 staff, but I couldn’t ‘classify’ anyone.  It wasn’t even necessary to do that because we are all members of an ‘ubuntu’ community in pursuit of world class excellence!

Wow!  I’ve always known that this is a very special school, but sitting in the aeroplane watching the setting sun that evening, I realised how privileged I was to be part of ubuntu in action – how much my life has been touched by all the wonderful children, staff and parents I have worked with in the past 10 years.

Thank you for the part you have played in the building of this community, and, if you haven’t been part of the Red School before, visit us to see ubuntu in action!!

Our Special Reality

… a beaming little girl rolls by, pushed by several friends all enjoying the sunshine.

… a miserable boy sits on a bench under a stop sign and immediately he is surrounded by helpful, friendly children.

… pyjama’d children lie on the classroom floor covered with sleeping bags as their pyjama’d teacher reads to them.

… a yellow labrador mooches over to a group of ducks to see if they have found discarded playground crumbs.

… a boy in a wheelchair holds the end of a skipping rope so that his friends can jump over the rope.

Did these ‘cameos’ produce the ‘aah’ response in you, the ones usually felt in a ‘feel-good’ movie?

In fact these are not movie cameos – this is reality, the special reality seen daily at our school!  What a special place this is.   During this year the inclusivity process has been consolidated and it has also become national knowledge – the word is out that Pinelands North is the place to educate your children if you wish them to grow up in the real world.

I’m so proud to be the principal of a school that reflects a truly diverse South African society! 

Go to our website to see for yourself or, if you’re feeling down and need a ‘feel-good’ movie, visit our wonderful school instead!