Sportstec merges physical activities with life lessons, and is helping learners in all EduRise clusters to better deal with real life situations. © Mr Price Foundation / Pierre Tostee
Mr Price Foundation held a ‘sustainability celebration’ for 20 schools in the Soweto cluster of our EduRise programme in November, at the Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens. In 2023, these schools will enter the sustainability phase of their EduRise journey. This phase will require schools to independently continue implementing their EduRise-acquired learnings.
We extend our deep appreciation to schools and educators for their effort and commitment to learners and to their own professional development.
“Principals and educators are key to sustainability and to implementing the learnings without us being there. We look forward to EduRise-supported schools being beacons to other schools, to show what a difference you can make,” said Karen Wells, head of Mr Price Foundation.
We also extend a huge ‘thank you’ to the Gauteng Department of Basic Education, in particular the Johannesburg Central District Circuit; and to the circuit leader, Ms Rudzani Rambau, who was a guest speaker at the event.
“We knocked on schools’ doors in Soweto and offered assistance, and we thank the schools for opening their doors and hearts to us,” said head of EduRise, Pain Mashingaidze.
Ms Rudzani Rambau, Gauteng Department of Basic Education Johannesburg Central District circuit leader (left) with Hlakaniphani Primary School principal Ntutu Kona (entre) and head of EduRise, Pain Mashingaidze (right).
Since 2019, EduRise has been empowering and mentoring Soweto school management teams and governing bodies, learners and educators, through interventions focused on school management and governance, maths, natural sciences, English, physical education (PE) and e-learning for maths and science as well as maths learner assessments.
These programmes were implemented by our partners: JET Education Services and Sportstec. We saw wonderful changes in the way children conducted themselves, both in the classroom and on the sports field, as a result of these interventions.
“We had a very pleasing and very exciting journey with EduRise. We learnt a lot in terms of leadership and management, about how to develop a school development plan,” said Ms TT Dlamini, Gazankulu Primary School principal.
The principal expressed her special thanks for the PE component, which is implemented by Sportstec at EduRise school clusters in KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Western Cape and Gauteng.
“Sports had practically disappeared from our schools but somehow, you brought it back,” said Ms Dlamini.
“We want to thank you for that. We’ve got teachers young and old who would go out there and do PE with learners practically and that was really good,” said Ms Dlamini.
Sportstec provides learners with important life skills by merging PE lessons with Sports2Life values, which help learners deal with everyday situations at school and at home.
Sportstec facilitator Xolani Banda said that with every physical activity, there is a life lesson to be learned. “Those lessons are very easy to apply to every other situation, whether it’s in the classroom or outside. We have a lot of educators now who are using these themes, comparing what’s happening on the sports field to what’s happening in the classroom.”
Ms Rudzani Rambau, Gauteng Department of Basic Education Johannesburg Central District circuit leader (left) with Nhluvuko Primary School principal Mr P Mabasa (centre) and head of EduRise, Pain Mashingaidze (right).
Xolani encouraged schools to ‘stay in the game’, which is one of the life lessons of the programme. “The end of the EduRise programme does not have to mean that PE ends at the schools. We have left a lot of information at schools, including manuals and guides. So, continue using those and continue implementing all of these lovely things that we shared. Let’s keep the programme going with the resources we have, and build our kids’ futures,” Xolani said.
We thank schools for accepting our programmes and look forward to seeing how they implement their EduRise-acquired learnings to shape the next generation of leaders.
“You (educators) came to play, willing to accept and implement what we came with. The team we built managed to get kids playing, smiling and making positive life choices. They are tomorrow’s sports stars and leaders,” said Xolani.
