After a busy first term of 2018, Education Support welcomed the Easter holidays and made the most of the time to rest and begin to get excited about the next term. As we have done during most of our holidays for the last year, we had Holiday Hangouts; a time for our ES leaders to get together with their small groups and spend some time chatting, building relationships, praying and having fun. We find these times together are key for building relationships with our kids and knowing how they are doing beyond just their school work or homework.
The start of Term 2 brought with it an exciting new girls project called The Dignity Project, after a taster session in the first term, 21 girls now attend the weekly Friday afternoon “GIRLS ONLY” sessions with some of the ES staff and ES friends Steph and Emily. The girls have loved the opportunity to have girl time and chat openly with each other. There has been feedback from some mothers too at how amazing this opportunity is and they love hearing their girls come home chatting about what they have done and talking positively about themselves, what they look like and who they are. It is great to see the girls chatting about what they are learning at home and how the impact spreads wider than the girls and to their mother’s as well.
Steph, who is leading the sessions, had this to say about their most recent afternoon together…
“We did this awesome activity where the girls had to make paper dolls and give her a personality. We were talking about belonging and being a part of positive groups. It was really fun to see what they all came up with and exciting to see that they understood everyone is different, but unique, special, beautiful and we mustn’t be proud. It was great to see them understand that all the dolls belonged to the group just as they did.”
The start of Term 2 also brought with it a slight change in focus of our curriculums; the language focus this term is on poetry (a topic that initial brings out universal groans which soon turn to laughs as the kids get involved and have fun learning through poems and writing their own). In Maths the focus is on using the foundational concepts and skills looked at last term in a more applied manner and learning some number skills such as rounding, finding factors and multiples and applying the skills to fractions, decimals, percentages (all dreaded, but important Mathematical skills for school and life). We continue to champion reading for fun and for learning in all our grades and love seeing the leaps and bounds that are taken by many children with their reading skills. The high school group this term, along with maths, language and science focus, are going to be thinking about preparing for life after school (for some learners this is sooner, and others still a few years off), but learners will have the opportunity to begin thinking about what they would like to do after school? How will they get there? And have the opportunity to practise some interview skills, CV writing and application letter writing and some other work-based skills. We are currently building relationships with a few small businesses around Mpophomeni with the hope to give our older Grade 10, 11 and 12 learners a work experience opportunity so they can get a taster for the working world and the skills required for a job.
Over the Easter holidays we welcomed four more lovely Tearfund volunteers from the UK; Sam, Josh, Grace and Pramista are joining Ethembeni and Ed Support for the next three months and have got stuck in at Ed Support straight away assisting with homework and reading, leading maths and language sessions and support the high school learners; on Fridays the girls have been involved with the Dignity project and the boys having fun on the sports field with lots of different sports and games.
Here they are…
Josh is from Coventry and so far has loved helping the kids in Ed Support think creatively through their poetry sessions.
Sam is from Bath and he enjoys helping the kids however he can and see them grow in their learning.
Pramista is from Sandhurst and has loved the opportunity in Ed Support to get to know the kids well and build good relationships with them.
Grace is from Southampton and is really enjoying the reading times with the kids in the afternoons; both the free reading time and the structured reading programme.
Volunteers (from SA and overseas) are a big part of the Ethembeni tribe and we LOVE having them in Ed Support and enjoy their love and enthusiasm for our kids and for learning.
WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO…
There are often moments during the month where amidst all the learning chaos, session plans, curriculums, activities, new books and admin we are reminded as a team, this is why we do what we do; the support our kids with their education opens doors into their lives and families and we have the privilege of walking through them to support them as change happens.
Recently, one of our older learners disclosed to her mentor a history of past and current sexual abuse from family members which she had kept hidden for years. This particular girl has been attending Ed Support sessions for nearly a year now and after slowly building a trusting relationship with her mentor and her mentor regularly visiting school, spending time with her and building a growing relationship with the family at home; she felt comfortable to disclose what her mentor had been concerned about for a few months. Her mentor and other staff at Ethembeni were able to find her a safe place to stay as she wasn’t happy to go home and have been able to mediate between a social worker and her family as she has been removed from the home and counselling has begun. For her, it will be a long road to walk to a place of healing, forgiveness and freedom but it is one she knows she does not walk alone. For her, Education Support and the people who work here, is a safe space where she could trust people and know that she could turn to them for help. For her, she knew that the love and care went beyond just books and reading and grades. For her, we know that her life has been changed and although still hard, she has a hope and a future. For her, we are reminded why we do what we do.
Lessons. Experiences. Life. 