When Director General Mr Mweli and Mr Govender Chief Director: Curriculum Implementation and Monitoring of the Department of Basic Education visited Lephola School on the 6th of September the Principal indicated how the programme they engaged in, funded by VVOB, had assisted him to reinvent his school and raise its performance to a higher level.
We previously reported on the capacity development of School Management Teams (SMTs) of 20 primary and secondary schools in Lejweleputswa on effective leadership.
VVOB contracted the services to the Billion Child Foundation (BCF) for the facilitation of a programme consisting of 4 workshops which were conducted between the 30th March and 10th August 2016 together with site visits to each participating school which were completed after the first workshop in June 2016. This training is endorsed by SACE. This means that all participants will get professional development points for their participation.
“We are moving towards a high-performance culture. The Monthly Management Contract (MMC), effective praising and consistent discipline have made a big contribution to this change of culture. A culture of ownership now prevails,” said Mrs Phakoe, Principal of Kgotsong Primary.
“Conflict management skills are utilised with success. Teachers have accepted responsibility for learner results. Change has been accepted as necessary for development. We have been empowered and capacitated to become a high-performance school,” said Mrs N Masakale, Principal of Marobe Primary.
In order to boost implementation of what was learnt a further round of mentoring visits to each school was planned. The purpose of these visits was to monitor implementation and to assist each school to fully implement the strategies, systems and leadership skills taught to develop the culture, traits and rituals of a high-performance school.
Nine of the schools visited have adopted the strategies, systems and leadership skills taught and advocated by this Programme. This enables progress towards a culture typical of centres of excellence.
The Principal of Mmantsebo Primary, Mr M J Mokati, indicated he now realised that he cannot be the ‘head and shoulders’ of the school. He is the ‘head’ while the Deputy and HODs are the ‘shoulders’. “A highly effective and committed SMT was achieved by conducting a weekly review of SMT objectives and aligning it with the school goal to become a high-performance school/centre of excellence. In order to develop our SMT as a well-functioning team (strategy 3 of Turn Around Strategy) we deliberately focus on developing our team spirit at our weekly meetings. A culture of praising and celebration of small victories has led to staff coming to work during holidays.”
The implementation of the programme, successfully done in 9 schools, will not only influence the SMTs and all educators but also the 9,709 learners attending the schools.
“In order to stimulate learners to seize the opportunities education affords we entered 12 learners in the CUT science project competition and won medals and monetary rewards. In addition, learners were supported to compete at provincial level (soccer).” (Principal of Mmantselo Primary, Mr M J Mokati)
“A strong sense of trust has developed amongst teachers which can be attributed to the fact that they were given the opportunity to come up with new ideas and initiatives to take the school forward on all operational levels. This has rubbed off on the parent community as parents have started to attend parent meetings in larger numbers. We adopted the system recommended at the first BCF workshop of ringing the bell twice. At the first ring learners move to their class and at the second bell teaching commences,” Mr A L Motseki, Principal of Lephola indicated.
