Insights
Good Work Foundation - bringing holistic teaching to rural Hazyview
Cath Holm explains how they make the ‘magic’ happen
According to the Good Work Foundation website, of every 100 children that start school in South Africa, approximately 60 will reach their final year, 37 will matriculate, and only 12 will access university. Almost none, they say, will be adequately equipped to participate in the fourth industrial revolution. Their mission is to change all that.
Cath Holm is the programme manager of the Good Work Foundation’s Open Learning Academy, and works across GWF’s five campuses in Bushbuckridge – a large informal settlement in the Mpumalanga province – and a small campus in the village of Philippolis, in the Free State. GWF’s central campus is in Hazyview. “Our site definitely lives up to its name”, she says. “It has this hazy mist which is difficult to see through but it is very bright and very beautiful”.
The Open Learning Academy is Good Work Foundation’s primary school programme. Working with thirty-two schools across their five campuses, they have just opened the programme up to Grade 3, their youngest age group yet. “We are really excited about adding the younger learners to the programme. Having that extra year before they switch over from their mother tongue to learning in English gives us more valuable time to support them during that transition,” says Cath.
In Phase One of the programme, the focus is on supporting the children with Maths and English, using digital tools and online games. In 2020, they added a supplementary ‘OLA Plus’ curriculum which is broken down into four sections: coding and robotics, citizenship, creative arts, and conservation. The latter, with Sabi Sands and Kruger National Park on their doorstep, offers a wealth of incredible learning opportunities. “We feel it is really important for learners to be aware of their local area and be exposed to the environment”, explains Cath. “Many of them have never had the opportunity to go into the Bush or see wild animals. We teach about the environment and wildlife and offer game drives for learners in Grade 6 to go into the parks so they can see it all in real life”.
The supplementary curriculum is just one way that Good Work Foundation is bringing a new, holistic teaching approach to the community in Bushbuckridge. As well as their focus on wellbeing and technology-enabled, collaborative work, the academy offers learners close attention from the teachers. “We can provide a 1:8 facilitator to learner ratio. That is a huge change from the classrooms of 60 pupils which is the standard model in the local schools”, explains Cath. “This is where the magic happens. It is the first time many of the learners have had that kind of individual attention within an education setting”.
Cath credits the facilitators as being the linchpins of the operation. “I can’t highlight enough the importance of the facilitators’ work”, she says. “Mostly young people, not only do they work in our centres but they also go into the local schools one day a week. There they support the students as well as ‘model’ the teachers as to how to integrate technology into the classroom”.
The fact that many of the facilitators come to the role through the Good Work Foundation Bridging Year Academy or one of the Career Academies is surely testament to the success of the programme. “It is certainly a mark of our success as an organisation. It shows that our mission has resonated with them and inspired a real passion for education”.
Although academic results are a clear measure of the charity’s success, “We track the academics in Grades 4, 5 and 6 and have seen great progress in that regard”, it is the less measurable, qualitative results that mean the most to Cath. “Every time we bump into teachers and principals in our network, they are full of positive feedback, which is wonderful. As for the learners, what we offer them is so different to the textbook-based rote learning they are used to, they can’t wait to come to the academy. That we have ignited a love of learning and curiosity in the children, for me, is most important outcome”.
Stonehage Fleming is proud to support the Open Learning Academy as part of our philanthropic giving programme.
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