A peek into our school on a hill in a rural village of Coffee Bay in the Eastern Cape.
Our school was opened in 2019. We have 2 teachers and 35 children at our school. We enjoy 2 nutritious meals a day.
Last year 7 children graduated from our pre-school. The graduation ceremony was held at the Coffee Bay campsite. This year we have 10 new children that have joined our school. Following the Montessori style of collaborative learning, the older children showed them how to carry material and how to do the activities, as the teachers had shown them.
A parent meeting is held once each term. This meeting is also attended by the village headman, who welcomes everyone to the meeting. The headman is supportive of the work of the school and even suggested that each household in the village should be contributing to the needs of the school.
Nomaphuzi, Head Directress at Ngoko Montessori was able to attend the South African Montessori Conference in April this year and had this to say about it:
“I attended the SAMA conference, the topics I highlighted was: How to communicate with parents who do not pay fees, practitioners were advised to visit parents at their homes when discussing the matter.
I was made aware that I should also involve committee members to discuss the parents who do not cooperate. ECD practitioners who attended the conference shared ideas on how to positively engage with children.
At the SAMA conference I was also made aware of the importance of having quarterly meetings and workshops at the ECD centres, and the importance of encouraging children to do gardening.”
We attend 4 teacher workshops per year.
Nomonde Majongozi of Jonga Montessori facilitates teacher workshops at Ikhaya Labantwana Montessori, for the Montessori teachers in the area.
The most helpful topics have included:
- How to build good relationships in the workplace, amongst coworkers.
- How to have difficult conversations in the workplace.
- Importance of outdoor play in ECD centres, and how important it is for practitioners to be involved in the playgrounds.
The teacher workshops are extremely helpful to our practitioners, as they get to practice what they have learnt before implementing it in the classroom.
Nyameka and Ziyanda, Community Activators from First Children, have been working with Ngoko Montessori pre-school, facilitating homevisits in households. This is a program that helps to get parents involved in the early development of their children, by practicing some of the activities that are done at school at home. Community Activators have also been working with parents that have children who have not yet attended any ECD centre. This is a year long program that has been put in place since September 2023. The program works closely with Sustainable Coffee Bay NPO.
We have a school committee that consist of community members. The headman of the community is part of the committee and they meet regularly to discuss ways to improve our school, to make it a safe and clean space for us. We thank Kamvalethu for sponsoring us. We are grateful.
