Winter school won’t be lost in translation

Kirkwood principal to host first all-Afrikaans matric study camp

A humble Kirkwood high school principal is taking the lead and hosting the first Afrikaans departmental matric study camp for Nelson Mandela Bay schools, after increasing his school’s matric pass rate from 36% to 100% in a matter of five years.

St Colmcille Senior Secondary School obtained its first 100% matric pass rate last year and was subsequently chosen by the Department of Education to be one of six week-long matric winter school venues in the Nelson Mandela Bay and Sarah Baartman districts.

St Colmcille principal Ian Balie and his staff are the first to host and produce the content for an all-Afrikaans winter school in the districts, department spokesman Malibongwe Mtima said.

He said all of the winter programmes were aimed at sharing best practice between performing and non-performing schools as well as allowing interactive peer learning.

“We [the department] told the district to identify schools which needed assistance and coupled them with well-performing schools to share best practices among teachers and pupils,” Mtima said.

“The hope is that better-performing pupils will also assist their peers as some children might find it easier to understand the work if it is taught by another teacher or pupil.

“That way the performing schools can assist in challenging areas by sharing their solutions to the same problems they had to overcome.”

The year after Balie’s arrival at the school in 2013, a turnaround strategy was put in place which, with the help and dedication of his staff, saw the implementation of quarterly study camps and weekend additional classes for pupils.

The school went from scoring a 36% matric pass in 2012 to 56.8% in 2015.

It achieved 74.3% in 2016 and, finally, 100% last year.

St Colmcille is now hosting 12 schools predominantly from the northern areas and is using the same 12-hour study plan and contents that were used at the school’s quarterly camps.

“It is a very long and taxing study session with the pupils working from 8am to 4.30pm before having a two-hour revision session starting at 6pm and then retiring to the hostel.

“It is the same programme which assisted our matrics,” Balie said.

“But as much as it is taxing on pupils and teachers, we all know why we are here and everyone is united in making the most of the sessions.

“The trick is that after this is done the schools need to provide the same support to their pupils on an individual basis, as well as identify the problems and communicate with parents for further support.

“We have seen average matric pass rates spike in the last two terms, but the onus is on pupils to apply their minds.”