New principal aims to make a difference
Making children not want to miss a day at school forms part of her mission.
The former principal of one of the best performing schools in the district, Graceland Education Centre, has taken over the reins as the new Goedehoop Primary School principal.
January 15 marked Patricia Peters’ first official day as the new leader of the school, and she said her goal is to, ‘with the support of the community and staff, make a lasting difference for the learners and the community at large by changing the school for the better’.
Her mission includes raising morale, galvanising the entire school community to go out of their way to ensure that learners get the best support to achieve excellence, helping learners make their dreams a reality for themselves and the world out there, introducing new and sustaining existing programmes aimed at making learners believe in themselves and giving them hope for the future, and instilling and sustaining discipline and commitment to learning.
Her immediate task she said is to review the school’s teaching and learning programme, identify extra support needed by the children, including extracurricular activities like sports and other activities that will make learners not want to miss a day at school.
“On top of the support we get from the department, we have private organisations that donated resources towards improvement of our school performance, such as the Shine Literacy Centre, which we must treat as gold and utilise to help our learners.
“I’m very happy to be here and to make a difference in my community. My motto is: ‘Teamwork makes the dream work’,” said the optimistic leader.
“My aim is to make this school one of the best. Yes, Rome was not built in one day, so we will take every problem one step at a time.”
Born and raised in Reiger Park, the 52-year-old Peters comes with over three decades of experience in education. She previously served as a teacher at Lakeside Primary School for 10 years, went on to serve as a teacher at Drommedaris Primary School for 13 years, and later worked at Graceland Education Centre for seven years, where she initially served as deputy principal and later appointed as the principal of this combined school.
Discipline
Talking about discipline among youngsters during her time and now, Peters said self-discipline among children has been gradually declining, resulting in many youngsters lacking the ability to achieve their goals in life.
“Compared to our times and now, I think learners now know that they have more rights, and they take advantage. However, they fail to understand that with every right comes a set of responsibilities.
“Also, the background counts. Charity begins at home. There’s also lack of parental involvement. To restore discipline, we need a holistic approach, having all parties, including parents and the community at large, involved and on board.”
Peters received her primary education at Reiger Park and Lakeside primary schools. She went to the then Oos Rand Secondary, and from there she pursued her teaching career at Rand College of Education and also went to UJ.
Also READ: #FirstDayOfSchool: Grade Ones begin their journey
