Success lays the foundation at Roosevelt High School
ROOSEVELT PARK – The school shares the success they have had in the past year.
Despite Covid-19, it has been a successful year at Roosevelt High School.
According to deputy principal Henk Ferreira, they were able to build eight new classrooms and new bathrooms for both girls and boys. “Some of these replaced existing prefab classrooms while others added to our existing classroom numbers. While these were under construction, we built three other classrooms which will later be used to extend and upgrade the tuck shop. These additional classrooms became necessary as our numbers continue to grow.”
Apart from this, the school had a large concrete area with seating that was not being used productively. Ferreira explained this area existed as a result of the swimming pool being filled in many years ago. In its place, they built a massive arena-type hall that can comfortably seat at least 400 learners for exams, including space for social distancing. “Without the desks and chairs, the area will easily accommodate the whole school of (currently) 1 800 leaners, particularly as we retained the seating area of the pool,” he said.
Unfortunately, the ever-changing Covid-19 regulations meant a huge interruption to their extra-mural activities with the choir being the only activity that was able to resume fully. They decided to focus on academics and ran a full extra-lesson programme across all subjects, and all grades, and were able to complete the pre-Covid-19 curriculum. He shared they also taught core subjects to the Grade 12s on Saturday mornings and are expecting good results at the end of this year.
“In the latter part of the year, we partnered with neighbouring schools who attended extra lessons with our learners. This was a very valuable experience and the programme will be continued and expanded in 2022.”
The school was part of a Youth Employment Initiative and, as Ferreira put it, was fortunate to have some very capable and hard-working young men and women on their staff for most of the year.
“I am very grateful for the ongoing support of the GDE, our SGB and our parent body. Of course, I cannot omit our committed teachers, admin and maintenance staff who are the backbone of the school and without whom no school can function effectively,” concluded Ferreira.
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