Mr Louis Bates, former principal of Laerskool Breyten, bids farewell.

Mr Bates began his journey at the Department of Education in 1965 at Laerskool Piet Retief.

He joined Laerskool Breyten in 1983 and was appointed school principal in 2013.

Over the years he has been on three television programmes and has won 18 awards.

The two achievements that meant the world to him was when he was awarded national winner of ‘excellence in education leadership’ for primary schools and when he won an award from a

Sunday newspaper for making a difference.

Rules that he implemented at Laerskool Breyten are:

• Teachers must be prepared and give learners the best they can by spending time with the children.

• No homework since 2014, not all learners have food, electricity and other essentials when they get home after school.
Therefore, all work is done in the class and since that change was made the average pass rate moved from 50% to 70%.

• No group work as learners who are underprivileged cannot afford to contribute the same as the rest of the group.

An exception can be made for group work but then all materials needed for the assignment will be given to the learners.

Mr Bates has made numerous developments at the school namely, building 10 classrooms, seven storerooms, toilet facilities for Grade R learners, two kitchens and two greenhouses.

He has managed to develop the school with the help of several sponsors.

A millennium tower began as an idea in 1998 and formed its shape as a memorial wall, monument and time capsule.

Mr Bates received permission in 2012 from the governing body of Breyten Primary School to build this in memory of teachers and learners of the school who died while they were still at the school.

Read the complete article in the Highvelder Newspaper.