200 children attend extra classes in Eldos
Two organisations from Eldorado Park team up with Boekenhout Primary to assist in extra classes to assist learners with basic reading and comprehension skills.
Breakthrough Football Academy in collaboration with Love One Feed One offers extra classes during the weekend for learners at Boekenhout Primary School in Eldorado Park.
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According to Leroy Smith, the education programme has been introduced at Boekenhout Primary School due to the challenges learners and teachers currently face.
“Our purpose at the moment is literacy -basic reading and comprehension skills. The lack of reading and writing skills of learners has been a limitation for optimal teaching and learning to take place.
“The programme focuses on developing basic phonics and phonemic awareness skills that certain learners have not developed or been taught,” said Smith.
Teachers at the school have identified learners in their classrooms who are in need of these extra classes and are therefore encouraged to attend.
The classes are every second week on a Saturday and run for 3 hours with a 30-minute break in between and during that break, a meal or snack with juice is provided for each learner.
The two organisations cater to children from grade 1 (6/7 years) to grade 7 (12/13) and are limited to 200 learners giving each learner attention.
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“We highlight the challenges the kids face in reading and comprehension and find activities that cater for those. Most of our activities are taken from curriculum material which learners have been taught at school during the specific week of the Saturday classes.
“Learners are therefore familiar with what is being taught at the extra classes and are comfortable with participating during lessons,” Smith explained.
The reason for the limit of children per Grade is due to the fact that the volunteer teachers want to focus on the learners individually which differs from the norm of the overpopulated classrooms during normal school days.
Smith indicated that this arrangement helps build the children’s confidence and creates a sense of belonging because someone is putting in the time and effort to teach them certain skills.
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The Saturday classes not only focus on the academic aspects of school but also focus on the well-being of each learner.
The volunteers and teachers want children to feel worthy of getting an education so that in the future they are able to become better versions of themselves.
“This programme benefits learners, volunteers, teachers and the community; one learner and one school at a time. The vision is to expand to many other schools and instil these values within other children in and around Eldorado Park,” concluded Smith.
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