Isiphiwo Primary School

About the School

Isiphiwo is a primary school in Harare, Khayletisha, Cape Town which services over 1 000 children from one of the poorer parts of Cape Town. This is a well-managed school where Rotary has been involved for over 6 years. The literacy ratings have been increased dramatically but it is still a battle to find the correct maths programme to install in the school. The maths rating remains pathetically low.

Global Grant:

Isiphiwo is currently involved in a matching grant with partners from Rotary Alturas Sunrise Club in California (main contact Tom Boxler) and Rotary Club Tahoe-Incline in Nevada (main contact Maureen McCarthy) (both District 5190).

This Global Grant will cover 2 main aspects.

1. Teacher training for up to 18 teachers from 7 schools which surround Isiphiwo Primary School covering topics like Daily Routine + Behaviour management, Creative arts, Morning Ring, Classroom management, Music + Movement rings, Educational games + puzzles, Children Assessment, Report writing and Outdoor play. This will be focussed at Grade R and Grade 1 teachers (Foundation phase).

2. Computer facilities. Currently each child has 30 mins per week (sharing) on a computer. There is a need to increase each child’s exposure to using computers. This computer facility is also shared with teachers who need to do all their preparation and marking and reports in this centre as well. The Global Grant will increase the computer centre to 80 computers which will allow each child 90 mins per week per child no longer needing to share computers. This will also enable enough space for the teachers to access to computers in the lab for their needs. The school is a firm believer of a balance between the good old fashioned reading of books and technology and all its advantages.

A great big thank you to Rotary Alturas Sunrise Club in California and Rotary Club Tahoe-Incline and Rotary International without whom this would not have been possible.

Current needs:

Additional classrooms and library books. Stationery each year is also appreciated by a number of children whose parents or grandparents are unable to buy them small stationery items (eg a ruler, a glue stick, pens, pencils, etc). [See the thank you notes attached written in response to stationery supplied]

The library was only started about 3 years ago and is something that needs continuous building up. Currently reading groups take place in the afternoons. This is largely due to the fact that librarians were removed from schools and we fought to have this re-instated. Currently we have librarians Monday to Friday from 8am to 5pm. This helps a great deal and will enable us to link into District run literacy and reading programmes coming on line. Our library is also of a standard that we will be able to offer this to the District initiatives as a venue suitable as a venue to run their planned reading programmes.

Wonderful painting of the Grade R classes has been undertaken by 3 local Rotaract Clubs and will be continued and expanded to play areas so that letter and number games can be utilised in a fun learning way.

A Wynberg Rotarian is continually engaged with this school.