2022 Edition 1 : January
Hi 5 PEP Dynamos!
Welcome!
Welcome to all PEP Academy dynamos as we prepare to open our doors to our learners on 1 February 2022!
We look forward to welcoming our bigger team. With the Grade 5 academy returning to most schools, we have a lot more learners in the programme this year, and we will be making a much bigger impact.
And a particularly big welcome to our new school, Relebeletse in Mangaung, Bloemfontein.
Kimon travelled to Bloemfontein towards the end of last year and was so inspired by the school, the gardens and the generally happy environment. We hope that, with the support of Kgato and our mentor Lisle Loots, the school will becoming a long-standing PEP Academy school. Pictured are the academy manager Olga Khoria and the principal Moses Kalane.
We welcome also our new Gauteng mentor Carien Groenewlad (pictured right). Carien is a colleague of Sibongile Nkosi and Roger McIver at St.Davids Marist Brothers. Sibongile is stepping down from her role as a PEP Academy mentor to focus on her new role at St. Davids as Director RE, Ethos & Pastoral Care. Congratulations Sibongile and thanks for your many years with us.
So, what’s in store for 2022?
We are hoping to resume our normal PEP Academy schedule (does anyone remember what normal looks like?)
Grade 5 is back! And we have brought back our LO programme to Grade 4!
For some schools, the LO programme will be new. It encourages learners and teachers to explore feelings, values and citizenship through the creative use of arts and drama. We hope you enjoy it.
With the re-introduction of LO, we hope to resume our three day a week programme again to accommodate literacy, numeracy and LO.
Preparing for the new year
Thanks to all Dynamos who have attended the training in January in preparation for the academy classes starting on 1 February. Pictured here is the team from KZN.
Countdown to 1 February
We thank all schools and management teams for their continued support, and look forward to having our PEP Academy teachers and learners back in class on 1 February.
There is little new information avaiable from the DBE in terms of Covid-19 protocols for the new year. It seems the only requirement is the one metre distance between learners, as well as the protocols around masks and hand washing that we have become accustomed to.
We understand that each school will have its own policies in place with some under pressure to keep the rotational system due to big class sizes.
However in PEP Academy, we have only about 32 learners per class. We shouldn’t have to split each class into two groups.
We ask that each school makes a plan to revert to our normal PEP Academy schedule.
Amanda will be in touch this week to discuss with each academy manager.
