What’s our Story?
We have had a busy start to PEP Academy this year: with training, pre-tests and our first ever regional mini-conferences. We have heard your feedback, next time we won’t pack so much into February and will have conferences later in the year!
In 2024, let’s all continue to tell a good story by achieving excellent learner attendance and helping learners achieve academic gains. Most importantly, let’s develop learners who are confident, independent and with a positive attitude to learning so that this child from Tembisa can become a lawyer, and this one from KwaDukuza can become an electrician.
Mini-conferences 2024
For the first time this year, rather than hosting a national conference, we hosted regional mini-conferences so that teachers and principals could be included. Each of the regions brought their own special flavour to the conference, with Western Cape (left) and KwaZulu-Natal (right) bringing a Valentine’s theme to their day.
Gauteng (left) went with blue and white, and Free State (right) with black and beads.
At each of the conferences we heard the stories of school principals, academy managers and teachers.
Ms Nothabani Vabaza, a teacher from Inxiweni in Tembisa said that learner confidence has grown at the school thanks to the programme and that has inspired the teachers to start debating clubs and to enter learners into public speaking competitions where they have won many awards. She also said that she uses the teaching strategies she has learned in PEP to teach her grade 7 class during the day.
We also heard from our alumni. In Bloemfontein we heard from a former Kgato student who told us that PEP Academy “inspired me to practice my work more and boosted my maths and English.” In grade 7 she was the top achiever in her grade, and she credits PEP Academy for helping her reach that achievement. In Gauteng, we heard of an alumnus from Ebuhleni who got five distinctions in matric and who thanked PEP Academy for being part of her learning journey when she was 10-years-old.
We have asked school principals to be more active in PEP Academy and to ensure that their schools reach certain targets – such as full registration and excellent learner attendance – to remain a PEP Academy school. We thank all principals for attending the conferences and for sharing their stories and motivations. Mrs Juries from Welwitschia in Cape Town said that through PEP Academy learners are more easily able to connect maths to real life experiences. She also said that the PEP resources – the backpacks and stationery – have made learners feel more worthy by narrowing the gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots.”
Principals have committed to provide oversight to PEP Academy at their schools. In these photos Julia Hlahle, principal of Moriting (left) and Ruth Moamogwa, principal of Kgato (right) were thanked for their support.
Working in groups, PEP dynamos were asked to consider: how will we bring even more confidence, independence and positive attitude to our learners this year? Teams worked out strategies to increase parental involvement, encourage more learners to participate in class and how to improve learner attendance during exam time.
Across the regions we also heard from PEP dynamos – store managers and regional managers – who told the PEP story, about the Sikhula KunYe culture and PEP’s values of honesty, passion and resourcefullnes. Store managers also spoke of the excitement each year when the stores are flooded with learners coming to redeem their vouchers for school clothing and stationery.
Thanks to PEP dynamos who attended and who inspired us with stories about PEP’s Sikhula KunYe culture and its values of honesty, passion and resourcefulness. Dynamos who attended at KZN and Free State are shown here.
Thank you to everyone who took part in the conferences. Let’s each one of us carry on playing our part in the village it takes to raise the children in our care so that we keep telling a good PEP Academy story.
PEP Academy management team
Carien Groenewald, previously our Soweto mentor, joined OLICO in 2024 and will continue to support the next phase of our numeracy approach in PEP Academy. Thandi Khumalo, our Tembisa mentor, has left PEP Academy, we thank her for her time with us. With every goodbye comes a hello, and good news is that Sibongile Nkosi (pictured left), who is well known to most of our Gauteng team, has returned to us in 2024 to support the Tembisa schools.
Thabo Mautsoa resigned as our Free State mentor, and we welcome Tselegale Dorcus Ralepeli (pictured middle) as our new mentor. Dorcus is no stranger to our team, she has been a PEP Academy teacher, manager, principal and now mentor. Welcome back Dorcus!
We would also like to thank Edna Nxaba from Dr BW Vilakazi Primary in KZN who has retired as a teacher and as the PEP Academy manager, and we welcome Phakamile Mthiyane (pictured right) as the new academy manager.
Jumptrak
Thanks to all academy managers and mentors who have taken up using our new JumpTrak dashboarding system. While it has taken some getting used to, the team is now appreciating how quick and easy it is to instantly capture daily data as well as monthly reports. This has been a big change for us, and after a slow start in February, by March everyone was using the system and mentors and academy managers have commented that the system is so easy to use. Capturing data daily allows the Social Innovations office to better track what is happening across the regions and to offer support where it is needed. We extend a big thanks to the Jumptrak team and to Leigh Murray for ensuring that everyone had the support they needed in becoming familiar with Jumptrak. Once we have perfected the capturing of data, we look forward to sharing how managers and mentors can view the data so that they have a view of past performance to better plan for future performance.
A snapshot of the Jumptrak dashboard showing teacher/learner attendance and registration from February – May in Soweto is shown as an example of the live data that appears on the dashboard.
First term indicators
At the end of the first term, we reported an average 99% learner registration. If there are still one or two places open at your academy please fill them so we can achieve 100% registration. We also reported 95% learner attendance. Congratulations to all schools for making these targets. Let’s keep up the good work to improve attendance even further. For the first term loyalty awards, 92% of our learners achieved the first prize of a R150 PEP voucher.
Loyalty awards
Across our regions, parents and PEP dynamos joined in numbers to celebrate the achievements of the 2024 PEP Academy learners. Mr Louis Mzomba (top left), the principal of Ikhusi Primary said, “because of PEP we have an advantage over other schools in the area. You are an important stakeholder for us, and your programme has a big impact.” Children are seen celebrating with vouchers at Dr BW Vilakazi (top right) and Relebeletse (bottom left) while at Enkukwini PEP dynamo Santerah Singh evoked the spirit of Nelson Mandela in her address to the school when she quoted those famous words, “education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.” At Inxiweni (bottom right), the packed gathering of parents was a reminder of how important PEP Academy is in the lives of families. We look forward to our more than 5000 learners visiting their nearest stores to replenish school uniforms for the winter.
Our literacy programme
We thank our new literacy providers Halala! Education for a great start to the first term. We have had good feedback from academies about the new material that has inlcuded some of the themes from our former LO programme such as values and citizenship.
Learners have engaged with a variety of texts while also exploring themes that encourage them to better understand themselves and to imagine themselves into the future.
At Relebeletse (left), these learners dressed up to show off their dream jobs, while at Esithebeni (right) learners enjoyed the lesson about famous South African people inlcuding John Kani and Ma Brrrrr.
Literacy pre-test
Internationally, 9-10-year-olds should be reading at 123-180 correct words per minute (cwp) in English to be considered profficient for their age. The South African Department of Basic Education benchmark, at 50 cwp, is very low by comparison. On average, grade 4 PEP Academy learners achieved this low benchmark in the pre-test, however about half of learners tested were reading below this score. The grade 5s tested achieved on average the equally low South African benchmark of 90 cwp for their age group, however about 15% of grade 5s are still reading below grade 3 averages.
It is dissapointing that some academy managers have not correctly managed the marking and return of pre-test so a full summary of comprehension and other literacy indicators is not yet available. This will be shared before the end of the second term.
Through helping learners become fluent at reading and comprehension while building their number sense, we are developing learners who are confident, independent with a positive attitude towards learning. Our approaches can be seen here at Enkukwini and Dr BW Vilakazi.
Our numeracy programme
Our new OLICO numeracy approach took some time getting used to in 2023 with its emphasis on understanding number through play. Across some academies last year, our OLICO colleagues noted poor preparation for lessons from some academies. To support better preparation in 2024, OLICO has simplified the content, provided learner workbooks rather than worksheets and has developed an on-line course to help teachers prepare for lessons. Teacher take up on the course was low during our busy first term, but it has improved in the second term.
Teachers, this is a world-class training resource that has been developed to help you – we ask each and every one of you to play your part and use it. Once you get used to it, you will see that it lightens rather than adds to your work load! The course cuts down your preperation time, helps you better understand the maths, and offers you strategies to grow learner engagement.
Teachers have adjusted to the new numeracy approach in 2024 and mentors and academy managers have seen great energy across many of our numeracy classes in 2024. Who would have thought that maths could be such fun!
These classes teaching addition along a number line at Thembeni and doubling at Enkukwini are helping learners better understand the relationships between numbers.
Our numeracy pre-tests
The grade 4 numeracy pre-test covered number concepts from grade 2 and 3, and the grade 5 pre-tests concepts from grade 3 and 4. On average across the academies, grade 4 learners scored 36% on the grade 4 test and 45% on the grade 5 test. In grade 4, learners were particularly weak at multiplication and subtraction.
Grade 5s did better with quick addition, subtraction and multiplication than the grade 4s, but it was dissapointing not to see these learners use the methods they had learned in grade 4 in the pre-test. Teachers, please remember that PEP 5 is a consolidation of PEP 4, and we need to remind learners about what they learned in PEP 4 so we can build on it further.
This year, both grade should grasp a stronger understanding of place value and the exchange between units, tens and hundreds to support basic. There is also a stronger emphasis on story sums in this year’s workbooks to help learners better understand the concept of Part Part Whole.
A good story to tell
We are fast heading towards the end of the first half of the year. Let’s all work together to extend the learning gains of 2024 and to improve our teaching, managing and administration now that we have all become more familiar with our maths support videos, the new literacy materials and Jumptrak. Working together, we will continue to show that the PEP Academy team has a very good story to tell.
And remember, that we influence the story of each and every learner registered in our programme. One of those learners is Siyabonga Nxumalo from Thembeni Primary in KZN who was a PEP grade 5 learner in 2022. He performed so well in the PEP pre-tests that year, that it was suggested that he apply for bursaries to further his education. His teachers at Thembeni helped him apply and write letters of motivation, and he has been awarded a bursary by the Ruta Sechaba Foundation. He will be attending Curro for grade 8 in 2025. Well done Siyabonga!
