Saturday February 10th saw the arrival of 21 excited teachers from Western Cape preschools in Langeberg Municipality, at Kapteintjies Early Childhood Development Centre (ECDC) in Bonnievale. They had come for a brand new training course and were greeted by three equally excited trainers –all either principals or senior staff of 3 ECDCs in Bonnievale.
The story goes back to 2013 when the Breede River Winelands Rotary Club (BRWRC) collaborated with Swansea RC in Wales to obtain a matching grant from the Rotary Foundation. This was to run a programme which trains teachers from primary schools and ECDCs to teach parents how to interact with their young children in a way which will help them to develop language and eventually literacy skills. The programme, designed and created by Wordworks, is called the Home School Partnership Programme (HSPP). Wordworks is a non-governmental organisation based in Cape Town (www.wordworks.org.za).
Funded by Rotary, including generous donations from Claremont RC’s outreach programme, and supported by Wordworks, who provide wonderful educational materials and training, this programme is still running in ECDCs in Montagu and Bonnievale. To date the training of the teachers has been undertaken by WordWorks staff coming to Montagu from the organisation’s headquarters in Muizenberg.
Rotary is always keen to see its projects become self sustainable and run by the local community. This was unlikely if the HSPP in the Langeberg continued to depend on trainers coming from Cape Town. Furthermore, the programme had been so successful that the preschool teachers running it were keen to see it established in all 5 towns in the Langeberg.
Wordworks, in collaboration with BRWRC, agreed to embark on an exciting new venture, the first in South Africa, whereby senior practitioners who were already experienced in delivering HSPP would themselves be trained to train further preschool staff. The first such course took place on February 10th and was a great success. Crucial to this success was a further member of the team, who is an Associate member of BRWRC, a retired teacher herself. She was responsible for all the logistics including the catering –even baking the welcome muffins herself!
The trainee teachers (called facilitators) participated enthusiastically and heard from one of the trainers who runs the HSPP in Bonnievale, about fantastic examples of parents who, before their course, didn't know how to talk to their children and how they have grown with confidence after doing the course; also of children that performed and excelled because their parents now encouraged them and knew how to support them.
The day ended with a song “Let’s get ready for HSPP” devised by the trainers. The new facilitators departed with instructions and materials to start planning their own HSPP in their respective preschools. They will be mentored by the training team and return for a further course in a few months’ time. The team were exhausted but very happy with their first course.
