Sea View SSS Support
One of the central tenets of Jabulani’s work is to partner with the community in their development and growth and one of the things we enjoy most is when we are approached to draw alongside others in what they are doing and give support. We have recently been inspired by what we see happening at one of our local schools, Sea View Senior Secondary School which is right on Zithulele’s doorstep, and have embarked on a fledgling partnership to support their vision for some much-needed improvements. The school staff has identified a number of challenges and have developed their own plan to tackle them, asking Jabulani for support where possible.
Infrastructure, furniture and maintenance are serious issues due to historical bad management and insufficient funding. Students stay in the same classroom all day while teachers move from class to class and so the poor upkeep of classrooms is often a result of no ownership being taken by teachers. By rather assigning a teacher to each classroom in the future, the school hopes to improve the sense of responsibility and ownership and encourage teachers to create an environment conducive to learning. In order to get this started, the school has an immediate need for two existing structures to be renovated and re-furnished from their current state of dilapidation.
Sea View has initiated a plan in which two teams (lead by the two future class teachers) will conceptualise, fundraise and renovate the rundown classrooms in competition with each other. This will take place in the week before school reopens in 2015 and Jabulani will help through providing an avenue for funding and publicity, through building and maintenance advice and expertise, and through coordinating the volunteers who will do the work.
Infrastructure, furniture and maintenance are serious issues due to historical bad management and insufficient funding. Students stay in the same classroom all day while teachers move from class to class and so the poor upkeep of classrooms is often a result of no ownership being taken by teachers. By rather assigning a teacher to each classroom in the future, the school hopes to improve the sense of responsibility and ownership and encourage teachers to create an environment conducive to learning. In order to get this started, the school has an immediate need for two existing structures to be renovated and re-furnished from their current state of dilapidation.
Sea View has initiated a plan in which two teams (lead by the two future class teachers) will conceptualise, fundraise and renovate the rundown classrooms in competition with each other. This will take place in the week before school reopens in 2015 and Jabulani will help through providing an avenue for funding and publicity, through building and maintenance advice and expertise, and through coordinating the volunteers who will do the work.
To support this project directly click here for banking details and
be sure to use the reference "[your name] sea sup" for tax purposes.
To donate towards specific items for the project click here. Just add the 2 or 3 letter code to your reference so we can tick the items off the list.
Follow the progress of the project day by day as it happens on Mr Hutchinson's blog.
Another avenue through which Jabulani hopes to support the school is through providing volunteers. The school has scheduled an extra 30 minutes of English practice each day, focussed on basic language skills as many learners arrive at school barely being able to speak a word of English and teachers are struggling to motivate learners to engage with the language while keeping up with the syllabus. Volunteers would be invaluable in assisting with these periods, as well as with chess and games clubs, helping with maintenance, tending the grounds and reviving the school's vegetable garden.
Lastly, music programmes are sorely lacking at Sea View. Mr Hutchinson, a young maths teacher at the school, started a choir and has been overwhelmed by the quality of the voices and the enthusiasm of the learners for music. He has decided to expand this by teaching guitar, saxophone and running a marimba band in 2015, and will be doing a drive to raise R40 000 to acquire the necessary instruments.
Despite the many challenges faced by rural education, we are encouraged to see the school taking the initiative to overcome some of these and are excited to be able to partner with them to make things happen. If you would like to get involved in any of the above areas through volunteering or providing donations, and help us to support them in achieving their vision, please get in touch.
Below is a clip of one of the students from Sea View SSS singing an Italian Aria by Giacomo Carissimi: Vittoria Vittoria. The clip was taken during the preparation for the Classroom Renovation Project, January 2015.