Help more South African children achieve in Maths

It’s the start of the third term at St Mary’s and Mzamomhle Primary, the two schools supported by this Project "Help more South African children achieve in Maths". Maths lessons are back in full swing and learners and teachers are excited for what the new term will bring.

According to the usage reports we compile twice a term (which indicates how each class, in each grade have been using the Maths Programme) both schools have been showing a high percentage of usage since the start of the project in March. Mzamhomle Primary has completed 72% of their lessons from the Maths Programme and St Mary’s 73%. These percentages are commendably high considering the current rotational blackouts happening in South Africa. These two schools combined have completed 292 lessons since the start of the project.

Teachers are starting to reap the benefits of using the Maths Curriculum Online (MCO) programme and see the impact it is having on their learners. Teachers are reporting that the MCO exercises and the per child data provides them with more time to support leaners with their Maths difficulties.

“I’m able to see the learners’ weaknesses and able to take them back to the areas where they are struggling.” – Grade 4 teacher at St Mary’s Primary

  By chatting to learners we have seen that they have become less fearful and more confident, when doing Maths.

 “Learners are feeling more positive about their mathematics ability. They are taking greater ownership of their learning.” - Grade 6 teacher at Mzamomhle Primary

Thank you for your donations, which are helping 13 Maths teachers to support 1089 learners.  This project that you are supporting not just about helping with Maths but about giving each child the chance to have a better future.

It has been a busy week for the teachers at St Mary’s and Mzamomhle Primary schools, the two schools supported by this Project "Help more South African children achieve in Maths". Thanks to this Project, the Green Shoots team is able to support the 13 Maths teachers, two technical teaching assistants and school managements at the two schools.

This week Green Shoots hosted Maths Progress review sessions at each school. Through the Maths Curriculum Online (MCO) programme, provided through this Global Giving Project, teachers are able to track each learner’s progress. Thanks to your generous donations 382 grade 3-7 (ages 8-13) learners at St Mary’s and 707 grade 4-7 learners are benefiting on a weekly basis from MCO.

It was so exciting to see the enthusiasm of the teachers as they worked through the per child and per class data analysis from this term provided by the Green Shoots team member. Teachers were so grateful that they could have details of each child immediately, without having to spend a lot of time marking and collating the data. This data from the MCO allows teachers to focus their time instead on supporting learners to succeed in Maths.

Both the sessions finished with the teachers planning new strategies and ideas to help their learners to improve their achievement in Maths for the remainder of this Term. The teachers are eager to see how results improve by the end of Term 2!

“This data analysis is so helpful, I know what my learners are struggling with and now I can plan my lessons to help them improve” St. Mary’s teacher.

“I can assess my learners better. I can give individual attention to the learners that struggle and those above-average”  Mzamomhle teacher.

Links:

• Green Shoots website