Seeing is believing

Part of the scope of the ZSP includes the funding of the Jonga Trust in a pilot eye screening project. The funding has also allowed the Trust to provide glasses to the learners identified with eye sight deficiencies during the school screening mentioned in an earlier post ( Jonga Trust blog post). More serious cases were referred to the Red Cross Children's Hospital, under the funding of the Health Department.

Today the learners were proudly wearing their new spectacles during the lesson in the ZSP computer centre.

A new term

Schools opened again for the new term on Tuesday after a longer than normal 'football induced' winter break.

The Team have been very busy since then visiting all of the schools in the ZSP family:
Intshayelelo
Stage I: Eastville, Liesbeeck, Mitchell Heights
Stage II: Buck Road, Jamaica Way, Prince George, Sonwabo, St Mary's, Sullivan, Thomas Wildschutt and Thomas Wildschutt Junior.

Intshayelelo and Stage I schools' focus is using their technology to help educators improve learners' numeracy and literacy levels. This is done by educators using their time in the ZSP computer lab to  explore and consolidate the concepts that are being taught that week in the classroom.

The Stage II schools are preparing both the infrastructure and the strategies that will allow them to fully utilise the technology that will arrive in the Autumn. Over the next month the ICT Committees at each of the schools will be formulating  important guidelines that will allow the technology to be well managed and sustainable.

The Stage II Champions met yesterday. Two of the highlights were the encouraging stories of excited learners seeing the changes made to their schools over the break and educators constantly asking 'when will our training start?'

Enjoying the GEES...but the work goes on

The whole country is enjoying the "GEES" ( Afrikaans for 'spirit' ) generated by the Football World Cup. 300 000 people were in Cape Town for the Germany v Argentina game on Saturday.

In the midst of the football frenzy that is engulfing Cape Town, work is progressing both on the infrastructure at the schools and in the planning of the training for educators.

Service providers have been industriously fitting worksurfaces, adding security features, painting walls, finishing floor surfaces, putting in electrical and data cabling. When educators and learners arrive back at school on Tuesday they will be surprised at the transformation.

The ZSP Team have been planning the training schedule for the Stage II schools. The training has two parts; the e-literacy program and the educational software program. During the school holidays the ZSP Team have been analysing the results of the e-literacy evaluation that every Stage II school staff member completed. Training has been devised to account for the different levels of IT experience and confidence found at each school.

Well done South Africa on being an incredible host nation for the World Cup!!

Green for go

Just before the end of term, each of the eight Stage II schools had a meeting where their staff were asked to explore their hopes and fears for the ZSP. The task was based around a traffic light ( or 'robot' as it is known here in South Africa).

Traffic light analysis activity

The amber light required the staff to summarise the expected impact of ZSP at their school. Here is a selection of some of the responses.

Winter break.

The schools break up tomorrow for a longer than usual winter break. Schools have been given extra time off due to the Soccer World Cup. We wish all the staff and learners a good break and hopefully Bafana Bafana (the South African National football team) will put on a good show!

Work on the infrastructure will carry on during the school break. You will be able to follow the progress on blog; just click on the Stage II school's pages and on the ZSPs photo gallery.
ZSP photo gallery ( this link is also on the side bar of the blog)

The ZSP Team will be reviewing the staff e-literacy evaluation forms carried out by all staff at the Stage II schools. This review will allow the Team to design an e-literacy training program for each staff member.

Metamorphosis

There is nothing more exciting than to watch a new project 'grow' before your eyes. This is very much the case with the progress of the Computer Centres in the eight ZSP Stage II schools.

Hopefully you have been checking both the summary slideshow "Infrastructure progress" on the Blog's main page and the more detailed slideshow on each of the school's individual pages.

"I've always been a fanatic to a smell of a brand new car, but recently that is overwhelmed by the smell of an evolving computer lab. " Sonwabo Primary

"It seems they (the staff) get more excited as the lab progresses on a daily basis. The lab is really taking shape and already looks impressive." Prince George Primary

Jonga Trust

At one of the ZSP Stage I schools, Mitchell Heights, we are running a pilot program with the Jonga Trust to screen the eyesight of all of the learners at the school.

The Jonga Trust is a non-profit NGO that screens and manages eye health for disadvantaged people in South Africa. Two of its aims are to provide eye health care services to all and the provision of cost effective visual correction.    

Jonga trust website

At Mitchell Heights, the Community Eye Care workers screened 951 learners. The aim was to identify learners who had visual problems. The learners who were found to have problems were then referred for further testing. The Jonga Optometrist visited the school over several days to perform refraction testing. (see the picture above).

Staff e-literacy survey

One of the strategic objectives of ZSP Stage II is to enable teachers to reach a competent level of computer literacy.

In order to provide teachers with a personalised program to develop their e-literacy..we need to know what they know! The team has devised an e-literacy survey to allow all teachers from the novice to the Einstein to show their current skills and confidence when using ICT.

Staff-E-literacy-Evaluation  click here to see the survey.

The ZSP Champion in each school is ensuring that we get an evaluation from all of the staff (teaching and non-teaching) at their school. The team will analyse the responses and plan the training accordingly. The team want all staff to be stimulated and to develop..not be bored or feel the training is over their head.

Meet the Champions

As mentioned in an earlier post, each of the Stage II schools has selected a ZSP Champion. The Champion is the staff member who will drive the ZSP at their school; also they will liaise with both the SMT of the school and the ICT Committee.

We had our first ZSP Champions' meeting last Wednesday. The ZSP Team discussed how the implementation would occur at each school and the importance of communication between the Champion and the ZSP Team , and between the Champion and the staff.

The first tasks the Champions have to tackle are an e-literacy survey of all the staff at their schools, this will help the Team to plan the staff e-literacy training; additionally the Champions will look at the hope and fears of their staff about the ZSP at the school. The Team are eagerly awaiting the results!

Our Champions are:

Buck Road : Farzanna Ebrahim

Jamaica Way: Mathilda Marsh

Prince George: Fernal Van Aswegen

Sonwabo: Mthuthu Ngqingqo

St Mary's: Ingrid Morris

Sullivan: Peter Mackier

Thomas Wildschutt Senior: Madji Ryklief

Thomas Wildschutt Junior: Deborah Africa

Sonwabo Primary

A slideshow showing the start of work at Sonwabo Primary.