Education South Africa Project #36652

Choirs to Improve English Literacy of SA Children

by K2011127140 trading as PSI Projects

Project Report | Oct 16, 2020
Strategy, Governance and Principals in Community Leadership

By Bridget Johnsen | Project Leader

Inviting the Community to Action

Well, COVID well and truly scuppered any choral activity this year!! The spread of the Corona virus by singing, versus loud speaking, provided an interesting study!! Without the uplifting and continued support of our faithful donors, we may have been driven to despair. Thank you for your silent but generous encouragement. Our change of focus since last report remains unchanged .... on Principal Leadership Development, Strategic Review and Governance.

With sincere appreciation to the wonderful NGO, Symphonia SA, and their Partners for Possibility Programme, the Ispethu Sothukela Legacy Project Principals were invited to participate in a 2-day a Community Leadership workshop at Michaelhouse on the 13 - 14 Oct 2020. The workshop was attended by other school principals, deputy principals, student governing body members, NGO representatives and business owners. Catering as always was generous and the usual 5*****Michaelhouse facilites much enjoyed. COVID protocols were observed with aplomb.

The aim of the workshop was to foster and develop the leadership skills already in the room, and integrate a structure that allows strong community building to take place.The central theme of the workshop was to build the school as the centre of the community. This stucture proved to be a successful model to demonstrate effective facilitation, regardless of the meeting size, scope or agenda. Transport was kindly provided by the Drakensberg Boys Choir School. Sincere appreciation to the Michaelhouse Community Partnership Trust and the staff of Michaelhouse. Positive feedback has already been received from participants:

Ms Thandi Skhakane Deputy Principal Celimfundo :"The workshop was an eye opener to me about other ways of convening meetings , I learnt a lot and from this I’m going to change the normal way of doing things and create possibilities in every situation. I also learnt that I should not appear as an expert but listen and don’t judge!"

We have started canvassing for prospective donors to support the Literacy improvement we have observed during this project. We are in discussion with suppliers of age- and language-appropriate books for learners, simultaneously searching for sponsors of the travelling costs of a mobile library between the 6 schools in our cluster. PSI Projects has transferred its 4x4 Nissan Double Cab and a heavy-duty trailer to the Champagne Valley in an adventurous roadtrip delivery. This included an epic breakdown experience in Harrismith, with South Africa revisited in all its splendour and kindness!! The vehicle is eventually to fulfil the dual purpose of circulating the mobile library and of transporting conductors to schools. Some of these are difficult to access during the rainy summer .... specifically Emadolobheni Primary at the top of a steep and muddy hill.

Governance matters during COVID included routine Champagne Valley Trust Board Meetings, held virtually, to update Trustees and to perform banking due diligence. We bid farewell to retiring Trustee Dr Tim Tucker and welcome Dr Eseza Nambassi and Barbara Borgman onto the Trust. Sadly, due to deteriorating health, Bill Carter will be retiring to Johannesburg in January 2021. We will miss this CHAMPION and longtime leader of the Isiphethu Sothukela Legacy project! We also bid a sad farewell to current conductor and initial convenor of the Siyacula Festivals at DBCS, Bernard Kruger ...thank YOU for your lessons, generosity of spirit and wonderful celebrations of music over the years. A community workshop convened on 17 and 18 September 2020 at Kwethu Children's Village, Loskop, completed our Draft Child Protection Policy Framework. It is now to be finalised for introduction to the isiphethu Sothukela schools in 2021.

THANK YOU again to all those who continue to support our work, financially and in kind. To our conductors paralysed by COVID and to any local and international visitors to this project....we look forward to welcoming you to a valley filled with health, happiness and song in the years ahead!!

Workshop Fireside Chats in Masks When Too Cold Out

Team Picture...P4P Principals Community Workshop

Workshop breaks outside, observing COVID regs

A principal explains.....

Teamwork for Community Activities

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Jun 18, 2020
Lockdown unlocks opportunities....with a focus on Leadership!!

By Bill Carter and Bridget Johnsen | Project Leaders

Andrew Stead leads the Principal Workshop 13 March

Thanks so much to our faithful supporters .... we could NOT have survived the past few months without you. Who could ever have imagined that our world would change so much between reports? We have "bitten the bullet" and reverted to the drawing board to re-chart our path for the year ahead. Schools have closed and re-opened, but choirs are unlikely to be permitted until the end of the year. So far, South Africa appears to have flattened the curve sufficiently to enable our medical facilities to cope, but we still haven't reached our COVID peak.

Fortunately before lockdown, we were able to continue our March SCHOOL PRINCIPALS WORKSHOP with Andrew Stead from The Foundation of School Leadership and Management. Principals and heads of department from 3 Isiphethu Sothukela schools attended, together with Bill Carter on behalf of Champagne Valley Trust. The costs of the training were kindly shared by the Michaelhouse Community Partnership, who held an equivalent session on the previous day for 23 Midlands principals. Thank you to Trafalgar Property Management for sponsoring all the printed materials. Dates for the remainder of this years Principal Workshops are 10 July, 2 October and 27 November.

Blessed with the time to reflect, think, plan, write.... our project facilitator Judith Hawthorn has documented an outline of the syllabus in 16 lessons for Grade 3, and then also for Grade 4-7 . She has captured the essential steps for any school choir to prepare for particpation in a Music Festival and for the annual Siyacula Concert, as well as for the ABRSM Choral Examinations. Sadly, it seems that none of these events will take place this year.

Last year, the ABRSM representative for KZN, Bridget Harrison, expressed the hope that the Legacy Project would be replicated throughout South Africa. We have accordingly set our sights on this vision. The plethora of virtual learning platforms prompted our engagement with EDGE Education to digitise the syllabus. We have also submitted a funding proposal to National Arts and Culture with a view to rolling out this project in more schools from 2022. Senior Master of Culture at Michaelhouse has expressed his willingness to assist in the Midlands, and our own Judith Hawthorn (now located in the Hilton area) will look to commence the project around Pietermaritzburg, KZN. We would love any and all contributions to these efforts..... volunteers, assistance with logistics, catering at workshops or festivals, and direct donations all welcomed with open arms.

Deep appreciation again from the Champagne Valley Trust, PSI Projects, principals, conductors and choristers for your time, generosity and interest in this very rewarding project... truly changing schools and the lives of so many children!!

Principal Leadership Workshop 13 March 2020

Trafalgar and MHS sponsored all printed material

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Feb 27, 2020
2020 Rings in the Changes with a Cracking Start!

By Bridget Johnsen | Managing Director ....K2011127140

Bill Carter .... the heartbeat behind the scenes

Thank Goodness for Giving Tuesday!! And THANK YOU, our treasured donors and supporters.We are thrilled to be invited by GlobalGiving to extend our project to a second year, and to have achieved Superstar Status with Effective, Vetted and Top-Ranked Organisation Badges!! After a very successful London Fundraiser in October 2019 at South Africa House, Trafalgar Square, London, your generous donations in response to our appeals were gratefully received. In fact more than that.... they were increased by a whopping 30% through the GlobalGiving "Matched Funding Campaign" on Giving Tuesday in early December. Additional donations were welcomed from the generous Christmas collection plates of St Clement Anglican Chapel at Vondeling Wine Estate, Paarl and from the Champagne Valley's Carols by Candelight Service. We will be adding these kind congregants to our quarterly reports. Thank you again, one and all!

A positive bank balance has enabled us to plan for the year ahead and to get off to an excellent start in 2020. Thank you to Bill Carter for appointing new conductor, Mark Wallace, to lead our school choirs and mentor their conductors. Mark is a former Drakensberg Boys Choir School (DBCS) graduate and works part-time at one of the lodges in the Champagne Valley, so is ideally placed geographically for this project. He will be supported by recently retired Bergville Principal Gill Green, Charlotte Bower and Lynn Sclanders, together with our project stalwart Judith Hawthorne. Judith will be co-ordinating and supervising the project this year, rather than doing grassroots work in the schools. We are excited to hear that she is planning a replica of the project down in her hometown Pietermaritzburg, motivated by the favourable reports of the ABRSM. We will be motivating for more schools to particpate in the ABRSM choral examinations this year. We were delighted to hear that Nkosi Mjwayeli Choir featured with their on conductor at one of the DOE workshops. We are deeply appreciative of Mr Nathi Ndlovu of the Department of Education in KZN, which has committed to continue their support of the project.

The Michaelhouse Community Partership has recognised the benefits of the Principal Leadership Workshops and has agreed to share costs of these with us in 2020, offering them to the "Partners For Possibility" cluster of schools in the Mooiriver area, about an hour's drive from our school area. Former DBCS headmaster Andrew Stead will continue to run these workshops, which will now also be attended by CEO's and representatives of companies supporting the PfP programme in that area. The Drakensberg Boys Choir School will continue to host the Siyacula Festival and to offer mentorship and training for all conductors in the project. Focus groups in Maths, Science and English are being phased out as the teachers in our supported schools are well-capacitated w.r.t curricular content for these classes. The main need now is for interns to support them in classrooms that often have more than 60 learners with just one teacher. We will now commence fundraising for this need instead.

We continue to monitor all expenses very carefully, and our financials received another clean, unqualified audit in 2019. We have introduced a timesheet system to keep track of the various activities in the schools, and an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) in 2020 will require the school principals to sign off on these each month. Please continue to support this worthy project. Your donations are invaluable and deeply appreciated. It would be remiss not to mention what an inspiration the Ndlovu Youth Choir has been ...thank you to Drakensberg Boys Choir School alumnus Ralf Schmidtt, who really has showed us how to dream!!

Mr Nathi Ndlovu of the Department of Education KZN

Conductor Supreme... Mrs Judith Hawthorne

Learning to pronounce the words correctly

Setting actions to the words

Focussing on the Conductor

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