In the first place, because the paper is written by so many schools in the province, changing a section or even a question in it might inadvertently disadvantage learners in all the other schools attempting the original paper.

In the second place, so deep into the academic year, we should be honest: if we did not teach the content in full, it is kind of really late to patch, unless we talk about revision. Conversely, changing a paper to make it “more difficult” will rather give the other schools’ learners an edge over your children. Do you really need it?..

Finally, there is no procedure to be followed which can justify such changes in the context of any common examination. It is “common” per definition.

The most serious story I heard was from Mr  Seef le Roux (Bloemhof HS) when we got together for the moderation cluster at Stellenbosch one day. While the educators were still enjoying their “pre-moderation” snacks, Seef told me about a big school gathering they had held the previous week or so. Right in the middle of it, just imagine a huge assembly hall packed with seated people, somebody, hm… coughed.

The sudden silence was broken after a second person followed suit, causing a wave of sporadic and uncontrollable coughing, where the whole crowd just let it go. To the organizers’ consternation it was not possible anymore to proceed with the assembly in a sensible way. The sound of coughing was so overpowering in the hall that it was decided to stop the proceedings with immediate effect until “order” was restored.

If I think of how many people could have contracted the flu at that assembly!..

By the way, while we are still at it, I have seen some teachers showing multiple flu-like symptoms coming to the moderation meetings. This form of dedication is very precarious as it may have placed the other attending colleagues in an unenviable position of running a risk of contracting the disease (and taking it further on to their loved ones).

Shall we be more responsible?..

My mouth hung open when I was shown well-designed PowerPoint presentations [in pure AFRIKAANS] by Ms Thea Pieterse (Montagu HS) teaching the children MS Access!..

Ask me, how did they get it right to make their clusters intriguing enough for a whole bunch of teachers from Swellendam to come over from the now Overberg district to attend (at their own cost)?.. (Ms Helga Kellies from Swellendam SS had some lesson templates to present to her Cape Winelands colleagues at a cluster in Bonnievale).

It is the dedication of colleagues that face the same challenges as the rest that makes a difference. They are finding it possible to be masters of their Art. Thanks, guys. I am enawed.

Our Overberg colleagues may now address all work-related issues for Estelle’s attention at egoosen [at] pgwc.gov.za

coordinators

A meeting with  Support Group Coordinators was held in Worcester East Dutch Reformed Church yesterday.

In the picture from left to right:

We missed Madalé van Deventer (responsible for Paarl) a lot, who could not come due to nasty server crash at her school.

These people are the face of enhanced curriculum support to the schools in our district.

Let us give the SG Coodinators our full cooperation and support as they launch initiatives to facilitate personal and professional development of educators they are entrusted with.

We wish them success in this demanding position.

The curriculum SG co-ordinators will be invited to an orientation session on the 4th of May, as previously reported.

The time of the meeting is from 14:30 to 16:30.

The venue is still to be finalised, but it seems like all will start in the CWD Hall and from there we will move out to the subjects’ respective venues, which will be co-ordinated by the District.

I would like to ask the co-ordinators to plan to attend the meeing in advance. The schools have received a letter from Dr B A Wilson where the principals were asked to stengthen our hand in this regard.

To date, the following groups have got a nominated co-ordinator:

1) Bonnievale-Ashton-Montagu (Dirk);

2) Robertson-McGregor (Jeannè);

3) Ceres (Carin);

4) Stellenbosch (Ronel).

The invitation is still open for:

5) Stellenbosch (possibly);

6) Paarl;

7) Wellington;

Worcester (Gerda already co-ordinates IT, so she asked for other nominations).

The Overberg District:

I know that there are some schools in Swellendam that said they wanted to be part of the Bonnievale group.  That is very cool. However, the rest of the teachers in Overberg do still need to organise themselves into tighter entities, aka support groups, notwithstanding (and, actually, due to) the absence of a dedicated Curriculum Adviser.

The items on the list that follows are taken from the Gr 10 PoA. These appear to be quite confusing, if you read attentively. The purpose of this post is to clarify that. Note the corrections:

Address: Langeberg Sek, George St, Dorpsig, Robertson.

Map: