Help more South African children achieve in Maths

Although 2020 was not a year we could have expected, it was a year of significant growth!

We were able to:

• provide our learners with weekly learning activities & goals during lockdown. These activities were both online and offline (for those who did not have tech/internet access). We used WhatsApp, FaceBook, calls and even the sharing of photos between parents/carers to reach as many learners as possible!
• expand the resources we share with parents/carers, this included our new Learner Profile dashboard. Parents/carers were better able to provide informed support to their learners during our lengthy lockdown 
• work with the education department to provide amended lesson guides/activities for the COVID adjusted curriculum and support teachers as schools reopened
• provide additional Mastering Maths activities so learners could evaluate and celebrate what they understood and teachers identify where learners still needed help

Thank you so much for your continuing donations, that have allowed us to expand and grow during this challenging year. Thanks to your help we are starting 2021 supporting more learners and schools! 

Links:

• Green Shoots Twitter

Learners have been returning to school in phases over the last month after the Lockdown school closures, with all grades now being back at school.

Huge congratulations to the schools we support, who have smoothly put in place many new protocols to keep all safe from infection. Learners have quickly adapted to these changes and are keen to carry on with their online Maths lessons, as you can see from the pictures. 

For the few learners who are unable to return to class, they are still able to continue learning Maths at home. They are still finding a way to carry on completing their Maths, many use cell phones to access the online activities, 

Throughout this time, we have been supporting learners, parents/guardians & teachers by sending out targeted, weekly online Maths activities by email, using our Facebook page, Whats App to schools & school groups - in fact by whatever means that we can to get the support out! Now the majority of learners are back to school, we are continuing to support teachers to use the online Maths activities so that each learner can catch up with their learning. 

Whether learners are back to school or at home - our goal is that ALL learners can keep learning and achieving in Maths!

Links:

• Green Shoots Twitter
• Green Shoots Facebook page

Schools in South Africa have been closed for 7 weeks as part of our national Covid-19 lockdown. However our Team, working from home, have never been busier!

We are been supporting learners to access the online Maths from home using whatever devices they can find - laptops, tablets and mostly cell phones! We have opened our online Maths for free registration by parents/guardians from home and to date over 440 new learners have been registered in lockdown. 

Each week we are posting online activities via social media and sharing via WhatsApp groups so we can reach as many families as possible. These weekly activities contain an "I can" statement and specific online Maths exercises to help learners practise and master their Maths (supported by parents/guardians) from home.

From our data, we are very encouraged in seeing the number of exercises being completed at home every day. We have also been delighted with the positive feedback from learners/parents/guardians and even pictures they've  sent to us during this time - learning under lockdown is happening!!

Thank you for your donations that are allowing us to continue to support learners and families. Every donation is making a difference during these very challenging times.

For ongoing updates about "Learning in Lockdown" please see our Twitter feed.

Links:

• Green Shoots Twitter

We are incredibly honoured to have won Silver in the Hybrid Learning category at the Reimagine Education Awards.

The Reimagine Awards are the 'Education Oscars' and last year there were 1, 518 Projects submitted for the Awards from 84 countries.

As part of being shortlisted in Hybrid Learning category, we were able to present at the Reimagine Conference in Westminster, London. The Hybrid Learning category seeks out the best hybrid learning projects that unify web-based learning delivery and traditional learning practices.

Your donations and continued support have played a vital part in helping us win this award. Thank you very much.

For more information visit: https://www.reimagine-education.com/hybrid-learning-2020/ 

2019 is coming to an end and we here at Green Shoots would love to share some highlights with you of the past year. Our vision as Green Shoots is for all children in Africa to be able to experience quality education and so apart from the three schools supported by the project Help more South African Children Achieve in Maths we are working on other projects to help even more South African learners achieve in Maths.

We are very proud to announce that Green Shoots has supported 142, 657 learners, 3,504 teachers, 350 schools and 17 after-care centres in 2019. These learners have answered a total of 25, 559, 120 questions and completed more than 246, 473 assessments.

Green Shoots has also been shortlisted for the second time for the Reimagine Education Awards. The awards are called the ‘Oscars’ of Education’ and reward innovative approaches that enhance student learning outcomes and employability. As part of the Awards, we will be presenting at the Reimagine Conference in London in December.

Thank you for your very generous donations, it has helped us support an ever growing number of learners to reach their fullest potential.

For more information about what we do you can visit us at www.greenshootsedu.co.za

Best wishes for the holidays and the coming year from the entire GS Team!