Help more South African children achieve in Maths

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!

Above you will find our 2019 Summary Report for the three schools, Jamaica Way Primary, Mzamomhle Primary and Zwelihle Primary, supported by the project Help more South African children achieve in Maths. This infographic gives you an overview of the impact that the project has had at these three schools this year.

Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Thank you for your generous donations! They are helping set these learners up for an incredible future where they can reach for all their dreams and make a lasting change in the world.

We are heading into the second half of the school year in South Africa and the three schools supported by the project, Help more South African learners achieve in Maths, are diligently completing their online maths exercises. Last week two Green Shoots team members visited one of the project schools, Zwelihle Primary. They offered additional support, observed and requested feedback from both teachers and learners on how Maths learning and teaching in the school is impacted.

We asked the grade 6 teacher at Zwelihle Primary how using the weekly online Maths exercises is helping her teach Maths.

“MCO helps me, because I first teach the learners, then when they go to Green Shoots everything that I taught them they will be able to do, then I will also see when the gaps are, they are now introduced to new concepts. When they go to the lab they understand the work better.” Grade 6  Teacher at Zwelihle Primary

We also asked some of the learners what they like about doing their Maths exercises online.

“When I finish my Brain Quest, I submit it then I see my marks and my total. Then I can go back to my Brain Quest so that I can do my corrections.” -  Grade 6 learner

“Green Shoots gives us knowledge about something we don’t know, it gives me knowledge to learn more about Mathematics” – Grade 5 learner

Thanks to your generous donations the learners in these three schools are loving their Maths lessons and teachers are more empowered to identify the “gaps” and offer the learners more targeted support.

We received some wonderful letters (see below) from the learners at one of the schools we are supporting through the project Help more South African children achieve in Maths. It is lovely to get feedback from the learners telling us how doing the weekly online maths exercises have really helped them with their Maths.

Thank you for your generous donations, they are really making a big impact in the lives of each of the learners supported by this project. Your donations are giving these children the chance to get access to a quality education that will help them achieve their dreams.

We are almost half way through the first term and the learners and teachers at Jamaica Way Primary, Mzamomhle Primary and Zwelihle Primary are hard at work doing their weekly online Maths lessons. A total of 1, 719 leaners and 38 teachers have been registered onto our online platform for 2019 and we will be supporting these schools in various ways to help them achieve in maths.

We are delighted to be able to report that Jamaica Way Primary and Mzamomhle Primary both achieved much improved Grade 6 Maths results in their 2018 external exams. Jamaica Way Primary improved by 17% and Mzamomhle Primary by 30%!! Zwelilhle Primary has also been getting on well and we are excited to see what the year will bring for the school and its learners. This would not have been possible without the dedication of the learners, teachers and school managements of these schools as well as your generous donations.

We love giving you feedback straight from the classroom. Here are some comments from the teachers explaining how the online maths lessons are helping their learners.

“One of the biggest benefits is that every child can participate in the maths lesson.” – Ms Jones, Grade 5 teacher at Mzamomhle Primary,

“It is amazing that teachers can have their results at the click of a button. Now we can work together to solve the problems that we find.” –Ms Williams, Grade 6 teacher at Jamaica Way Primary

Thanks to the donations we have received in 2018 we have decided to look at stretching the impact of the project by adding yet another school the project “Help more South African children achieve in maths.” But more on that later!

Thank you for your generous donations they are helping more and more children in South Africa achieve in Maths and reach their dreams.