Edu Fun’s mission is to improve English literacy. We teach learners in grades 2 & 3 at Diepsloot Combined School (DCS) in the informal settlement of Diepsloot, South Africa.
We rely on volunteers and local youth to teach reading to approximately 400 children on a weekly basis. We use Diepsloot Combined School as our base which has become a centre of excellence where other non-profit organisations and groups send their volunteers/tutors to be trained in the Phono-Graphix reading method and learn best practices to then replicate our model in their own communities.
These partner projects keep growing and since we last reported in April, the project now collectively reaches 1511 learners from various townships and informal settlements where they are learning to read using Phono-Graphix from Diepsloot to Alexandra, Gomorrah, Mabopane, other areas in Tshwane, Rosettenville and Somerset West in the Western Cape.
Our tutor group continues to do well and some of the tutors attended additional training in Phono-Graphix facilitated by Read for Africa. These tutors had the opportunity to interact with other teachers and therapists outside of Diepsloot and gained valuable experience.
Holiday Buddy Reader, Arts, Sport and Dance Programme - June 2023
During the recent winter holidays, in June, our tutors planned, organised and ran a three-day holiday program for 100 children. The tutors ran the whole programme and also prepared food for each participant daily. The children enjoyed participating in activities such as reading, art, sports and dance. Edu Fun´s regular volunteers and mentors as well as high school children who are beneficiaries of our Food Pantry adn Baby Club, also participated to support the annual event. It was a huge success for everyone involved.
Another 200 learners engage in Phono-Graphix Reading Lessons for the second half of the year
From mid-July the junior tutors started teaching the grade 2 learners to read. Up until this point, the tutors’ focus was on teaching the Grade 3 learners to read twice a week whilst exposing the Grade 2 learners to pre-literacy skills introducing them to spoken English through singing and reading to improve their English vocabulary. They have worked on fine motor control skills to improve their handwriting and paper cutting skills in preparation for the formal reading and spelling lessons.
We are excited by the way in which our impact has multiplied due to the tutor programme. We are looking to expand this model into other schools in Diepsloot to make a significant change to the whole area. We are constantly being asked to replicate our model in other schools or communities and funding is always a challenge as the people who need our services the most can't afford to pay for the service. We are therefore constantly campaigning to raise funds to be able to appoint more youth in a variety of under resourced areas.
It costs approximately R40 000 per year to train 1 tutor and provide them with a monthly stipend to enable them to attend regularly and commit to the one-year programme. This works out to about $2000 a year and guarantees at least 40 more children will learn to read through 1 tutor's efforts and the stipend has a positive impact on a young adult’s life and ultimately their whole family.
Thank you for your continued support and dedication to Edu Fun's mission of providing English education and support to learners in need. Your contributions make a positive impact on their lives.
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Edu Fun’s mission is to improve English literacy. We teach learners in grades 2 & 3 at Diepsloot Combined School (DCS) in the informal settlement of Diepsloot, South Africa.
We rely on volunteers and local youth to teach reading to approximately 400 children on a weekly basis. We use Diepsloot Combined School as our base which has become a centre of excellence where other non-profit organisations and groups send their volunteers/tutors to be trained in the Phono-Graphix reading method and learn best practices tp then replicate our model in their own communities.
This means that collectively over 1000 children from various townships and informal settlements are learning to read using Phono-Graphix from Diepsloot to Alexandra, Gomorrah and Rosettenville
We have 8 new tutors from the Diepsloot community who have joined our programme this year and 6 tutors from last year’s programme are also involved, providing a lot of support and mentoring to the new group.
Phono-Graphix and computer training
During the first term of the academic year, the tutor group have focused on learning how to teach reading using Phono-Graphix. They are working towards an international certification.
The tutors have developed relationships with the grade 3 students by teaching them to read in a one on one setting twice a week. The tutors have found this to be a very rewarding experience and many are excited about teaching their own children or siblings to read.
The tutors have access to computers and the internet on a daily basis, but on a rotation as we don’t have enough computers with the full Office suite from them to get the full benefit of these sessions. Computer literacy is crucial in any job market. Each tutor is enrolled on several free online courses to supplement their Phono-Graphix training.
Teambuilding
The programme requires a lot of teamwork as all out tutors and volunteer groups need to work together to deliver projects and undertake community work that will provide them with hands on work experience and development of work ethics. The tutors recently participated in a Lego Challenge. None of the tutors had built Lego before and they were all eager to get started. Two teams had 45 minutes two build a structure and setting according to the theme of “EduFun”. Their creations were most inspiring including both mentors, tutors, and learners.
We are planning an off-site teambuilding day in May where tutors will go on a Ziplining expedition to continue to build on the team spirit!
Holiday Club and Community Work
Not only do the tutors offer their time and support to grade 3 learners at the school. They also take part in EduFun’s outreach projects such as the Food Pantry and Baby Club. Every Wednesday they support The Food Pantry children with their homework and hand out food parcels to each family every month. The Food Pantry children are a group of the most vulnerable children in the school where they have either lost both or one of their parents and in some cases come from child headed homes.
The Tutor group was also set the task to organise a one-day holiday club for grade 3 students during the recent school holidays. It was their first experience of delivering a project together and it was a great success. The tutors were supported on the day by our regular volunteers. It was a fun filled day for 40 children with activities such as beading, reading and coding. Breakfast, lunch and snacks were provided to each of the children. This holiday club was a great learning opportunity as the tutor group will be organising a 3-day holiday program for an estimated 120 learners in the June holidays later this year.
We value your continued support. If you would like to contribute to our 2023 Literacy programme to support the work that we do and ensure that we multiply our impact, we would really appreciate assistance with the following items on our current wish list
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Edu Fun’s mission is to improve English literacy. We teach learners in grades 2 & 3 at Diepsloot Combined School (DCS) in the informal settlement of Diepsloot, South Africa to read using the Phono-Graphix Reading Method.
The academic year has come to an end and the results of the reading and spelling assessments of all the Grade 2 and 3 learners at Diepsloot Combined confirm that our “Covid-Contingency” plan has become our winning formula.
2019 Overall result 68%
Volunteer Programme to support Grade 2 learners
- Once a week
- Large group sizes
- 4 sessions a month
2021 Overall result 63%
Alex Tutors - Covid Contingency
Grade 2 from 2020 who didn’t attend school in 2020
- Twice a week – during two weeks of the month
- 50% of the time
- 4 sessions a month
- Small groups 1:2 or 1:3
2022 Overall result 87%
Local Diepsloot Tutors – Covid Contingency becomes the actual plan
Grade 3 learners who were in Grade 1 in 2020 and missed a year of school, were in Grade 2 for 50% of the time and missed our programme in 2021
- Twice a week, every week
- 100% in school
- 8 sessions a month
- Mostly 1:1
So the “Covid-Gap” has officially been closed and close to 400 children have learned to read this year and 11 tutors have a new skill and have earned a Phono-Graphix Certification.
The results are phenomenal, but in order to sustain this, we’re going to require more funding than ever before. The key factor is being able to train local youth and pay them a small stipend in return for their many hours of volunteer work as they also need to be able live and pay for their and their families’ basic needs.
There are 6 primary schools in Diepsloot and we have plans to start working with one new school on 2023. In order for the programme to work effectively, we need to employ a minimum of 10 tutors at each school.
The cost per tutor in terms of their training as well as their monthly stipend over 9 months is approximately R33 000 per tutor for the year. This is the equivalent $2200 per tutor, which works out to less than $200 dollars per tutor per month which includes all their training, materials and stipend as well as all the stationery and educational material for the 25 to 30 children that each tutor would be responsible for teaching one-on-one on a weekly basis.
We are grateful for the continued support that we get from the GlobalGiving platform. Any of your donations will go a long way to assist us in achieving our vision for 2023 as we continue to multiply our impact.
Links:
Edu Fun’s mission is to improve English literacy. We teach learners in grades 2 & 3 at Diepsloot Combined School (DCS) in the informal settlement of Diepsloot, South Africa to read using the Phono-Graphix Reading Method.
We have been working with a group of unemployed youth who have all completed their training and will soon be certified Phono-Graphix Tutors. The tutors did an amazing job during the Winter school holidays in June/July where they ran our Holiday Buddy Reader, Sports, Art and Dance programme. 120 children participated in the programme and we were very lucky to have between 60 and 80 volunteers on any given day which meant that every child was able to have 1:1 reading instruction for one hour each day and then participated in other activities for the rest of the day.
Most of the learners from the school benefit from the school’s feeding scheme during the term, which means that they don't get regular meals during school holidays. During this programme every child who participated received breakfast, lunch as well as snacks and drinks throughout the day. Each child was also given a book to take home and the reactions when they realised that they could take the book home with them were priceless!
We are trying to replicate this holiday programme on a weekly basis in the form of a “homework” club where the most vulnerable children at the school, several of whom are from child headed homes come to our training hub every Wednesday afternoon, receive a meal, play board games, do homework, have access to the internet and get to chat to their friends as well as our tutors. This project costs about R2000 (Approx $125) to run per month. This is not something that we budgeted for, but we would really like to keep it going as it’s filling a void in the learners’ lives and keeping them actively engaged in recreational and educational activities after school on at least one day and gives them a sense of community and family.
We have been working with 200 Grade 3 learners since March of this year who have all benefitted from one-to-one instruction twice a week. The tutors have gained a lot of experience and have now added another 200 kids to their case load as we have started to work with all the Grade 2 leaners at DCS as well.
This means that we've managed to close some of the gaps caused by Covid. We have recruited more volunteers as a result, however we would love to start training and employing more local youth so that we can multiply our impact, replicate the project in other schools in Diepsloot and employ more unemployed youth who are proving to be very competent reading tutors and are able to provide better for their own families as a result of the allowance they receive.
Many tutors are teaching their own children to read as well as their younger siblings over and above the work they do with us and are even applying the method to other languages … so Phono-Graphix is the gift that keeps giving and is being passed down to the next generation.
There are 6 primary schools in Diepsloot and we hope to add one more school to our programme each year over the next 5 years. In order for the programme to work effectively, we need to employ a minimum of 10 tutors at each school.
The cost per tutor in terms of their training as well as their monthly stipend over 9 months is approximately R33 000 per tutor for the year. This is the equivalent $2200 per tutor, which works out to less than $200 dollars per tutor per month which includes all their training, materials and stipend as well as all the stationery and educational material for the 25 to 30 children that each tutor would be responsible for teaching one-on-one on a weekly basis.
We are grateful for the continued support that we get from the GlobalGiving platform. Any of your donations will go a long way to assist us in achieving our vision for this year and beyond.
Links:
Edu Fun’s mission is to improve English literacy. We teach learners in grades 2 & 3 at Diepsloot Combined School in the informal settlement of Diepsloot, South Africa.
We are currently addressing all the gaps in learning and literacy development caused by the lockdowns during the Pandemic. We will endeavour to teach 400 Grade 3 & 3 kids to read this year as opposed to our usual goal of 200 Grade 2 children because most of these kids did not attend school at all in 2020 and only attending 50% of the time in 2021. Even though schools are getting back to “normal” in terms of children attending 100% of the time, 100% also means up to 70 children in one class which makes learning to read that much more challenging.
We are also nowhere near back to “normal” in terms of the volunteers who were joining us on a regular basis to teach reading pre-covid as they have been concerned about their own health and safety as well as that of their families. The recent violence and protest action in Diepsloot has been yet another deterrent.
However, we are grateful that we have been able to train a group of unemployed local youth from Diepsloot to teach reading using the Phono-Graphix Reading method. We’re still in the early stages of our 2022 programme which got off to a good start on 1 March. We started working with approximately 200 Grade 3 learners at various ability levels.
Most of the learners who we assessed are at least a year behind with their reading and were assessed to start working at the beginning of the programme where the focus is on learning to read 3 sound words such as cat, cot, pot etc.
We are now starting to assess all the Grade 2 learners and will hopefully have enough funding to be able to train and employ more local youth who earn a small stipend as a token of appreciation for the community work that they are doing. This project is a win-win because it not only achieves our goal of teaching children to read, but also assists young adults to develop a new skill whilst earning a small allowance to assist their families.
Our expenses mainly comprise paying stipends for these young tutors and printing and stationery costs.
The cost per tutor in terms of their training as well as their monthly stipend over 9 months is approximately R33 000 per tutor for the year. This is the equivalent $2200 per tutor, which works out to less than $200 dollars per tutor per month which includes all their training, materials and stipend as well as all the stationery and educational material for the 25 children that each tutor would be responsible for t4eaching one-one on a weekly basis between now and the end of the year South African academic year in December.
We are grateful for the continued support that we get from the GlobalGiving platform. Any of your donations will go a long way to assist us in achieving our vision for this year and beyond.
Links:
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