Springfield Primary School is an independent school located in an urban-rural community in Ntabankulu, Eastern Cape. It is one of the few schools that the local community trusts to provide quality education for their children.
The journey to and from school is not often seen as a factor that can disrupt schooling. However, many children in the Eastern Cape use public transport as a means of travelling to school. Very few travel with their parents and some walk.
The distances travelled to and from school everyday by our learners have substantial adverse effects on attendance at school. There are extreme weather conditions we experience at times, like heavy rains, which make it impossible for learners to attend school. This is due to rough terrains.
Additionally, some learners live in deeply rural parts of our small community, where there is little demand for transportation to take people to and from town or school. Pupils must wake up very early to travel and wait until very late to go back home. It takes determination on the part of children and their families to overcome these barriers.
Long and tiring journeys
The long commute everyday is physically and mentally tiring for the learners. This results in them sometimes falling asleep or struggling to concentrate in class due to insufficient sleep. When we ask the learners what time they wake up, most of them say between 04:00 and 05:00 and they get back home after 18:00 or even 19:00. Naturally, they find it difficult to complete homework after such a long day.
A few other ways which the long commute may affect a learner in class include:
- They arrive at school and they are often angry or upset because they are late.
- They spend the first couple of minutes trying to catch up on what they’ve missed in class due to their late arrival, which then affects their overall marks.
- They miss out on important messages that were communicated during assembly.
These learners tend to struggle socially as well. Often, they have few friends because they arrive at school very grumpy and often not in the mood to talk to anyone. They also miss out on play time before school, and it is hard to invite them home after school as transport becomes an issue for them. Another source of worry is that the distance travelled to school can also be lined to negative behaviours such as absenteeism, delinquency, truancy, lateness and ill-discipline.
A calm and gentle response
Communication with the parents and the school plays a vital role as the school is able to look out for these learners and take extra care of them, however needed. The staff are aware of how lonely it may feel or how frustrating it is for the learners and they try by all means to include the learner in conversations and get them to open up.
The educator also knows to not shout when the learner arrives late, but rather to be patient and gentle with the learner as it is not their fault that they are late. Educators always avoid punishing learners who arrive late to school, as they may be discouraged from attending school if they are punished or chastised for late arrival after a lengthy journey to school.
Parents who engage with the school make life a lot easier for the teachers and the learners. The parents at Springfield are seen as family and their input is valued. The school has sent out surveys to parents to try to improve our communication and to hear what the parents need and what they like about the school thus far. The findings have helped us better ourselves as a school. The school understands that the parents are our clientele, which is why we value them that much more.
Multiple communication options
Most learners live with their grandparents or illiterate guardians. This makes it difficult to communicate with them due to the language barrier, as we use English as a medium of communication. Furthermore, many caretakers have no access to technology.
These are the means of communication we use as a school to communicate with parents:
- Conversations during teacher-parent meetings (one-on- one when required) and parent afternoons at the end of every term.
- Shared communication through a message book and WhatsApp groups.
- E-mails, text messages and phone calls.
- Social media posts (Facebook and Instagram).
- Individual meetings for extra support for any family/child that needs it.
- Termly newsletters (with reminders in between).
Some of the means we use to communicate are not convenient for some parents because of transportation challenges. They attend these one-on-one meetings at times that suit them, which can delay the relaying of advice or important messages concerning the learners’ progress. P
arents who live nearby to the school and its community tend to feel more excited about upcoming events at the school, and they share this enthusiasm with their children, unlike those who live further, who shy away from calling the educators as the child gets home very late or past the contact time.
The school has a website and in this online space parents can ‘meet’ the school principal and get updates about what is happening at school. The website provides ways of communication such as a contact number, e-mail address as well as the school’s residential address.
The website also carries newsletters, events, admissions, required documents for admission and all kinds of important information across all phases and grades. There are also details about the extra-curricular activities the school offers (sport, reading programmes, book club, cultural activities) on the website.
The school has also taken an initiative of having both a Facebook page and an Instagram page, where the parents get to watch video clips of learners in their classrooms. This makes the local community feel included in what is happening in and around the school.
Part of the family
Given the circumstances, the school tries by all means to be understanding and to communicate as effectively as possible with the family, no matter how far away from school the learner lives. We understand they they are part of our family and we believe that no learner or parent should be left behind.
We offer a homework club so that students can start their homework while waiting for their transport. We encourage them to read and expand their knowledge and vocabulary on their way home. Above all, we remind them of Nelson Mandela, and his ‘long walk to freedom’.