Wallacedene Primary School in Kraaifontein was one of 66 schools recognised by the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) for achievements and improvement in the 2014 Language and Mathematics Systemic Tests.
Western Cape Education Minister, Debbie Schäfer, and Head of Education, Penny Vinjevold, presented awards to the schools at a function on Tuesday, 17 February at Turfhall Primary School in Athlone.
The department selected the top overall performers in each of the province's eight districts, as well as those in disadvantaged communities in each district who had shown the greatest improvement.
The awards recognized overall performance and improvement, as well as performance in literacy and numeracy.
Awards were presented to schools that consistently performed well over the three year assessment period as well as schools that have shown substantial progress.
The WCED has tested primary school learners in Language and Mathematics every year since 2002, alternating initially between Grades 3 and 6. The WCED added Grade 9 to the tests in 2010, when the department started testing all three grades in the same year.
The tests have provided valuable data to inform the department's Language and Mathematics strategies.
While Wallacedene Primary achieved a considerable improvement in Language in Grade 3 – an 11.5% increase from 21.2% in 2013 to 32.7% in 2014 – it is their Grade 6 results which have seen a remarkable increase.
In Grade 6, the school improved its mathematics results from 9.4% in 2013 to 56%, a substantial improvement of 46.4%. In 2013, the school achieved 4% in language results and improved on this by 57.5% to achieve 61.9%.
Wendy Mbude, Wallacedene Primary School Principal, said when she saw how badly her school did in the 2013 systemic tests, she realised that drastic action was necessary.
Mbude identified language as a barrier and decided to rope in English Home Language speakers to assist learners with their communication skills.
The school has been working with Lorna Rutter of the Teach, Love and Care Network. She offers extra English classes weekdays from 7am to 8am and makes learning English fun and helps to remove the fear that comes with learning another language.
The teachers also encourage reading and writing and this was evident in the beautiful letters that learners wrote to thank the principal and Rutter for the extra classes.
Schäfer said an analysis of the overall 2014 results indicates that the levels of language and mathematics are improving in the Western Cape, with only a minor decrease in Grade 3 Mathematics and a parallel result for Grade 9 language compared to last year.
The biggest improvements were in Grade 3 and 6 Language results. Grade 3 Language increased by 5.4% and Grade 6 Language increased by 8.4%. Schafer said this was in line with the department's strategy, since 2010, to improve the reading and writing skills of learners in the foundation phase, with increased investment in both physical and human resources to this phase, such as additional teachers, readers, textbooks and training.
She said Mathematics still remained a major concern, especially in Grade 9, where learners were not grasping the fundamental content areas.
"While the 2014 tests have resulted in some pleasing improvements, there is still considerable work to be done to ensure that we improve further to ensure acceptable outcomes for all our learners. We are currently reviewing our mathematics and language strategies so as to improve further on these results and are planning for specific interventions in Grades R – 3 and Grades 8 and 9."
