Durban - A ray of educational sunshine is shining down a lane in lower Glenwood.
This week the Sycamore Academy opened its new science and robotics centre in a building the institution acquired adjacent to the church in which it started 20 years ago and still uses to accommodate a class and the library.
“Everything is headed towards robots in the workplace,” said principal Louis Arde, who added that the school, like many private schools and affluent state schools, had embarked on the subject rather than waiting for it to be introduced into the national curriculum.
Robotics ties in with coding and will be taught in parallel with the latter subject, which pupils start from grade one.
“Education has transformed so quickly. We are way behind here in South Africa,” said Arde.
A Cape Town company, Resolute, provides the course, he added.
Once the year is up and the science and robotics centre is in full swing, construction workers will once again be at it, adding another storey to it to accommodate a bigger, better library.
At the back of the property, old walls have been torn down in preparation for an astroturf facility. Until then, sport happens in the swimming pool and on the fields of the nearby Open Air School and old Durban Onderwys Kollege (Dokkies), respectively.
All this is for 140 primary pupils who fill classes of no more than 24, said Arde who, in spite of being retired from his post at the helm of nearby Glenwood Preparatory School, grabs every opportunity to turn education in Durban around.
”We don’t go to the parents for money to pay for development,” he said.
Rather, sponsors including the Concord Trust and the Victor Daitz Foundation, have invested in education in the school with the same name as the lane in which it is situated.
While Sycamore Academy is a non-profit private school, its fees are much on a par with two top state primary schools in the area. It is already full for next year.
“We keep it small and hands-on and we practise a reward-driven system,” said Arde.
“We are very strong in the creative arts: 120 of the children learn musical instruments. We believe we need to develop people who can think and be creative.
“That’s the child of the future. One who thinks on its feet.
“Nonetheless the 3Rs – reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic – still apply,” he said.
However, the school puts its own spin on how it teaches certain subjects.
“Chess has become part of maths. A chess expert comes once a week.
“Speech and drama is also taught all the way from grade one so that the children can gain confidence.”
On the language front, parents have chosen Afrikaans to be the first additional language but every child also learns conversational isiZulu.
When the school started 20 years ago, it followed the Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) system, which it has since replaced with the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statements (Caps) introduced into state schools with its own tweaks, such as the Singapore Cambridge maths. Sycamore Academy remains a Christian institution.
This week a class sat engrossed in front of their computer screens, developing a document with information about a country of their choice to which each child would like to travel. The US, Dubai and Mauritius were popular choices.
The Independent on Saturday