Four Grahamstown schools have partnered in a groundbreaking twinning project aimed at sharing skills and facilities and supporting each other in a variety of ways for the benefit of staff, pupils and the wider communities in all the schools.
Four Grahamstown schools have partnered in a groundbreaking twinning project aimed at sharing skills and facilities and supporting each other in a variety of ways for the benefit of staff, pupils and the wider communities in all the schools.
Kingswood College, Mary Waters High School, St Mary's Primary School and the Little Red Dragon Pre-School all committed themselves to this twinning initiative at a ceremony attended by the school heads last week at the Lebone Centre.
The project will involve the engagement of teachers, staff, pupils, leadership structures, friends, service providers and teachers as well as governance and leadership structures in a programme of community engagement, encouragement, skills transfer and activity engagement with inter-linked programmes running throughout the year.
Rhodes University and social entrepreneurship NGO, LifeCo Unltd, will assist. The partnerships will involve sharing facilities, with Kingswood as a well-resourced school assisting in areas with a lack of facilities. It will also target academic and sporting skills and monitor the performance of pupils and sharing opportunities.
Leadership is a strong focus, and peer-to-peer leadership initiatives will see pupil leaders from the partner schools working through issues together.
The youngsters will be exposed to top leadership experts and fellow pupil leaders from all over the country at a By Youth For Youth (BY4Y) leadership event in December.
"We are clear on the fact that we can all learn from each other," Kingswood College Council Chairperson Di Hornby said at the launch.
"This partnership is not about giving and taking, it is about sharing and learning."
The twinning was formalised at the launch ceremony, when each school received a framed certificate signed by all the relevant heads.
In the first stage of the partnership this week, Mary Waters held their matric valedictory service in the Kingswood Chapel, where their pupil leaders for 2015 were announced.
Kingswood's leadership team for 2015 congratulated them, and the stage was set as the young people quickly made friends.
