As soon as anyone headed for the Lebone Centre’s tenth birthday celebration set foot on the pathway leading to the front door, the honour guard of eagerly waiting pre-primary children sang a loud welcome song to usher them along, flowers waving.
As soon as anyone headed for the Lebone Centre’s tenth birthday celebration set foot on the pathway leading to the front door, the honour guard of eagerly waiting pre-primary children sang a loud welcome song to usher them along, flowers waving.
“Reminds you of your wedding day, doesn’t it?” laughed Centre Manager, Annelise Maritz.
November 2005 saw two years of planning bear fruit when the Lebone Centre building was finally purchased. Originally intended to be an AIDS haven, the Centre is now an Early Childhood Development leader with its multilingual Little Red Dragon pre-primary class and holistic development aftercare programme for vulnerable children, ACE.
“The first mention of the ICDP Trust [which the Centre falls under]was in a Kingswood Council meeting in 2002. Since then, there has been a change in the voice of the ICDP from welfare to development," said Chairperson Barbara Matthews.
"For what it is worth, I am particularly proud of the ICDP and Kingswood for making this important, empowering transition so seamlessly.” ACE programme House Mother Jenny Botha, has been with the Centre almost since it opened its doors and has become a true mother to all those at the Centre, both past and present.
“The children come to my house looking for me to ask for advice,” she said. “It’s been a pleasure for me to work at the Lebone Centre as House Mother for so long. My hope is that it will grow for another ten years. Our children and staff are all exceptional. This place is a home.”
“We’re not simply a single site provider, but a full learning organisation. It’s an ongoing learning process, and I feel proud of our achievements so far. The Little Red Dragon pre-primary is the only school in Grahamstown that does multilingual learning like we do. Our children are submerged in English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa and are later easily accepted at any language-medium school in Grahamstown,” said staff member, Cherise Sickle.
Along with its aftercare programme, the Lebone Centre also organises a number of other Early Childhood Development initiatives, the Literacy Support Programme being a prominent example. The programme started modestly in around 2007, as the Love Reading Club for Grade four children.
This once-a-week meeting expanded into the pilot of Project Read, run by Cathy Gush, at Grahamstown Primary, George Dickerson and St Mary’s. Project Read proved very successful, growing in leaps and bounds to this year’s 70-plus volunteers, many of whom are part of the Rhodes University society, Inkwenkwezi, that partners with Project Read.
The other projects under the Literacy Support Programme – which include the Moms and Tots programme and a Classroom Library Project – are also thriving, reaching not only children but their parents as well.
“There’s nowhere in the world like the Lebone Centre. Thank you for all you’ve done transforming me and my kids,” wrote parent Tessa Swarts in a heartfelt letter of thanks to the Centre. Even those who are relatively new friends of the Centre can already tell the place and the people in it do very special things.
“My wish for them would be that they continue to grow and do the amazing work they do. I hope funders get on board, and I hope many more children enrol in the next ten years,” said Kingswood College teacher Michael Stead.
