After reading about the plight of the Dias Farm School in Theescombe, a Yorkshire woman visiting her partner’s family in SA has volunteered her services as a qualified teacher’s assistant.
The school had been threatened with closure for months but the Eastern Cape department of education confirmed last week that it would not be closing it as it was encouraged by the new number of pupils who had signed up.
The school had faced closure because it had fewer than 135 pupils by the end of 2018.
Renee Hoffman, who has been working with the school’s feeder communities, said following a recruitment drive in their efforts to keep it open, there were now 160 pupils enrolled at the school, 50 more than budgeted for.
Since the call for assistance went out, the school has received several generous donations, including 44 desks from St George’s Prep.
Lisa Spenser said she was spending some time in SA with her partner’s family.
“I can’t work while I am here. I do enjoy charity work.
“When I saw the stories about the school in The Herald I reached out to them and to Hoffman,” she said.
Spenser, who started teaching at the school on Tuesday, can stay in SA for another year and said she wanted to teach as much as possible.
“It is a joyful place. We had 21 children on Tuesday, 12 yesterday and 18 today.
“One of the staff members wrote up a list for me in Xhosa so I can help them to count to 10 in Xhosa.
“But we are counting in English too. The children are so eager to learn,” she said.
“They are at their happiest when they are playing.”
Spenser said she had never really set out to be a teacher.
“I started volunteering at my son’s nursery.
“I then received training at a nearby school and they also gave me a job.
“If I can just make a little difference. I really just want to help.”
She said her family would also raise funds for the children and would try to help fix some things at the school.
Hoffman said there had been an outpouring of generosity from the community in Port Elizabeth.
“All the books are being donated. They still need stationery, pens, blunt-nose scissors, Pritt, rubbers, and meat or fresh produce,” she said.
The children receive breakfast and lunch at the school, she said.
“The department of education does allocate a budget for the feeding scheme where the children are provided with a meal each day.
“The problem is that it does not accommodate the increase in numbers until the new financial year and undocumented children are not allocated funding.
“The breakfast is an additional meal that is given through sponsorship to ensure that the children start school with something in their bellies.
“They also need pin boards for the walls, as nothing sticks to them, and an additional classroom,” Hoffman said.
“Another volunteer teacher is starting and there is also another one who is interested in assisting.
“Public support for a small school to be able to combat the issue of multi-grade classes is the key to farm schools thriving and supporting the children in the surrounding community,” she said.