Matrics! (and Parents of Matrics) Pay close attention please

Jacqueline Aitchison, host · [00:57]Well, there's been quite a lot of chatter that people will have been hearing about kids going back to school and shortened holidays. Many of the school's year plans have been altered to catch up teaching days. Luckily, Edu Inc's not in this position at all, so our youth day long weekend that's happening next week will go ahead as planned, as will the midterm break. We will not be shortening either of those because there is no need to be doing that. A week after the midterm break, we'll be heading into exams, and those are due to begin on the 13th of July. Not only will we not be shortening these breaks, we have also decided that the children will not be getting any additional work over these breaks because they are in desperate need of a rest, as are their teachers, and there's absolutely no need for them to be working during this time because they are so well on track and the teachers are so well on top of their curriculum at this point. You'll be hearing a lot of talk about an assessment session as opposed to an exam session this time around for the grade fours to the elevens. For many of the grades, it's not going to look like a traditional exam session, especially for the younger grades. What we're going to be seeing is a lot of short, small assessments, some project work, and out of all of that, there'll be an accumulation of marks that go for the term two report. With the older grades, with your FETs, the tens and elevens in particular, we will still be seeing, exams under timed conditions because that's part of the training stage that they're in at this point.

Gershom Aitchison, host · [02:34]I'd like to start by just reading something out of a letter that Anne Oberhauser, the CEO of the IEB, sent to the Matrix in the last week. Because I think even though it is aimed at the Matrix, I think all students should hear the message from the IEB examinations board. In the words of Charles Dickens, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness. It was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity. It was the season of light, it was the season of darkness. In truth, we've all experienced emotional highs followed by deep lows. We have been completely rational and logical at some times and then completely irrational at other times. On occasions, we have believed the world to be normal, and we have taken school seriously. At other times, we have wondered how we can be worried about a maths test or whether there are sanitizers at school when we see death, poverty, and despair around us. In truth, never in my lifetime have I seen the development of emotional maturity, which takes years and learning to balance careful thinking against what appears to be insanity in politics and society, being concentrated into such a short space of time, a couple of months or so. The inner sea has come to be seen as a rite of passage. You will never forget your grade twelve year. Of that you can be assured. The key for you from now until the end of the year is to focus on the acquisition of skills and knowledge you require to achieve the qualification to the best of your ability. Avoid worrying unnecessarily about matters that are not in your control, and dedicate your energy to what you can control and manage, so that by the time November comes, you are ready to face the examinations head-on with confidence. Despite the disruptions, you have the support of your family, friends, and broader community, who all want you to do the best you can. I'd like to leave you with the words of Helen Keller. Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved. I think those are very, very powerful words and thoughts, and it's not the entire letter, and I encourage parents to go and read it in its entirety, but I think that it pretty much sums up how everybody's feeling at the moment about their exams, especially the metrics, and possibly what's going to be required in preparation for them.

Gershom Aitchison, host · [05:04]We have two and a half teaching weeks left in June. There's a long weekend, and there is a midterm break at the end of it, starting on the 27th of June. We'll be back to school on the 6th of July for one week, and assessment starts for the grade fours to elevens. And at that point, The thirteenth of July, we are going to have our matrix back on campus for block teaching for the last three weeks of the term. Block teaching has been very successful for us in the past, as witnessed in our winter programs, as it allows an immense focus on the work that needs to be done, and in this case, there are some SBA assessments that need to be done under controlled conditions that will be done at this time as well. It also allows us to manage the risk of COVID for our families, our students, and our teachers by limiting the number of students on campus and the number of teachers on campus at any time. One of my biggest fears is one of my matrix students contracting COVID and not being able to write their preliminary exams or their final exams. Our preparations over the last few weeks in terms of opening, our preparations in terms of getting the metrics back on campus have been focused on that safety. It'll offer the best opportunity to finish off the curriculum, type some loose ends, and be prepared for going into the prelim session of the matric year. On the 31st of July, we break up for the August holidays. It is a long holiday of exactly one month. The whole of August, we will not be at school for grade four to elevens. As the metrics are starting their prelims on the 7th of September, I'm going to say that it's tools down for the first two weeks in August. Nothing gets done. You take a break, and you rest your soul for the next part of the journey. The last two weeks of August have traditionally been our winter school, and we will continue to have the winter school option available, where we will do block teaching as the teachers require or as the students require to revise and prepare for the prelims. But essentially, if you're not in class, you are studying and preparing for those prelim exams.

Gershom Aitchison, host · [07:03]Originally, our preliminary exams were scheduled to start on the 1st of September, but we have pushed those out by one week based on the revised examination draft schedule that the IEB has put out, and we are going to start our preliminary exams on the 7th of September, which gives us a week at school for revision, for intervention, and for preparation of our students, and if that's not required, it will be a study week for them to be able to prepare for their preliminary exams. Included in the preliminary exam period is going to be the 9th of September, which is the LO CAT Part B, which is the final assessment for the life orientation for grade 12. And on the 16th will be the life science practical, which also forms part of the total assessment plan. Essentially, it's the life science paper three. So in a nutshell, prelims start on the 7th of September, they conclude on the 22nd of September, and include the life orientation CAT Part B and the life science practical. It's followed by a long weekend, and then the grade 12s will come back for one week of school, which will be review of the preliminary exams and any corrections or interventions that need to happen in that space. We are planning to have our valediction ceremony on Friday the 2nd of October, so watch this space. That is always an emotional and touching time and a very important rite of passage for our grade 12s as well. And that leaves two weeks for studying and revision, et cetera, before the metric finals start. On the draft edition of the IEB and government timetable that has been sent out, Edu Inc students write their first final exam on the 19th of October, and currently they will end on the 25th of November. And I would like to remind the students and the parents that even during the study time before the finals and during the final exams, Edu Inc will run its normal school timetable, which means there is time allocated to the grade twelves for classes, and they can schedule some time with their teachers, and I highly recommend they do that, especially if they are hitting a wall or a blank when it comes to some of their studying, or if they're concerned about some revision or something like that.

Gershom Aitchison, host · [09:38]I want to be clear that the plans are based on the current information that IB, ESAS, and the Department of Education are all sharing with us. It is a draft metric final exam timetable, and things can change. This is a very fluid situation, depending on the COVID and the country's reaction to it, what the government says, and what the Department of Education says about it. We are using this as a framework to make sure that our students are safe, that our teachers are safe, and that our parents are safe, and that we can implement the metrics returning to school in a very structured fashion, and that we are not going to have the disruption seen by a lot of metrics last week where schools were open and then they were not. It is very difficult at the moment in South Africa. We thought that with a firm lockdown at level five, that that was the toughest part, but it seems that the toughest part of the lockdown is providing clarity for what it looks like in a time of uncertainty, and the leadership of Edu Inc is doing that with the support of its parents and its teachers and its students, and I have to applaud everybody for the effort they are putting in and the support they are providing us. It has put us in a very, very good position academically for our learners. I do not feel for one moment they are disadvantaged in any way. In fact, I feel that they have learnt and gained a lot of advantage from this, and I look forward to seeing the continued support of our parents, the Edu Inc families, and the students and teachers in implementing our plan right now to get our metrics on campus and ready for their final exams.

Unidentified speaker, intro voice or played clip · [11:17]So you guys appear to have spent most of the month of May in meetings. With Isasa, talking about the plans to get schools back on campus, what are the considerations in that space, Jax?

Jacqueline Aitchison, host · [11:28]There are many, many considerations in the space, Gavin, and it is a very complicated process. And our thinking at the moment is that when we do bring children back onto campus, it's going to be in the form of color-coded cohorts, that are based on what grades we are allowed to bring back at that time, what percentage of learners and staff we're allowed on campus at any given time, and what Edu Inc space restrictions can accommodate while we maintain the required social distances. We will send parents information on all the requirements and regulations of getting our kids back to school closer to the time. The reason we haven't sent anything to the parents yet is because we, as in all the independent schools who are navigating this, are being given amendments to the regulations literally on a week-to-week basis. In the last four weeks, we've had a minimum of two to three amendments per week, and we really don't believe that this frustration and the stress of those continued amendments needs to be passed along to the parents or the students or the teachers. We will communicate exactly what the plan will be closer to the time. What I really do need to emphasize to the parents is the importance of sticking to the plan once we have communicated it. All the independent schools are being inspected by the DBE to make sure that we are completely compliant with the health requirements that have been stipulated, and they won't allow us to continue bringing children onto the campus if we have deviated from those requirements in any way. So, for example, children will need to arrive within certain time periods so that we can get all the screenings done. They will have to adhere to certain types of face masks, and regardless of whether we think that certain regulations are overly cumbersome, we have to just stick to what has been prescribed. So really, when the time comes, we are just asking for your continued support by sticking to the plan, and let us know of any challenges that you experience with that particular plan so that we can assist you in resolving those challenges.