GetAhead Educational Software

By Melanie Loxton, School Teacher November 2011 article This week at my school we held an assembly to honour our ex-Primary school pupils who had gone on to achieve well in their High Schools. They were invited back if they had done well academically, achieved a level in either sport or cultural spheres, or been [...]

By Melanie Loxton, School Teacher October 2011 article Our school was recently very fortunate to have received a visit from well-known and respected educational leader, Gavin Keller. He is a principal at Sun Valley School in Cape Town and often speaks at Professional Growth courses for teachers and parents. I will share some of his [...]

By Melanie Loxton, School Teacher August 2011 article This month I would like to touch on the topic of family time and how it affects your child at school. Now, of course, this topic is so broad that I could not begin to address it all here, and I would need the input of a [...]

By Melanie Loxton, School Teacher July article 2011 This month I would like to pay some attention to Parent Interviews, having just completed a round with my Grade 2 parents. 1.    Be punctual. When 27 (or more) sets of parents have been scheduled for after-hours time, it really is important to arrive on time and [...]

By Melanie Loxton, School Teacher Right, so a blind trial is done. IF the child is not bright enough, ie. they are struggling because their IQ is low, not because they cannot focus, then a drug like Ritalin will make NO difference. It cannot enhance brain ability. I have seen trials done in my own [...]

Any form of support is an intervention, whether it be extra lessons, remedial lessons, occupational therapy, counselling, play therapy, a visit to the paediatrician for an assessment, a visual assessment, speech therapy, an audiologist for speech and hearing therapy etc. There are many ways in which a child can be supported at school if their daily classroom input is not enough for them.

This month we deviate from our normal format and discuss a few topics in answer to the question, “Does your child …?”. Some of these questions are adapted from a first term Life Skills assessment that we set for our Grade 2s. Older children should definitely be able to do the following …

Learners are required to do ‘orals’ (mini-speeches) on a fairly regular basis at school, particularly from Grade 4 onwards. We assess their presentation in terms of audibility, eye contact, confidence, interest level and content. My little Grade 2’s did their first oral the other day. The great assignment required them to relate 5 facts about a place in South Africa that they had been to visit. Overall they did very well and I could tell that moms and dads had helped them to prepare and rehearse.

There are two schools of thought about how early a child should begin learning the alphabet and other subjects that he or she will learn in school. One theory goes that the child will be bored if he learns too much, too soon, so you should let him “be a child” during his preschool years. After all, if he is too far ahead of his class, it may be stigmatizing for him to be singled out if he can already read while the rest of the class is still learning the ABCs.

Babies are wonderful. They can teach us a great deal about the world and ourselves even as they are learning. Take a moment of time to put yourself in their place. Consider the world as a brand new place with no reference system that you can recognize. They have strange sights for their eyes, strange sensations upon their skin, and strange sounds assaulting their ears.