We’re into the 11th year of Mindstretch School and stronger than ever. Continually updating our best practice helps us achieve our vision for being a model school for children with special needs. Here are some of our most recent developments. There’s always progress at Mindstretch.
Progressing Teaching Development and Support
Good collaboration between our educators delivers strong teaching and an encouraging culture. And now we’ve formalized it further: congratulations to Pam and Kellie-Jane on their promotion to the role of Development and Support for our senor and junior campuses, respectively. Richly deserved!
In these positions, they will mentor and support other staff members. They also share ideas and best practice, and guide implementation of new approaches.
Graduating with Flying Colors
Progress is our goal and we can confidently say every Mindstretch child made good progress in 2023. These are just some of our key successes:
- Children leap frogging from our junior campus to our senior campus Grade R classes because of extraordinarily good progress.
- Mindstretch graduates accepted by excellent schools that will continue supporting their special learning needs – Growing Minds, EduExcellence, St Joseph’s, St George’s, Glenbridge, and Alpha, to name a few.
- Six Grade R Mindstretch graduates accepted into mainstream Grade 1 National CAPS curriculum classes.
Progress takes many forms as we work to advance the individual child according to their needs and abilities. It could be a child learning to speak and saying “I love you, Mommy” for the first time. Sometimes it shows as a learner achieving their goal of riding a balance bike independently, indicating improved balance and interhemispheric integration. Or perhaps it’s the kind of success our 2023 graduates achieved.
Whatever a child’s abilities, the Mindstretch Approach ensures they reach their potential.
There was much happy excitement when our learners began their new school year. This note from the mother of a child moving up to our senior campus says it all.
More Targeted Teaching
We’ve recently introduced the TEACCH structured learning approach at Mindstretch School, appropriately tailored to the needs of individual learners. Read our Grade R Teachers’ article Structured Teaching to learn more about this effective, evidence-based approach. We especially like how it works with both the relative strengths and weaknesses of a child with autism.
Educating Beyond
When Nicolas asked to do his social internship at Mindstretch we couldn’t say no. We’re all for community involvement and educating anyone interested in special needs teaching. Nicolas’s Tribute describes his experience. It was a Win-Win for him and us.
Would you like to tell the story of your or your child’s experience at Mindstretch? We’d love to share it, contact us at office@mindstretch.co.za.
Progressive. Inclusive. Cooperative.
