Our Novaneers have once more shown us what it means to take charge of their own learning. The closing of schools did not mean books had to be shut for our students at Nova Pioneer, Ormonde. They carried our reading culture home as they continued to prepare for the South African Literacy Association reading competition which, for the first time, took place remotely.

 

National Winners

 

Despite the challenges brought by the pandemic, our students submitted videos of themselves reading their favourite books for the English Home Language prepared reading competition. Four of our students entered Reitumetse Mosikare and Lesedi Mosebo who both received a B symbol, Zahra Chalwe an A+ and Tshedza Sithagu an A++ in the provincial round. We wish to congratulate all these learners for their dedication to reading. 

Of these students, two proceeded to represent Nova Pioneer at the National Final Round. Zahra Chalwe contested in the English Home Language prepared reading grade 5 division. She was awarded 4th place after confidently reading from her book titled Wonder by R.J Palacio. Tshedza Sithagu who competed in the grade 6 division was awarded 3rd place after she had displayed her love of reading when she read from Horse for Angel.

 

“We Love Reading”

 

Tshedza Sithagu (Grade 6 student) expressed that she is beyond grateful for this opportunity. “Thank you for this award. I love reading and writing these are very close to my heart. I am excited and thankful for being recognised for my reading.”

This is what Zahra Chalwe (Grade 5 student) had to say, “Participating in the national rounds makes me feel proud, happy, nervous and excited. This is very big for me and, I know it will be hard and challenging but if I practice and try my best I know I will make it.”

At Nova Pioneer, we foster the culture of reading by allowing learners to choose the reading materials they wish to engage with. Furthermore, we provide platforms such as reading clubs to foster the love of reading outside of the classroom.

Written by Khensani Mabona – Resident Teacher at our Ormonde Campus. 

The excitement has been mounting as we finally welcomed back our learners onto campus. It is important to note however that even though teaching and learning have resumed on campus, we are continuing to teach on our online platform in order to cater to our parents and students who have opted for online learning.  

 

Preserving our culture

 

In the midst of washing our hands, sanitising and keeping the distance we are intentional about preserving our culture of community. We have, therefore, created opportunities for interactions between the learners who are back on campus and the learners at home. This is achieved through our live sessions which take place twice a week. Through these,  the learners at home get the opportunity to connect with the learners on campus through Google Hangouts. 

 

Feelings of anxiety exist

 

As a result of the COVID-19 lockdown, social restrictions and school closures – feelings of anxiety exist. To cater for these, we have developed a Social and Emotional Learning programme for all students – those who are back on campus and at home. Where teachers, together with our Dean of Students and Psychologist, offer lessons as well as emotional support for feelings associated with COVID-19.

Research published on 14 January 2020 in Frontiers in Psychology states that students need to spend as little as 10 minutes in a natural setting to feel happier and experience reduced anxiety levels. With this in mind, we have planned our lessons in ways which will be of greater benefit to the holistic being of our students. Our grade 6 students at Nova Pioneer, Ormonde have had their English lessons outdoors in our first week back on campus. This allowed them to draw inspiration from their surroundings for their nature poems.

 

Reggio inspired pedagogy

 

Reggio Emilia identifies a third teacher for students, in addition to teachers and parents – the environment. With the understanding that students have spent their school holidays in lockdown, we do not want them to feel boxed by keeping them in the classroom all the time. We thus make use of our Reggio inspired pedagogy which encourages student interactions with nature to establish connections with the natural environment.

Thank you to our management team, teachers and learning design team, who have worked tirelessly to ensure that the various needs of all students are met.

Connect with us on all of our social media platforms for updates on how we continue to provide the best educational experiences for Novaneers even during these uncertain times.

My name is Inge Wulff and I work in the Brand and Admissions team at Nova Pioneer. I was also recently chosen to be a Culture Captain for the organisation. This isn’t the role that I first applied for when I joined the Nova Pioneer team but it is the passion project that has helped me find my purpose.

 

The beginning of my Nova Pioneer Journey

I first heard about Nova Pioneer from a former colleague who told me to “apply for a job, I don’t know which job you’re keen on, but culture-wise you are definitely a fit”. She then proceeded to send me a video of teammates dancing to a Beyonce song. 

 

 

I had never seen so much joy in one place, I could not put in an application fast enough. The interview process also gave me a good feeling, as it was much more a conversation than a panel discussion about my employment history.

My friend was right, this was the place for me and much more than before I really wanted Nova Pioneer to hire me. They did and I have now been with the company for two and a half years. 

 

 

After the happily after, you find more joy

What I can confirm, the joy feels as real inside the organisation as it did on YouTube. At first, I couldn’t figure it out, what was the magic sauce of this place?

Was it because they hire people who are passionate about changing lives, maybe it is because there is incredible commitment to providing education that is innovative and collaborative or perhaps because the students display leadership from an early age?

I had no idea, but all I kept telling people was (is) “everyday I am happy at work, maybe not all day and often for different reasons, but I never have Sunday blues anymore” and I began to realize how rare that was.

 

 

 

Demystifying Culture at Work

What is organisational culture? To me, it is every single interaction you have with a company. It is more than culture principles, it is internal communication, rituals, events, everything from hiring to resigning and all that’s in between. Ultimately it is how the organisation treats teammates and how teammates treat each other.

Nova Pioneer is building schools across the continent. Education is a tough business, even if you remove the element of rapid growth. And yet, no stress is visible. Rather, no matter what campus you walk into you feel joy, laughter and positivity. For a while now I didn’t know how, but I absolutely wanted to get involved in building this magic sauce. 

 

 

Becoming a Culture Captain

I did some investigating, some meetings and even some convincing presentations to woo leadership into giving me a shot. Now part of my job involves working with the Global Culture Manager, TC Nkosi, to build organisational culture for the South African team.

Building culture is like creating music, there are so many elements and you need to make sure that the beat, lyrics, percussion and sound are all in harmony. It is also hard to measure success, but you know when the tune (culture) is off. This makes it exciting, challenging and addictive. 

My first task was putting together a dance video (three years after the original one that sold me the company) of our now much bigger organisation. I was terrified, but Bruno Mars and five incredible part-time choreographers (teachers and central team mates) came to the rescue to create some of our own magic/ To me, the energy is palpable and really sums up the ‘gees’ it takes to tackle a task as challenging as educating future leaders. 

 

 

I have no idea if I will be any good at this culture thing, but I am grateful for the opportunity to try out some things that hopefully can also make my teammates happy every day at work.