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. 

Nova Pioneer Schools for Innovators and Leaders are inspired by the principles of the Reggio Emilia approach. The principles of relationships, spaces and environment are reflected in Tammy Gertzen’s classroom at our Boksburg campus.

At the heart of the Reggio Emilia approach is relationships. The school environment and spaces have been designed so that they foster interaction and communication, exploration and participation, a sense of autonomy and curiosity. In fact, the environment is thought of as the “third teacher” for its ability to foster connections between ideas, people and things. 

Think about the places you spend the majority of your time – your home, your immediate neighbourhood, and the place you work.  We aren’t always aware of it, but the spaces, activities and environment around us can have a big impact on how we feel, and what feels possible or allowable in that space. 

Being aware of how space, and place, shapes how we feel about ourselves and each other. In the 1970s Reggio Emilia began working on a project that looked specifically at the relationship between their philosophy of education, the architecture and resources of their schools, and their health and safety regulations. Through this project, they developed a set of design principles aimed at helping each school cultivate its own identity while still fostering values that are consistent across all the schools.

 

What does this look like in practice?

 

Care and beauty

 

The values of the Reggio Emilia approach and the unique identity of each school are communicated throughout classrooms and spaces. Over the decades, the schools have even worked with local companies to design particular kinds of furniture that can enhance children’s experiences and thinking. The environment, the spaces, the objects and furniture in them are all beautifully made and arranged. This beauty isn’t seen as a ‘nice to have’. It’s central to the educational experience. Beautiful spaces communicate that you care about the people and relationships they make in them, and encourage these people (big and small) to take care of each other and the things in that space. As the Charter of Services suggests, “taking care of the indoor and outdoor environment, the furniture, objects and materials by children and adults is an educational act that creates well-being, a sense of familiarity and belonging, aesthetic taste and the pleasure of inhabiting spaces, which are also primary prerequisites and conditions for safety”.

 

Environment as third teacher

 

Children are acutely sensitive to the world around them, and how a space or a particular material suggests certain possibilities. In Reggio Emilia, teachers welcome this influence and actively cultivate it, by recognising the environment as the third teacher in the classroom, capable of stimulating, deepening and challenging children’s thinking without saying a word. In a similar vein, they pay great attention to the intelligence of materials – the power of the natural and manufactured world to suggest certain uses or functions. When deciding what materials to introduce in the school around a particular investigation, teachers will first spend time exploring its particular ‘intelligence’, what possibilities it suggests to you as you explore it with all your senses. 

 

Sustainability and recycled materials

 

Both natural objects (like wood, stones and plants) and recycled materials (like plastic trays, pipes, material offcuts) are used to stimulate and deepen learning in the school. Schools aim to encourage empathy, the sustainable use of materials, and a kind resourcefulness that comes of being able to see new possibilities in natural and recycled objects and put them to use. When exploring a topic to do with the natural world, children are encouraged to go out into the environment, to see their object of study in its natural context (not to remove it), to get in relationship with the nature.

As for recycled materials, the city of Reggio Emilia has evolved recycling centres known as Remida, where offcuts and waste materials produced by the city’s factories and local artisans are collected, cleaned, and artfully displayed. These Remida are a free resource for teachers, a place they can go to explore the possibilities inherent in different materials, and collect what they need for their classroom or current investigation. “Remida is named after King Midas with the golden touch… It’s a name to acknowledge that everything, any material, can be, in our hands, in the children’s hands, like gold. A treasure. There is beauty in the imperfect.” 

The set up of provocations in the classroom inspires curiosity and imagination, it fosters communication and collaboration and supports enquiry and investigation. All the elements of great learning.

Applications to our Boksburg campus are open, contact admissions.boksburg@novapioneer or click below.

A personal symbol of “Life After Nova Pioneer” for myself and those close to me was the day I finally cut my peculiar, nappy dreads off. It was on that normal day in the first month of a surreal year that I matched the next chapter of my life with an adjustment to  my physical appearance. Dreads that had become so synonymous with my story and eccentric period at Nova Pioneer, had reached their noble culmination which coincided with the exordium of my academic career in Law, at arguably the most acclaimed tertiary institution in South Africa, the University of Witwatersrand. 

 

The Rapid Shift

 

The scale of the transition to university has been unprecedented, in keeping with the theme of the unforgettable year of 2020. The rapid shift from two months of contact learning to online learning, the mental adaptation necessary to get accustomed to living at home again, the high cognitive demands of a law degree – all of this alongside the strange practicalities of living in a COVID-19 world have all been challenges I have grappled with in my first year at Wits. Obviously though, my challenges are extremely trivial relative to the horror many families and individuals all around the world have experienced at this time.

 

Personal Growth and Improvement

 

This reality has added an additional emotional strain on my empathetic nature so much so that I decided to stop watching the news about a month ago, as one of the limited things I can control at this time is my emotional and mental well-being. My partial oblivion to world affairs which have become so distraught, has allowed me greater psychological space to enjoy the mere simplicity of life like reading books. These reads include, “The Land Is Ours” by Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, “Sula” by Toni Morrison and “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy, which I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the most so far. In this way, perhaps, the lockdown has been a productive time for my personal growth and improvement, despite the unfortunate events that caused it. 

 

A New World

 

As I continue the online learning programme, I remain hopeful and pray for better days for our feeble world at this moment. If we, as a human race, can come out of this historic predicament with more empathy and fortitude, a genuine appreciation of unity, equality and how much we actually need each other, then perhaps this disastrous year would have aided our mentalities and outlooks on life for the better. Perhaps, if we can return to a normal world with greater awareness and an authentic willingness to eradicate the evils of our country, and the world at large, such as corruption, racial injustices, gender-based violence and poverty to name a few, then we would have probably used this dark period in our lives to come to terms with the subtle realities of the world we live in and acknowledge the need for real change. 

I shall end with a couple of lines from a song I think encapsulates the remarkably strange times we’re in: 

“Streams running down my eyes think I’m losing faith

But God is always on time no he’s never late

This epidemic had my mind in another place

Put some love in the world let it marinate”

– Kofi Stone, Diamonds in the Water

Thanks for reading, stay safe, stay hopeful and spread love. The world needs it, especially at such extraordinary times. 

Check out our webinars where our alumni from both South Africa and Kenya discuss life after Nova Pioneer.

 

 

We are well over the 100-day mark since our schools have closed and gradually re-opened, as a result of the COVID-19 quarantine and lockdown measures across both South Africa and Kenya. A lot of us can agree that there’s something about the past 100 days that seemed to make time fly by so fast. Changes to how we live our lives have been implemented at record speed, leaving us with the age-old question of how we are adapting to and adopting the changes. 

 

Adapting to change

 

Change is set to be the only constant as we continue grappling with what our new normal will look like. It is, however, an interesting time for the education sector across the world. We watch how our key players: teachers, students and parents take stock of what the changes mean for the future and how we can continue to make sure that we are as prepared for the same.

 

Webinars

 

Our Nova Pioneer Connect (webinar) hosted a much-needed conversation about how our Nova Pioneer community continues to respond to the times ahead. The connect panel consisted of our Kenyan Co-founder and Director, Christopher Khaemba, Chief of Schools, Rahel Wondwossen, Operations Leader for South Africa, Ofentse Lekwane, students, Vahin (Grade 10, Nova Pioneer Senior School, Ormonde), Michelle (Form Three, Nova Pioneer Tatu Girls) and a parent Dr Emily Too (Nova Pioneer Boys, Eldoret). The discussion centred around key lessons we have learned and how our South African team is handling school reopening.

 

Tune in to the rest of the conversation below.

 

You can catch up with their inspiring stories through the recorded recap down below.

 

Click on the links below to watch our Nova Pioneer Connect episodes that take place every fortnight.

Nova Pioneer Connect: Finding Your Inner Voice

Nova Pioneer Connect: Role of Creatives in Shaping a holistic Education Experience

Nova Pioneer Connect: Life after Nova Pioneer

Nova Pioneer Connect: How to help your child build grit during trying times

The advent of Covid-19 in 2020 and the introduction of lockdowns has certainly changed the way we think and do things. From social gatherings, meetings and the way we deliver on education, we were forced to rethink life as we knew it. Now in the world of social distancing, working from home, face masks and regular sanitisation, we have to embrace a new reality which is ‘virtual reality’. Virtual meetings, virtual open days, webinars, virtual teaching and learning has become our ‘new normal’.

But how do we adapt? From social beings to this new virtual reality? Firstly, we have to look at the benefits of virtual reality. Secondly, we need to look at how virtual reality will impact our lives in a positive way. Introducing us to a new generation of thinkers, innovators and solutions-first leaders. All of whom will advance our lives beyond any challenging circumstance in education and beyond. As Nova Pioneer, we have had to embrace four key virtual reality aspects that form part of our ‘new normal’ as an educational institution.

 

Virtual teaching and learning:

 

While we were traditionally accustomed to face-to-face interaction in a classroom, Covid-19 has revealed to us our ability to teach and learn virtually through various tools that we have adopted. Delivering on our education promise of remote learning. ‘Google Classrooms’ have become our new way of teaching and learning.

It should be easy for us to embrace virtual teaching and learning when you consider all the benefits it presents.  This includes our students being able to receive a quality education, safely, in the comfort of their homes. For our Novaneer parents, the benefits include ensured safety of your child and their well-being, while learning from home, not to forget the savings on fuel and time spent in Johannesburg’s often terrible traffic.  

The introduction of virtual learning has encouraged our students to become independent thinkers, leading themselves to achieve their objectives with guidance from their teachers and support from their online classmates. If anything, virtual learning has allowed us to rethink what education may look like in a post-COVID-19 future, and from this lense, the future looks bright and full of wonder. 

 

Virtual Meetings:

 

Attending parent meetings are always a struggle, common scenarios include parents needing to take time off work, meetings running over the available time of the parent, last-minute cancellations, etc.  In comes the introduction of virtual meetings – your time, your space and no traffic. Most importantly, parents have that ample opportunity for a close connect with the teacher, with little to no time limitations, ensuring the parent is completely tuned in to the students’ growth throughout the year.

 

Webinars:

 

Nova Pioneer is not just a school, but a learning institution that is rich with information and knowledge which we aim to constantly share with our Novaneer parents and community through our webinars. Our goal is to share enriching and helpful information on the education sector giving our parents insight into what we do here at Nova Pioneer, how we live through our culture principals while striving steadily towards our vision. The best part is that we are embracing the joy of learning, all from the comfort of your office or home. You can listen to some of our recent Nova Pioneer Connect webinars here.

 

Virtual Open Days

 

Inge, one of our Admissions Specialists, shares with us how the Admissions landscape has had to adapt during this time: 

“School Open Days are essential as they provide our potential Nova Pioneer parents with the opportunity to meet with the school leaders. Learning more about our curriculum and understanding our learning approach. It is also a platform for you to ask as many questions about our school. 

Nova Pioneer has adjusted our application process and created The Virtual Admissions Experience to answer all your enrolment needs from the safety and comfort of your home. 

Whether you have put in an application or not, you are welcome to attend the Nova Pioneer Virtual Open Day. Each Nova Pioneer campus in our network hosts their own open day via Google-meet.

It is undeniable that virtual reality has become a large part of our lives during the pandemic and it’s certainly here to stay. We can also appreciate that it has presented us with an opportunity to deliver a unique learning solution to the pandemic ensuring our learners don’t miss a beat, helping them thrive in this new world and assisting them in reaching their learning outcomes for the year. We have become a people without limits, solutions-first leaders and innovators, who deliver on high expectations.

 

 

 

Six years ago

 

On July 7th 2014, 20 teammates and 30 students gathered for the Pioneer Winter Programme.  There were two programmes: we welcomed 15 Grade 00-1 “Young Pioneers”, and 15 Grade 6-8 “Pioneer Innovators”.  It was the first time teammates and students would come together to do what we do: grow innovators and leaders!   With that step, after many months of preparation and anticipation, our journey to develop innovators and leaders who will shape the African Century began in earnest.  With that coming together, Nova Pioneer was born.

One year ago, as Nova Pioneer turned 5, we celebrated our birthday for the first time.  What a year it has been since then!  It has been a year that has led us to reckon with both a health pandemic and a global social justice movement that could well define our generation.  It has been a year in which we have faced up to the challenges of learning to work, learn and live in new ways; and most importantly of staying true and committed to our mission, our students and each other through the most challenging stretch yet of our journey together.  It has also been a year of important achievements: the milestone of our first graduates, the growth of our students in all grades and teammates in all roles; and the welcoming of new campuses, teammates and students to the Novaneer family.  

 

On a personal note

 

I have never been as challenged or encouraged by our journey as I have been this past year.  I have felt greater extremes of strain and setback on the one hand, and gratitude and admiration on the other, than I have in any year of my life to date.  In my birthday message to teammates last year, I wrote that I consider our team and culture to have been our greatest achievements of our first five years.  I still do.  Our collective response to the unprecedented challenges of this year — while remaining committed to our mission and each other through it all — will be a close second!  Indeed, that too will also be a reflection of our team and culture.  

 

Where will the world be, where will we be?

 

One year from now on July 7th 2021?  How about July 7th 2022?  I hope that one year from now we will be able to look back with a sense of accomplishment and pride at the year we will have led, the storms we will have weathered, the scars we will have endured, and the triumphs we will have earned.  I hope that two years from now, with a world emerging from a long winter and looking forward with the exuberance and optimism of spring, we will once again pause and be able to take pride in our journey — our learning, our adaptations, our choices, our successes.  As we do so, on both of those days, I hope that we will be able to look around at ourselves and feel an ever-stronger sense of unity and bond amongst ourselves, and look within ourselves and feel affirmed by who we will have individually and collectively shown ourselves to be.  

From Paulo Coehlo’s The Alchemist — a book that met me at the right challenging moment in my life — I share with you: “No heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second’s encounter with God and with eternity.”  I am grateful for every moment of this journey together with you, and look forward to the many years ahead of us! 

Happy 6th birthday Novaneers 🙂

Living our vision of Innovation and Leadership on a Global scale

 

The Financial Times and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, have announced the winners of the 2019 FT/IFC Transformational Business Awards. At a gala dinner hosted in London, the awards gathered senior investors, innovators, social entrepreneurs and other thought leaders for this event.

This year’s programme marked 14 years of collaboration between the FT and IFC on awards that have had a substantial impact on the way financial and non-financial organisations approach sustainable investment.

The awards highlight ground-breaking, long-term private sector solutions to major development issues, with the programme’s core categories all directly related to global efforts to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A record 270 entries were received from 246 organisations working in all regions of the world. During the event, there was a particular focus on human capital and the use of technology to boost inclusion, and special sessions on climate change and the geopolitical environment.

In the Transformational Solutions in Education, Knowledge and Skills category, the SIS Budget Schools Vertical Collaboration Ecosystem program scooped the award. However, Nova Pioneer received a special commendation in the category. On accepting the award, one of Nova Pioneer’s founders, Oliver Sabot, shared how Nova Pioneer gives young Africans the chance to access world-class student-centred learning at an affordable price. 

“With schools in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, Nova Pioneer has focused on creative and project-based pedagogies that have been specifically designed to develop leaders and innovators for the 4th Industrial revolution.” Said Sabot. He shared how we do this by developing strong local talent and leveraging economies of scale. Nova Pioneer is currently educating over 4,000 students at an 80 per cent lower cost for parents, and we have plans to expand our reach ten-fold in the coming years.

Grade 11 Nova Pioneer Ormonde student, Lesedi Mnguni (16), was chosen as Allan Gray Entrepreneurship Challenge Top 20 Finalist (AGEC2018).

 

PRESS RELEASE: The Allan Gray Entrepreneurial Challenge (AGEC), organised and facilitated by Mr Anthony Selley, is a competition that encourages learning about entrepreneurship for high school learners in Grades 8 to 12 in South Africa.

The challenge seeks to inspire learners on how to influence change in their community, their country and the world. Learners were required to complete weekly micro-challenges that further exposed them to a variety of entrepreneurial skills, which were then applied to real-world scenarios. 

Lesedi’s mentor and business studies and accounting teacher at Nova Pioneer, Samson Mwaghore, explained how Lesedi and her peers were encouraged to bring and share their creative and innovative ideas in and outside of the classroom.

 

“We invest heavily in the future of our students by offering a real entrepreneurial environment in our classroom experience.”

 

The use of the unique, inquiry-based learning approach that encourages students to ask “why” instead of telling them the “what”, allows them to develop their own thinking through exploration, investigation and collaboration,” he said.

During weeks one to three, learners began their entrepreneurial journey by exploring local challenges and opportunities in the areas of social entrepreneurship, transportation and healthcare. In weeks four to six, the competition shifted focus to global themes of climate change, artificial intelligence and blockchain technology. The final event wrapped-up six weeks of inter-school and inter-pupil participation across the country.

According to Anthony Selley, AGEC’s head of Gameplay, entry participation doubled for the 2018 season, from 4,000 in 2017 to more than 8,000 in 2018. In addition, more than 600 schools across the country participated in this year’s challenge. The challenges are designed to engage participants to act and think like entrepreneurs and rewards those who finish among the top performers.

Lesedi was awarded with AGEC2018 certificate for being a Top 20 finalist. The school is proud of Lesedi and all Novaneer participants for the efforts they put in during the competition. 

We are delighted to announce that Nova Pioneer Paulshof recently broke ground to build our Senior Primary School phase.

With the existing building and the new block, our Paulshof campus will be able to cater to around 900 students ranging from Grade 000 to Grade 7.

Construction commenced today with plans to have the new building completed by November 2019, ready for students to commence the 2020 school year.

We have designed the buildings to reflect our innovative inquiry-based learning model which has a strong foundation in the world-renowned Reggio Emilia philosophy.” said Des Hugo – Academic Director for Nova Pioneer South Africa.

Our Paulshof campus is not the only campus where we are growing. In 2020, Nova Pioneer will also welcome a new campus in Ruimsig on an expansive 36 200 square metre property on the corner of Flora Haase and Van Bergen Roads, Amorosa Extension 27. This school will serve young leaders [learners] in the Amorosa, Ruimsig, Little Falls and Greater Roodepoort communities,

Our Ormonde Secondary School students will also move to a new location 2020 mid-year. Our Midrand and Boksburg campuses are also being extended to accommodate older grades.

Nova Pioneer has campuses in Ormonde, Boksburg, Paulshof, North Riding, Midrand and Ruimsig.

Video

Update

Keep track of the progress by tuning in to our various Nova Pioneer South Africa social media accounts.