“It takes a whole village to raise a child,” is a delightful African proverb. The family needs the support of others in the village to help raise a happy, healthy child.
A school is similar. By itself a school cannot successfully educate the child. It needs the support of people outside teh schoolf if it wishes to provide excellent, quality education.
A school that partners with others reaps rewards. When, for example, parents help the school there are huge benefits. Parents give of their varied skills… and usually at no cost to the school. Partnerships bring cost savings to the school and parents fund new and better resources such as buildings as well as teaching and sport equipment.
Types of partnerships
There are six types of partnerships found in many quality South African schools:
Businesses
Local businesses do much for schools. They donate prizes for functions such as sports days and prize-givings. It’s becoming common for sports teams to have snazzy kits sponsored by companies.
Some businesses support schools that aren’t in their immediate area. Ekurhuleni Primary School, for example, has its awards day prizes sponsored by Hollard Insurance, which also built and furnished a classroom there. A recent corporate sponsorship is that of Absa with the North West department of education. The bank spent R2-million to establish a resource centre in the village of Madikwe.
How does one get the support of business? The answer is simple. Ask! Beg with a friendly smile! Parents who work at or own a business are often excellent starting points. They can open the door to the initial business contact person.
Former learners
Old schools have an advantage in this regard. They sometimes have a mailing list of former learners.These alumni can be asked to help the school. Funds can be collected from them for building projects, bursaries and scholarships. Former learners are often willing to help in extramural activities such as sports coaching.
Individual parents
Parents have expertise and talent to give to a school. Some will be able to assist with drama, speech and sports coaching. Others are keen to help with the teaching of reading in the lower grades. A school beneÂfits from the contributions (given free, of course) of parents with jobs as varied as accountants, builders, electricians, engineers, human resource officers, lawyers, painters and plumbers.
At the start of the year parents could be given a questionnaire titled, “Sure, I can help!”. Parents are encouraged to offer their services in a wide range of school activities. An incredible amount of untapped talent will be revealed by the findings of the questionnaire.
Loyalty card programmes
Increasingly, loyalty card programmes are appearing on the market. The idea is that a school receives a certain percentage of sales when the loyalty card is used at partner stores. Parents and family members present the card at these shops.
Poor schools can apply for “nominated school” status in the MySchool programme. During 2007 the MySchool (www.myschool.co.za) loyalty card project gave more than R1,5-million every month to schools. More than 10 000 of the 28 000 schools in the country are in this programme. The MySchool programme can be contacted on 0860 100 445.
Parent teams
Teams of parents can take on projects. The teams are usually found in the parent or parent-teacher associations. They organise fundraisers such as big walks or bingo nights. Parent teams help in activities such as sports days and concerts.
The parents of a class can form a team. They appoint a class mom or dad who coordinates their activities. The team could, for example, repaint the classroom or do general repair work. Parent teams create a spirit of friendship and goodwill.
Twinning schools
Twinning is common among and between previously advantaged and disadvantaged schools. Resources and professional expertise are shared. The learners share extramural activities and a small number of learners can spend part of the day at the twinned school.
Far too few South African businesses have partnerships with schools. If every business was to create a partnership with at least one school, what an improvement it would make to our school system.
The pessimist despairs of the overall quality of our schools. Yet the number of quality schools is growing steadily. There’s a common factor to these excellent schools: they have partnerships with parents and the wider community. Be an optimist. Have partnerships that make your school a place of true quality.
The South African Quality Institute (SAQI) has school leadership and management programmes. Poor schools are sponsored. Contact Vuyi Segooa on 012 394 3400 or [email protected] or Richard Hayward on 011 888 3262 or email [email protected]