Rippon Primary School in Sydenham, Durban, turns 40 this year. Also celebrating is Jenny Adams who chalks up 40 years of teaching — all at “her” school. She took her first steps up the career ladder when the school first opened its doors. Now she is the principal, with the added distinctions of having been the first woman so appointed and, after 11 years, the longest serving.
From fresh-out-of-college — “in the days when we had teacher training colleges” — to leading and developing a dynamic teaching staff that works to a strict ethos of “the child first”, this dedicated teacher states boldly: “I’ve never had a day that I did not want to come to school.”
In a world where very few people can say they love their job unconditionally, Rippon Primary seems awash with them. Deputy principal Jenny Timol, who’s been there for 38 years, echoes Adams’s sentiment. “I love this school, the children … the whole family. I don’t know what I would do without them.”
Her passion has been given free rein by Adams’s approach to management: she’s a firm believer in giving her 27 staff the room they need to develop interests that benefit the learners.
Such an approach has seen Timol put the school on the map by getting it the status of international Eco-School — “my vision was to get it before 2010” — and she is now recognised as a leader in environmental education as well as peer teaching and facilitating HIV and Aids workshops in South Africa.
Adams is as proud of Timol’s awards and innovations as she is of the achievements of past learners. “It just makes my day to get phone calls and visits to tell me what they’ve achieved. We’ve had lawyers, doctors and many teachers who started out in our classes.”
The school opened in 1969 to accommodate the overflow from other schools in the area — under apartheid in a suburb demarcated for “coloured” and “Indian” families and with associated minimal resources. It has relied on the dedication of its teachers, parent body and philanthropists to create its success story. It has 1 000 learners from grade one to grade seven across South Africa’s rainbow spectrum and from indigent to middle class.
Not much fazes Adams, but she says: “It saddens me when teachers put young people off a career in education. It is hard work, but it’s also the most rewarding job in the world”.
To aspirant teachers, she says: “You have to love children and treasure and respect the gift that is in your hands. Your aim has to be to make a difference in each child’s life.”
The rewards lie in “watching the little ones blossom, from their often frightened, but eager, first steps in grade one to the confident little people who leave in grade seven”.
“But when you can no longer rejoice in each child’s progress, or discern between children who want attention and those who need attention, and when you can’t find time to listen to and learn from the children, it’s time to find another job.”
She’s had to hone other skills such as fundraising and “the art of prioritising goals and visions”.
“It’s taken me a long time, but I’ve learned that ‘tomorrow is another day’. There was so much to be done, it could have been overwhelming.”
Through careful planning you can achieve your aims. “You set the priority, throw yourself into raising funds, fulfil the dream — then move on to the next project.” Just like the school’s covered pavilion area, for which a “very supportive” student governing body raised R250 000. Completed in 2004, it serves in place of a school hall.
“This anniversary year it’s all falling into place, with many plans coming to fruition,” says Adams.
Top of the list was a senior primary library. On the day the Teacher visited, representatives of IQRAA Trust and Albaraka Bank — the philanthropic programmes of which support educational institutions involved in humanitarian activities — were also visiting. They agreed to fund the resource centre, which replaces an ancient, obsolete book collection.
A visit from a Christ Kingdom Ministries’ pastor earlier this year left such an impression on him that “the next thing we knew, workers from a construction company owned by one of the church members pitched up and set to work. Now our senior primary children have a reading room to go with their new library and two multi-purpose rooms have been transformed into a small hall.”
Then came more good news. “We were told our entry into a competition had won us a computer centre, sponsored by the Daily News and McCarthy. We’re waiting for the delivery of 44 computers,” says Adams. “It’s been a truly wonderful 40th anniversary for both the school and me.
“And now for the next project…”