A school that doesn’t believe in homework for its learners and that welcomes parents into classrooms each morning for “social integration time” claims that it’s fostering children who are more motivated to learn.
Synergy School, located in Sunnydale industrial service area near Kommetjie in Cape Town, has existed for the past six years on these principles.
Its founder, Robin Booth, says it’s part of his vision of an education system that “deals with the human side” and not just learning by monotonous repetition.
Booth was a preschool teacher when he decided to create an “environment where I didn’t have the [education] department telling me what to do”. The national system’s priorities had not focused on enabling children to think, says Booth. Children simply had to know the facts to pass exams.
Booth launched a private school with non-profit status and has a school governing body running it. The school has five teachers and 65 learners in classes from preprimary to grade six. When learners advance, Synergy will include a high-school curriculum. At each step of their education, the children are able to “co-construct the learning”, says Booth.
“We’re asking children what they want to learn and children come up with content. The teacher frames it. Children aren’t sitting back and saying: ‘Teacher, what must I do?’ If a child is motivated to learn, there’s no resistance.” He says the result is that there is no need to continually repeat information until the children remember it.
Booth adds that getting the children to make classroom content choices has ensured that they have an opportunity to “take responsibility”.
This extends to the no-homework policy as parents then “don’t have to be teachers” at home.
“A lot of tension comes into the home environment” when parents struggle to help with homework, he says. “As children get older they also deal with concepts that parents can’t necessarily support,” says Booth.
Another interesting aspect about Synergy is that classes are paired. Grades one and two learn side by side and so do the other grades.
“There is nowhere in our society where we are working with people at the same age as we are. We need to know how to work with people who are different. Children need to learn to work with others who are not as competent and whom they can also help,” Booth explains.
“It boosts their confidence. Peer teaching is often more powerful than teacher-to-child teaching.”
And parents’ involvement with the child’s education doesn’t end when they drop their offspring at class, either. Teachers post daily and weekly electronic newsletters with photographs to parents so that they know what their children are dealing with in the classroom.
Parents also sign up to participate in workshops on how to deal with an “empowered” child, says Booth.
“We run the Effective Parent Programme. Parents have to do workshops about their child’s empowered self-esteem. If the parents do not know how to manage an empowered child, they are going to have a rough ride.” He says the workshop encourages parents to support their children in their independence.
“We need children to debate, express themselves and work in groups. We’re in the age of relationships and empowerment. We’re looking at how to empower the masses not just by giving them food and water but [also by ensuring] that they have a vested interest in the communities they live in.”
Booth admits that increased parental involvement is the “biggest energy drain, and that’s why most schools don’t do it”. The result, though, is parents who are more invested in the school. And parents say it allows them to participate more in their children’s lives.
Kerstin Eser, who has two children at the school, says her children were at different schools in Johannesburg before they moved to Cape Town and joined Synergy 18 months ago.
“It didn’t fit well with me to drop them off and not know what was happening in their lives. It’s great to have half an hour in the morning to ease into our days. Then we can go and do our stuff,” says Eser.
“I like the way these teachers work at each child’s pace. They’re treating our children as people and not as numbers. The learning is about experiencing and not about opening a textbook and knowing all the facts … The fees aren’t cheap, but it’s value for money.”
She says that the parent workshops were “challenging, but it’s amazing how the skills that you learn become part of your day”.
“It’s hard to adapt to how you engage with your child in the beginning, but the parenting course helps you with that,” adds Eser.
Another parent, Katrien Heere from Holland, has three children at Synergy. She agrees that it’s “value for money”.
‘We looked for a school with a fresh approach and an individual eye for children. This school has small classes and if there’s a problem we’ll solve it together,” says Heere.
Parents do know their boundaries though, she says, and can’t “decide anything for the teacher”. “The school has its rules and we don’t step in.”
Cindy Adams, a grade one and two teacher, says managing parents is easy because the school is more of a “community space”. She has been teaching at Synergy for almost four years.
“Parents connect and help each other. We give parents a lot of information. If it becomes tricky, we work through things to form better relationships. Most of the time, we’re on the same page with parents,” she says.
“It’s a community space that helps the child take ownership of the school. Parents are also able to tell us about what we need to be aware of about their children. They tell me if someone has died in the family or if it’s been a tough time at home. That gives me insight into supporting the child.”