Hector Peterson Secondary School displays excellence over time
1 March 2024
Commitment and time are the two resources that money cannot buy. This reminder by Mike Mavovana, award-winning principal of Hector Peterson Secondary School in Wallacedene, Kraaifontein, explains the school’s continued improvement in the National Senior Certificate examinations.
The school raised its results from 78,4% in 2021 to 92,6% in 2022 and 93,8% in 2023. And it did this while having more candidates writing the examinations each year.
Mavovana, last year’s provincial winner of the National Teaching Awards category Excellence in Secondary School Leadership, said the learners and educators put in extra time right from the start of the matric year.
Grade 12 learners start working a week before the official opening of schools in January. This time is dedicated to remedial work in critical subjects like Mathematics and Mathematical Literacy.
He said improved parental involvement aids in the execution of this plan. “All Grade 12 parents get the itinerary for the following year with their child’s final Grade 11 report and this enables parents to plan better. This is followed by a parent and learner meeting in January where the whole plan is unpacked for the parents.”
Individual learner, class and school targets are set at the annual Grade 12 motivational camp. Each learner has a target card reflecting his or her Grade 11 results and target for each term.
Attendance of Summer School in January, Autumn School in April, Winter School in June/July and Spring School in September is compulsory for all learners.
Mavovana has a one-on-one meeting with each learner who has not passed the examinations at the end of a term, followed by a meeting with the learner’s parents. These learners are tracked throughout the terms and special targets are set with each learner.
Before the June, September and final examinations, weekend (Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon) residential camps for Mathematics and Mathematical Literacy are arranged. Learners are grouped according to their performance levels and external tutors are enlisted to help learners.
Mavovana said monitoring is the thread that runs through all these interventions to manage and improve learner performance.