“The Laan” brings star power to CWED’s T2P rally
14 November 2019
On Saturday, 2 November 2019, the Cape Winelands Education District’s (CWED) Transform to Perform (T2P) team held a community event that can best be described as a mass rally at the Esselen Park Sport Stadium in Worcester.
The gathering of more than 2 000 people was even more significant given that they were virtually competing with the Rugby World Cup final!
The day was the result of the CWED’s T2P Team observation of how different community organisations were promoting values in many diverse ways. They then decided to coordinate the different role players, enabling them to join hands in furthering the T2P strategy of the WCED. One event organiser said, “As driving values for the WCED is targeting whole school communities, it is critical that communities have the same understanding of which values play a vital role in the schools, families and businesses. In that way, we promote further social cohesion that will eventually play an important role in the betterment of communities and society in general.”
The day kicked off in spectacular fashion as schools embarked on a T2P walk with bands and drum majorettes twirling the procession into the stand.
Dr Nazli Domingo-Salie, WCED’s T2P Programme Manager, delivered the keynote address detailing the strategy’s aims and how the WCED’s insistence on values-driven education was strengthening its vision of quality education for every learner, in every classroom, in every school in the province. She explained how embracing a Growth Mindset will help learners to improve their behaviour and results whilst Change Mindset facilitation for teachers would seek to renew and reignite teachers’ passion for teaching.
Melanie du Bois and Christo Davids, better known as Felicity and Errol of the popular SABC soapie 7de Laan, had the audience eating out of their hands with their inspiring life stories and encouragement for all to embrace their schools’, family and community values as well as to support the WCED’s T2P strategy.
As the shortened programme drew to a close to accommodate the Rugby World Cup final, organisers were chuffed by the day’s turnout. Asked for his take on the day, Dr Johann Burger, Lead Champion of CWED’s T2P team, was beaming from ear to ear. “The day was fantastic!” he said. “It far exceeded our expectations. The feedback the team got from learners, educators, parents - from just about everyone - was overwhelmingly positive!” He added that the success of the day affirmed the clear need for district T2P teams to continue to play a constructive, coordinating role in their districts and communities, and that the CWED T2P team had decided to roll out their joint community strategy right across the vast district in 2020.
