Recently retired school principal Stephen Price returned to service after just one month of retirement to help Lotus High in Grassy Park.
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The school, located in a challenging area, faced low hope and a worrying matric pass rate of 32%. The Western Cape Department of Education invited Price to step in and address the situation.
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‘When I arrived here, the challenges I found were very poor work ethic, extremely low pass rate, a lack of discipline, no uniform. A lack of hope, the children did not have hope in their hearts for the future and then a very demoralized staff,’ he told SABC News.
He began by identifying students who required additional support and collaborated with parents to create an action plan. He says the most challenging task was instilling self-belief in the learners.
‘They didn’t believe they could pass, and we slowly started to make them believe, just by motivating and encouraging them, praising them when they achieved, when they improved because we could not reward excellence in the school,’ he adds.
‘The children were not delivering excellence, so we had to change the focus to reward improvement and so children started to feel better.’
One year later, the school’s matric pass rate had increased from 32% to more than 65%.
School Governing Body (SGB) member Paul Martins says they couldn’t have asked for a better acting principal. ‘We are so proud as the governing body that God sent a man like him.’
‘I told him God sent him this way to bring these changes to this school. Because for 25 years this school [has been] standing here. We never had changes like this, and he still wants to do more and more.’
On his birthday, the learners sent him a card that read: ‘And you’ve taught us that there’s hope for our school, and us, you made us earn the name of Lotus High, and now we are the best school in the Western Cape. Honestly sir we thought you wouldn’t last long at our school, but you stayed and changed our school for the better…’
‘That’s when I knew I had started the change to give these students hope, I didn’t know that,’ says Price.
SABC News reports that infrastructural improvements were thanks to efforts by the Department of Education and donations made by private businesses.
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Picture: Lotus High School / Facebook