For Parents

A school does not raise a child. A community does. Here is how ours works.

In their own words

Three voices we asked permission to share.

No staged interviews. Recorded on the bench outside the office, after Friday assembly.

When my Lerato started Grade 1 she would not speak. By June, Mrs Ntho was sending me a small voice note every Friday — just one sentence Lerato had said in class. I kept all of them.

A mother in her thirties wearing a red headwrap

Mrs B. Mokoena

Parent of a Grade 2 learner

I work on the next farm and I cannot read English. The teachers explain my son's report to me in Setswana, sitting down, with patience. I have never felt small at this school.

A father in his forties in a blue work shirt

Mr S. Phiri

Parent of a Grade 5 learner

My grandson was repeating Grade 3 when we moved here. The school did not call it a problem. They called it a chance, and they gave him a teacher who waited for him. He passed by November.

A grandmother in her sixties wearing a knitted cardigan

Gogo M. Tlhabane

Guardian of a Grade 4 learner

How we work together

Six small mechanisms — kept simple, kept consistent.

No expensive parent-app. We use what families already have: their own phones, their own time, and the road that brings them past our gate.

A small parents' evening in the Grade 4 classroom with mothers seated on learner chairs

Termly parent meetings

Twice a term per class. We bring the portfolio, you bring the questions. No PowerPoint — just the child's work between us.

Parents touring classrooms during the autumn open day, learners proudly explaining their wall displays

Open Days (twice a year)

A Saturday in March and one in September. Walk into any class. Stay for tea. Children explain their own work.

Parents and teachers painting the Foundation Phase classroom on a Saturday workday

Saturday Workdays

First Saturday of each month, parents and staff fix, paint, plant. Bring a hammer. Tea and bread provided.

The School Governing Body meeting in the staff room around a single table

School Governing Body (SGB)

Seven elected parents. We meet on the second Tuesday of every month. Minutes posted on the school noticeboard within a week.

A teacher sending a WhatsApp voice note from outside the classroom on her own phone

Class WhatsApp groups

One group per class, run by the teacher. Daily updates, homework reminders, "your child arrived safely" pings. Voice notes welcomed in any language.

Parents and children planting seedlings together at a family garden afternoon

Family garden afternoons

One Friday afternoon a term, parents come to plant with their children. Whatever we harvest goes home with the family who tended it.

"Re aga sekolo se mmogo — the school is built together."