Welcome to Penreach

Introduction
Penreach a non-profit, whole school development programme working to improve the skills of educators and their schools in the Mpumalanga Province of South Africa and surrounding areas. It has resulted in the upliftment of local communities through improvement in education and the quality of schools, and has been recognised by numerous awards.

History
One of the tragic legacies of apartheid is the poor state of the education system in South Africa. It failed to provide the very minimum of teaching standards, especially in rural areas. It was for this reason that concerned members of St Stithians College in Johannesburg met with leaders from Mpumalanga's Lowveld Community in the late 1980's. They agreed on the poor state of education and agreed that a beacon school in a rural area was the ultimate way forward.

It was felt that an independent school should be established in Nelspruit that could open its doors to all children of South Africa irrespective of race. At the same time it would become a centre from which a major education outreach program could be launched into the greater communities surrounding the school, was the way to go. It was this vision that brought about the founding of the Penryn Trust in 1991, a Section 18A trust which in turn raised funds to establish Penryn College in 1992. The founding headmaster of Penryn College was Mr Roger Cameron, who is today the Headmaster of St John's College in Johannesburg.

Founding of Penreach
Although education outreach began the minute Penryn opened its doors, it was not until 1994 that the Penreach Whole Schools Development Program was officially established when it began working with educators from Sappi farm schools.

Within a short time other schools wanted to send their educators to Penreach. Just 15 years on, with an excellent track record, Penreach has grown exponentially and now reaches some 2,000 educators each year who voluntarily attend Penreach, representing over 900 schools. An estimated 350,000 learners from mainly rural areas are benefitting annually from Penreach. At least 94% of the educators are women and over 50% are from rural areas.

Each year Penreach serves as beacon of hope to thousands of educators. It has become a catalyst for improving the quality of education in Mpumalanga and there is demand for it to replicate its success in other Provinces.

The success of Penreach lies in it being responsive to its member's requests for development rather than following a syllabus. The dramatic improvement of teacher status, confidence and school productivity as a result of Penreach training, is acknowledged in the region and beyond.

Penreach works with schools to help them improve teaching standards and build the institutional infrastructures that are so imperative in creating functional schools. It offers skills development workshops to educators from surrounding schools who attend Penreach over weekends and during school holidays, using the infrastructure of Penryn College, Nelspruit. As part of their teaching contracts, Penryn College educators participate in the Penreach Program, offering their expertise as facilitators at workshops.

It is important to note that educators attend because they have a desire to do so. Educators, many of whom are poorly paid, are prepared to travel vast distances (as far as 250km) and incur transport costs to attend the Penreach skills development workshops. Educators have to sacrifice their personal time as workshops are held outside working hours - during weekends and school holidays. Visitors to these workshops are always overwhelmed by the positive attitudes of these educators who are predominantly black rural women. This gives immense hope for the future of our country.

Penreach also works with Principals, School Governing Bodies and School Management Teams; with Mathematics and Physical Science learners; and it has a full team of specialist advisors who visit participating schools daily to ensure that educators are able to implement what they are learning at Penreach workshops in their own classroom environments (Advisory Program).

Penreach has found that educators attending skills development workshops need to be supported in their own classrooms in order for them to fully implement and understand the skills they are acquiring; a practical component that many other commendable education delivery programs lack.

Penreach is not just about developing education in disadvantaged schools; it concerns itself too with the facilitation of change in educational attitudes and approaches, from learners and educators through to School Governing Boards - critical factors for long-term success. By helping educators, schools and their communities gain a practical knowledge of the requirements of the new educational methodologies and governance structures, true understanding of the process is gained and the change that is so desperately needed is facilitated. Penreach believes that change occurs when people want change to happen. Penreach asks its partner schools on an ongoing basis to identify areas of skills development and then bases its workshop program on these needs.

Target Group
Penreach's target group consists of: Principals; educators; learners; School Management Teams; School Governing Bodies; school communities i.e. parents/care givers (there is strong focus on Physical Science, Mathematics and literacy development in the primary school and secondary school years).

Areas of Operation
Penreach's area of operation is mainly in the rural areas of the Mpumalanga Province, but there are educators enrolled with Penreach from Limpopo Province and further afield.

What makes Penreach Innovative?
Penreach is a facilitator of positive change in educational attitudes and approaches. The Penreach philosophy is that change occurs when people want change to happen. Penreach asks its beneficiaries what they would like to learn more about each year and Penreach responds to these needs. It does not dictate to its beneficiaries. Penreach operates by word-of-mouth only; educators attend because they want to and not because they are told to.

Penreach has become the largest school-based education development program of its kind in South Africa. It offers a whole school development approach to schools, in the knowledge that schools must be transformed throughout, with community involvement all the way, in order for them to become functional and successful.

Strategic Objectives
To make a sustainable difference in the education environment of South Africa, Penreach is working towards developing an ethos of quality teaching and learning in every phase of school education; from ECD/pre-schools; primary schools; secondary schools through to building the capacity of School Governing Bodies and School Management Teams. With the recent addition of the Ndzalo Mobile Science Laboratory Penreach is able to take much needed Science practical work and education development to schools.
Currently Penreach is piloting two programs involving the coaching and mentoring of Principals by a retired experienced Principal (Principals Reaching Principals) and strengthening the infrastructure of schools currently receiving Penreach interventions (SOS Program).

Penreach also works with Mathematics and Physical Science learners in the secondary schools. In the primary and pre-schools, it focuses on language, literacy and numeracy development.

The mission statement of Penreach is “to improve the quality and accessibility of education for educators and learners in schools and communities” by working towards the following strategic objectives in order to further education development:

• Building content knowledge: Improve the content knowledge of educators, especially in Physical Science and Mathematics education, as well as literacy development.
• Improving classroom methodology: Improve the classroom methodology of educators.
• Improving management capabilities: Improve the management capabilities of principals and senior staff by strengthening School Management Teams. Principals are mentored through the Principals Reaching Principals methodology.
• Strengthening governance skills: Develop good governance skills by strengthening School Governing Bodies.
• Special needs education: Train educators to support children with special educational needs in their classrooms.
• Orphans and vulnerable children: Support and train educators and principals in partner schools to cope with orphans and vulnerable children in their schools, with particular focus on child-headed households. This includes introducing feeding schemes and support schemes in partnership with NGOs specializing in these fields.
• Building the self-image of educators: Building the self-image of educators and a respect for the teaching profession is a vital component in ensuring good schools.
• Encouraging professionalism and responsibility: Penreach is teaching school stakeholders to deal with the power that comes with responsibility to ensure complete transparency as outlined by government in the South African Schools' Act.