We're going to be turning our attention to a pressing issue affecting one of Cape Town's most respected public schools.
Claire Won High, known for its really strong academic focus and commitment to excellence in maths and physical sciences, facing a major challenge due to budget cuts by the Department of Education, and the cuts could see the school lose four out of its twenty teaching posts twenty percent of its academic staff, essentially threatening the exceptionally high quality of education that it's works so hard to provide, particularly to
disadvantage students. In response, the school's governing body has stepped in determined to protect teaching quality by raising trying to raise one point eight million rand to cover teacher salaries, but they can't do it alone. To find out more, I'm delighted to welcome into studio this afternoon, Deputy Principal Alex Wilson and Acting Principle Natalie Nickerrritt. It's good to have you both with us. Thank you so much for joining us this morning. When I heard that this was
the school that was you guys be coming in. I mean, you're renowned. The success of the school is renowned. In fact, somebody was mentioning to me at Christmas, did you see Clement Hi doing so well? Talk to us a little bit about the school, Alex. Maybe I can start with and start with you, tell us a little bit of the pedigree of the school, if.
You will, well. We do our very best to offer opportunities to students who otherwise wouldn't have them, and we have in our school an amazing array of talent from all across Cape down. We have no catchment area, and we are aim as to target certain communities, not target certain communities, but to bring students in from communities that
otherwise wouldn't have access to such quality education. We have produced over the last fifteen years fourteen years, some amazing results, consistently with pass rates ninety five percent and above, and most recently, as you alluded to, our results last year we came third in the province overall, and we came first in mathematics and physical sciences. It's also with an all female physical science department, which I think is quite
significant in the context of our country. And we want to continue producing these results giving opportunities to young people who wouldn't have them to go to university to become doctors and engineers and lawyers and to give back to South Africa.
Natalie, what do you put the success of the school down to those incredible results that Alex gave us just said.
A variety of things. The first thing is that our school is small, five hundred and forty kids, so that' oups. So we have a very close knit sort of family environment. We have a very good pastoral care system where we hold our kids quite closely. We try that nobody falls through the cracks type of thing. We have a counseling facility at our school, so we have a school counselor on our staff as well, so that our kids who come, you know, they come from very challenging backgrounds and they're
able to get the counseling that they need. We also have a very dynamic young staff as staff is actually the average ages around about thirty six years.
Wow, that is young.
Yeah, so astaff is quite young and that helps. And then also the quality of the learners that we get. You know, in order to do physical sciences and pure maths up to metric they have to be academically strong and our kids really work very hard, you know, they want to succeed and so those are the yes, those are the all marks of cremonie. And then of course our parents, you know, very involved, also want to watch best for their children. There was.
An outcry, i suppose when we learned about these these counts that were coming, and more so for certain schools because we know, you know the nature of of education in South Africa being what it is, and the fear was that it was going to be schools like yours that were the hardest and that has obviously come to bear. Just talk to us exactly what is the position. It's four out of your twenty teaching posts. That's an awful lot. That's a big hit to have to do.
It is it is. It was quite a surprise also in the light of the fact that they the Department of Education has always wanted to grow the school, so they want us to take in more learners, and we were quite surprised when we got the notification to say that for of our teachers would be losing their posts and it meant that the governing body of the school, the school governing body obviously then had to step in.
But as you mentioned, you're now in order to keep the successes that the school as over the many years we've fat to we can't if we lose our teachers, it means our classes get bigger, and you know with with maths and physics, you need smaller classes. And so it meant that the governing body is at to, you know, come up with innovative ideas, and of course we've fair to go and try and source sponsorship. And that's why we here this morning.
Yeah, you know you're saying this morning as well, I'm so glad it's not just me, and you've got a lot more children to deal with it than I have. If you're just joining us this afternoon. We're talking to the deputy principal, sorry, acting principle at Claremont High, Natalie Nikkerkan also deputy Principal Alex Wilson in studio with us. They're facing a challenge and it's a challenge that other schools in Cape Telling the country are also facing. But it's as a result of these budget cuts by the
Education Department. The impact on Claremont High will be that it needs it's going to have to lose twenty percent of its academics. Of this is a school that has done remarkably well consistently remarkably well. And the impact, as you say atale is that essentially class sizes are going to get bigger, which is exactly what the fear was.
Can you just talk about that. I was listening to a fascinating conversation I think it was with John Maatham a few weeks ago about the impact of larger class sizes and while there are mechanisms that can be brought in to teach larger class sizes, why isn't it ideal, particularly when you are maybe alex you can also take this and particularly when you were dealing with the level of excellence that you were dealing with that At Claimont High, well, we.
Have consistently tried to have class sizes of around twenty five students for in the f et phase grade ten, eleven and twelve, particularly that because that's where the subjects get a little bit more challenging. Where students choose their subjects. They only have limited choice at Claimont Geography, accounting, in life science they get to choose two of those and they have to do pure mats and they have to
do physical science and English Home Language. Twenty five is a great number we have classrooms can have thirty five students. And this year we've had to go up in our grade ten classes in math, Science and English two thirty five students, and as a teacher of English, I found that challenge quite significant. Suddenly the marking load increases, so my time like I can give to my students is
suddenly less. I'm a little bit more tired. And then when you're teaching literature, and the same goes for maths and science as well, that personal connection is so valuable and you lose it with an extra ten students in your class, there's no question. So with those cuts, that's
the most significant thing. So we're hoping that in the next year and the following years we'll be able to gain the funding so we can reduce those class sizes and fut phase and then we can continue to have our amazing results.
And looking at capping the classes, is it twenty five, Well.
That's what we aim for, and it varies depending on subject choices and things, but that's generally what we aim for, particularly in those three core subjects, that core subjects at Claremont, Science and English.
To I wonder to what extent are the learners aware of the current challenge, to what extent are they brought into the confidence I guess of the school in dealing with these things and the parents also, is this you spoke about that really sort of community element of the school. Does that extend on quite serious topics like this?
Absolutely, So we always try and involve our learners so they are kept abreast of what's happening at the school. So when we got a notification to say, you know that the department is cutting forth our posts, the learners were informed about it as well as the parents. So they're always aware of what's happening because it's important for them also to know. You know, it is their school as well, so it's important for them to know. And so yes, we do definitely involve them in that.
So what's the next step. You essentially want to raise one point eight million round to cover those salaries? How are you going to do it?
So, and that's why we here today. So we really want businesses and companies out there to come to the party, you know, and we know that the businesses there are businesses out there and cleve Oni is a good investment. So the idea is for them to come on board and partner with the school. And you know, so that we are able to hold onto our teachers and to maintain the standards that we do have at Clymont.
It's an investment in the students as much as anything else, and in the future, and we want to uplift lots of people, and particularly in our city that's so divided geographically and specially with our history. We want to give opportunities and it's an investment in the future young engineers, young doctors from families that otherwise wouldn't have graduates who are going to u c T and Stellenbosch and bits to go and study these things.
Yeah. Yeah, if people would like to partner with the school, what what steps do they do they need to take? How do they how do they do it? How do they give you their money?
So the we have a marketing person, the person who works in up here and her name is Zara do Mingo, So she would be the person that you would contact, so z do Mingo at clemant Ie dot co dot ceda, or you would contact as secretary Edmund at clemant I dot co dot seday, or you could found the school. We are on social media as well, so those sites are available. The school's numbers are two one, six seven one or six four five, but emails would probably work better.
And have you managed to secure any partners yet, any funders yet?
We have? We have, we have funders in the that we do have some long term funders because the school fee of the school is much lower for the area that it's in. So we in the Leafys hours were the more affluent schools, and our school fees is a lot less. And we do that so because we targets from the koflets and the townships, and so we want to make sure that the school feez is affordable.
So the answer isn't for you. And again I'm going back to conversations that I heard when the budget cuts were first announced from people like Jonathan Jansen and talking about the impact is going to be that schools like yours face having to raise the fees and which isn't Which isn't possible exactly.
We already we had to raise up. We had to raise our fees this year right from twelve thousand to fifteen that are just under sixteen thousand a year, which, as you know, is a lot less than schools that we are competing toe to toe with in the southern.
Seven sure, sure, but then the direct impact on the pockets of the families that.
You are of support, and the fear is that if we don't get the funding every year, that our fees are going to increase by more than inflation, and that's a big problem for our community, folks.
We're joined in studio by Acting Principal Natalie Nickavi Kennels Deputy Principal Alex Wilson of Clermont High School. They are facing a it's a challenge, and it's a challenge that you may be able to help with and if you're in a position to do so, please do so. We started off the conversation really just hearing about the p pedigree of the school and the excellence. It seems so
deeply unfair that this is a position. It seems remarkable, not to get too political about it, but that in twenty twenty five head teachers principals are having to come and sort of sing for their supper, as it were. But here we find ourselves and this is about the future of brilliant young people with brilliant brains who run da will run a brilliant country and help and be
really productive members and beneficial member of Society. If you are able to help, please do get in contact with Claim on High and let's see if we can't turn this story to the good.