Below are extracts from an article written by Astrid Februarie in the Tygerburger recently.  She wrote:

“In an effort to prepare learners for Grade 1, Bellville South Primary School is hoping to implement a programme to help stimulate the minds of their learners to make the learning process easier.

Diane Cupido, the principal, says there are far too many learners who start Grade 1 and don’t even know their own first name, age or how to pronounce the alphabet, and she is determined to change this at her school by means of the SmartBrain programme.

“This programme is aimed at learners who have difficulty processing information and remembering it as well.  We intend to start this programme in our Grade R classes as learning the basics, which include knowing the alphabet (sounds), knowing how to accurately write these letters in order to write their own names, because it is important to their academic career and they cannot be passed onto the next grade if they do not know these basics”, she says

Cupido says although they have several learners who attend the SmartBrain Child Development Institute in Bellville and have seen the progress, they found that there are more children who are in need and therefor approached the Institute to invest their skills at the school.

“We do not only want to expose our grade R learners to the programme, but children in all grades who have developed a learning disability due to not learning or not being taught the necessary skills at a younger age,” she says.

The SmartBrain programme that was established and founded in Cape Town in 1996 by Marilyn Opperman and Brand van Dyk, has helped uplift countless struggling learners and have trained a multitude of parents to be forward-thinking in stimulating their children to give them greater opportunities to develop their potential.

Their mission is to equip learners, parents and educators with scientifically proven learning methods and information about how the brain can be programmed for giftedness so that they will know how to lay the right foundation from birth right through to adulthood, to serve as springboard from where success can be achieved in all spheres.

Cupido says the school is in talks with a sponsor to make the programme available to all learners and teachers, and once this is finalised the programme will be running at the school three times a week with follow up meetings with parents every three months.

“This would help us reach our academic goals we have set out for ourselves,” she adds.