Two proudly South African Schools are in the running to be named the World’s Best thanks to their ‘beyond the classroom’ initiatives!
Global (19 June, 2023) — Future leaders in South Africa sprout from all kinds of roots. Still, despite South Africans’ remarkable tenacity to mimic Fynbos and flower in conditions others often deem tough ground, it matters to praise the people and places who inspire, nurture and water the helpers and heroes of tomorrow. This is what the World’s Best Schools spotlights, and two South African schools have gone several grades above the rest; making two of the Awards’ shortlists!
Five categories, many nominees, and only 10 schools were picked for each category list. Shining up the shortlist and representing South Africa for T4 Education’s 2023 World’s Best Schools are SPARK Soweto and Rustenburg Girls’ High School.
While Rustenburg Girls earned the global nod for the ‘Supporting Healthy Lives’ category, SPARK bagged a top 10 placement under ‘Community Collaboration’. Here’s what these schools are doing differently.
Meet the Schools Going Above and Beyond the Classroom
SPARK Soweto in Johannesburg earned a spot for its collaborative approach to building a village for its young students based on principles so important to the school they spell out its name—Service, Persistence, Achievement, Responsibility and Kindness. SPARK has committed to community programmes that empower its larger area of Soweto, focusing on affordability for education and resources, environmental care and grassroots opportunities like hiring local undergraduates to help young people grow from and with the community!
Making a change in a different way, Rondebosch’s Rustenburg Girls’ made the shortlist for its spin on empowerment through sport based on a unique policy. Their Sports Policy has been recognised for making sports activities compulsory for girls in grades 8 and 9, inspired by the off-the-court-and-field effects being part of a team and staying active can have, including time and mood management.
The girls have the choice to pick their own sport and whether it’s at a competitive level or purely for fun or social development. If Rustenburg Girls wins the Best School Prize, the school has plans to use the prize money to upgrade and open its facilities to other schools that may not have the same resources.
Textbook Efforts Get Textbook Results
In a country where education walks hand-in-hand with opportunity for many, schools have had to sit back and ask themselves whether an intense focus on academia alone cuts the grass to the opportunities at the end of the path best. As you might expect, many have found that it isn’t, because students are young people and not blank canvases to imprint textbook ideas onto. Because of this, schools that offer more than good education need to be highlighted in the pack’s brightest colours; because they see and guide the person, not just the student.
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