Ms Emily-Rose Vale joined the school last year as an English teacher, also tasked with looking after the Innovation Hub. Her teaching background before coming to Jeppe was at township and rural schools in the Eastern Cape, so she has a deep understanding of the issues faced by boys who come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Her own education was on a scholarship at a private school that her parents could never have afforded to send her to.
All of which makes her finely attuned to the challenges that some of the boys who are on scholarships at the school face. In many cases they come from other provinces, are living away from their families and communities, are not English first language speakers, and are facing various challenges requiring support.
“It occurred to me that these boys are being educated in an environment that is foreign to them and they are being asked to achieve in multiple facets of school life for which they require support” Ms Vale said. “I wanted to help, so I made a proposal to school management and the upshot is the programme called the Sports Scholarship Support Initiative (SSSI) that has been running since the beginning of the year.”
As is the case with many traditional boys schools, Jeppe is in the privileged position to be able to offer a small number of sport scholarships to uniquely talented boys and occasionally these boys come from challenging, under-resourced back grounds. As such, a number of boys on sports scholarships are enrolled on the SSSI programme, although the degree of support they need varies. “Some are pretty self-sufficient, and others just require a lift to the doctor, or help with getting kit or uniform items,” Ms Vale explained.
“There are those that need a lot more than others, though, and that is when we need to step in and fulfil more of a parental role.”
‘We’ is herself, who looks after the boys in Grades 10 to 12 and Mr Rodney Zondi, who is in charge of the Grade 8s and 9s. They have got to know the boys and their aim to have them feel free to come to them with whatever challenges they may have.
There is an SSSI committee headed by Dr Tee, made up of deputy headmaster Mr Sipho Mpisane and head of admissions Mr Ronald White, along with Mr Zondi and Ms Vale, that meets weekly.
“We want these boys to have the same experiences and get the same things out of a Jeppe education as every other boy. That may mean that we have to step in and give them some money on market day or buy them new boots if they need them. There is also medical care, be that illness or injury, and during the rugby season we have been quite busy with taking boys to the doctor or to hospital and keeping tabs on them afterwards.” said Ms Vale.
Academic support is a big part of the initiative, given that many of the boys did not receive the same academic grounding in primary school as their classmates. “We have employed a teacher on a part-time basis to tutor the boys. She is at the school every afternoon and does a lot of work with the boys in literacy, among other basic skills. I teach senior English, so I see most of them in the classroom, and we get feedback from their other teachers and through the tutor and house systems to monitor their progress.”
It is just the first year, so it’s difficult to evaluate the success of the programme fully, Ms Vale said. “There’s no doubt that we are seeing positive things, but the system needs to be tweaked and guidelines need to be put in place. There are of course always financial constraints, and we need support in that area.
“More than anything, we have a duty to prepare these boys to take their place in society outside of school when they leave and to prepare them to be contributing members in their communities and, in the interim, to achieve success, both on the sports fields and in the classroom.”
