By Palesa Matlala
Curro Holdings has launched its first afternoon learning schedule called CurroPM for learners in grades seven to nine at the Curro Durbanville’s new Phesantekraal campus in Cape Town, starting in January 2023.
The personalised learning schedule is specially designed for learners that thrive better in the afternoon than in the morning. The CurroPM classes will be from 13:45 to 18:30 Monday to Thursday and 13:45 till 16:00 on Fridays, with a 20-minute break, compared to Curro online that starts at 7:30 and finishes 14:30. All lessons will be livestreamed online and teachers will make the recorded lessons available for the learners to replay after school.
In an interview with ThisAbility, Riaan Stroebel who is the executive head at Curro Durbanville said that “At Curro we are always looking for new ways to reach and support our learners because we have seen some exceptionally promising learners suffer from thwarted potential simply because they are put off by the current way of doing things.” Learners can choose between individual or group lessons with a maximum of six learners per group and they also have an option to request additional online coaching from their teachers.
The school-with-in-a-school model will have its own management and learners will have access to all the subjects offered in the AM academic programme while following a more relaxed uniform and hair rulebook, while learners will not be expected to participate in extra-curricular activities if it does not suit their personal programme.
Johan van Lill, who is the learner support unit project coordinator at Curro Uitzicht campus, Durbanville said that inclusive learning and teaching is about understanding and respecting that people are diverse and experience different challenges and barriers to learning. “We are working towards enabling all learners to access an education that will help them to overcome those challenges,” he said.
Janet du Toit, a stay-at-home mother of two, has enrolled her daughter who will be in grade eight in 2023 into CurroPM. She said that her daughter struggles with waking up in the morning; no matter how early she sleeps she always wakes up tired. “I know that personalised learning will boost her learning engagement and productivity, teach her responsibility while reducing her anxiety and stress when coming to her academics,” she said.