Rose-Act Saturday School, which is part of the many projects of Rays of Hope, held a holiday club programme for its children during the July school holidays.
Like the other holiday programmes before, the event took place over five days at the Altrec Sports Complex in Alexandra.
Louise Cameron, Rose-Act’s co-ordinator, said a few years ago they decided to concentrate their Saturday academic teaching to just two subjects, English and mathematics.
“We believe that these are the core subjects that children in Alex need to concentrate on to improve their academic skills and their ability to progress beyond school.
“But this then left a gap in terms of non-academic subjects such as lifeskills, and for this reason we then added extra-curricular activities on Saturdays after classes as well as two holiday clubs each year,” she said.
These holiday clubs give Rose-Act the opportunity to introduce Christian elements and values into its teachings, as per the mandate as an outreach project of the Rosebank Union Church.
A highlight of the holiday club came when YFM 99.2 FM radio station set up a three-hour live broadcast outside at the venue of the programme.
This was part of its Mandela Day partnership with Rays of Hope, whereby 2 000 blankets from listeners and corporate supporters of YFM were given to Rays of Hope projects, including Rose-Act.
“It was a great success,” said Cameron. “They played music and in-between interviewed some of our leaders as well as other senior staff
members of Rays of Hope, including its director Sihle Mooi.
The annual four-day camp is coming up in October, which has similar objectives to the holiday clubs. Students have worked all year accumulating points through their attendance and participation to be invited to attend this prestigious event, after which, it is time for the consolidation of academic work in anticipation of the excellent results in November. “These children need to get real help with maths and English and Rose-Act is the place where that happens,” she said.
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