POLOKWANE – Sunette van Staden is a Gr R teacher at PEPPS Preparatory School and was previously a pottery teacher, while doing her honours degree in psychology.
This is her first year teaching and she explained that it has been an adjustment working with bigger classes and having a different focus.
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“With pottery, I taught children from the age of two years old all the way up to Gr 12 learners. I had to help them to be creative and think for themselves, that was my focus. Now my focus is on academics, which is more fast-paced.”
Her mother has now taken over the pottery business so that she can focus on teaching. Sunette recently graduated with a honours degree in psychology and explained that it was a difficult road, as she had to juggle studies, work and being a parent.
“You just have to make time in-between things. There was one time my husband and I were both writing exams, so we had to take turns at night watching the baby. He would take the baby for 30 minutes so I could study, then we would take the baby for 15 minutes and then I would hold the baby for 30 minutes while he studied. It was a long process but we got through it and the babies have grown up nicely,” she said
Sunette explained that the painful reality of the suffering that children experience made her opt against a career in psychology. She decided against doing her masters degree and instead decided to become a teacher.
Sunette added that she loves her time as a teacher at PEPPS because the school focuses on developing the learners in the right way.
“It is a lovely place and hones the learners, channelling them in the right way,” she concluded.
