This means that Kingsmead, an 81-year-old independent girls’ school in Melrose, is one of the first two schools in South Africa to officially be acknowledged as being part of this global Thinking approach to education.
Head of Thinking Skills and junior school teacher at the school, Ingrid Beekhuizen said, “This is the culmination of four years of rigorous work in developing our school as one that is focused on a whole-school approach to the explicit teaching of thinking skills,” she said.
Beekhuizen added, “We have, and will continue to, engage in extensive staff training, as the teaching of Thinking is now an integral part of who and what we are as a school.”
Kingsmead’s Junior School headmistress, Sue MacEwan, was delighted with the announcement.
“This is a very exciting development that the staff has worked extremely hard towards.”
A portfolio from Kingsmead was submitted and approved initially by Prof. Lena Green, of the University of the Western Cape and then by Prof. Rupert Wegerif, head of the Cognitive Education Unit at the University of Exeter.
Green, an Old Kingsmeadian and an assessor under the auspices of the University of Exeter, visited Kingsmead in July as part of the final accreditation process. She also visited the school in May, for a pre-accreditation visit and guided the school in submitting its portfolio to the University of Exeter.
“Our founder, DV Thompson, would have been proud of this accomplishment,” added Kingsmead College headmistress, Lisa Kaplan.
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