Africa-Press – South-Africa. Cape Town – While most teachers at Bottelary Primary School adjust their teaching pace, style and content to address misunderstandings, the Schools Evaluation Authority (SEA) found that a few teachers fail to give adequate feedback.
This is according to the newly released SEA report which evaluated how well schools in the Western Cape are performing.
The SEA independently evaluates Western Cape schools and develops reports which are published for parents and communities to know how well the schools in their areas are performing.
The evaluations, which were conducted between 2 and 3 March 2020, provide an independent and external examination of school practices and include recommendations on what should be improved.
The schools are assessed on:
Bottelary Primary School
According to the SEA report, the schools were rated out of 4 according to the above criteria – 4 being Outstanding, 3 being Good, 2 being Requires Improvement and 1 being Inadequate.
Bottelary Primary School received 2 for Learner Achievement, 2 for Teaching and Learning, 3 for Behaviour and Safety, 3 for Leadership and Management, 3 for Governance, Parents and Community.
Overall performance for the school was rated 2.
“In interviews and lessons observed, learners read, speak, listen and write at the level expected for their age and phase of education. However, a few learners do not read with comprehension,” the report said.
“Most learners listen to instructions. Writing reflected in the learners’ workbooks is generally of a good quality. Some learners make grammatical and spelling mistakes, and these are corrected by the teacher.”
The report also mentioned that the quality of classroom teaching practice varies substantially from the Foundation to the Intermediate Phase.
“In the Foundation Phase, most learners participate in lessons and, if distracted, are quickly engaged, but in the Intermediate Phase, a few learners are disengaged because they are either disinterested or the teacher is not able answer their questions,” the report said.
“Although the questioning of learners is frequent in most classes, the questions are not open and thought-provoking … Most teachers adjust their teaching pace, style and content to address misunderstandings and support learning.”
The report said that in a few classes the planning and delivery of lessons require improvement, and that there is no evidence of differentiated tasks.
It added that although most teachers give encouraging and constructive verbal and written feedback, there are a number who give inadequate or no feedback at all.
The recommendations that the SEA made were:
The full report can be found here: http://seawc.gov.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/School-Evaluation-Report-Bottelary-PS-21-January-2021.pdf
Cape Argus
