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SERI
CONGRATULATES THE COSAT MATRICS OF 2009 |
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Top COSAT NSC 2009
students Wanele Ganya and Samkelisiwe Tengwa with their certificates
of excellence at the Premier’s Award Ceremony |
COSAT opened its doors to Khayelitsha learners with leadership ability
and an interest in Maths, IT and Science in 1999 and has an excellent
academic record: achieving a consistent 60% - 80+% rate of matric
exemptions with Mathematics and Science, and a commendable number of
A-aggregates and subject distinctions. COSAT is the biggest township
feeder school to local universities. On average 90% of COSAT
matriculants enter courses at University of Cape Town, Stellenbosch
University, University of Western Cape and the Cape University of
Technology. The 2009 Matric results demonstrate that COSAT continues to
produce quality Matric results that enable the vast majority of its
matriculants to enrol at universities for tertiary studies in Science,
Engineering and Technology related courses. Last year (2009) COSAT
matriculants achieved a 60% average mark for Mathematics, with 4As 7Bs
and 12Cs, this in spite of the almost impossible first paper, which was
extremely unnerving to our learners. COSAT received an award from the
premier of the Western Cape for the school with the highest percentage
of Bachelor passes for the school's learner profile.
List of COSAT 2009 NSC students,
their Maths results and their plans for 2010.
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SANRAL supports Get Building |
SANRAL has stepped in and sponsored 40 Grade
10 students for a period of 3 years. The SANRAL Get Building sponsorship
programme include
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SERI STAFF
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Andiswa Zote
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Andiswa Zote is the
SERI office manager. Andiswa maticulated fro COSAT in 2003 and enrolled for a
B.Sc in Chemistry. (chemistry). After completing her B.Sc degree completed an
honours degree in Financial Analysis and Portfolio Management. Andiswa joined
SERI in March 2009.
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Andiswa Njoli |
After spending 2
years at Rhodes University Andiswa returned to Cape Town and completed a
TEFLcourse. She then taught English for Telelangue, a French based English
Language School. In 2008 Andiswa joined SERI as a teacher/ librarian at
Sivile and Sakumlandela.
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Establishing a centre of
excellence at Qingqa Mntwana
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Funding is required to develop a
well-administered junior high school in the Presidential Poverty
Node of Khayelitsha, Qingqa Mntwana, into a centre of excellence in
Mathematics, English, Science and Computer skills. This school will
then serve as a feeder school for COSAT, which is undoubtedly the
best science and technology school in Khayelitsha.
This will be achieved in a number of ways: setting up and managing
a
library, assisting the subject teachers at the school; providing
quality learning materials; offering Saturday classes in
Mathematics, English, Science and Computer Programming to 50
learners each from Grade 8 and 9 who demonstrate an aptitude in
these subjects; and establishing a robotics club at the school,
which will give top learners the opportunity to apply their
English, Maths, Science and Computer skills in a fun, competitive
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View the proposal |
Pack away your hearing aids, dust off the
cobwebs and join SERI for another wild night of rock ‘n roll at the
Hangklip Hotel! And this isn’t just for wrinklies – the spirits of
young and old alike will soar to the music of ‘Second Chance’.
The 2009 rock concert was legendary. The 2010 edition will be even
better!
The big night will be announced soon.! Scrounge a bed from a mate or
book into a B & B. Better still, hire a chalet at the hotel! They are
brilliant value and you won’t have to drive anywhere – judging from
last year’s jol, a definite consideration!
The proceeds of this year’s event will be used to buy 10 small laptops
for the Sakumlandela library. The wiring is in place, as are the
tables. All we need are the computers! And every night they will be
locked up in the school safe.
Tickets are R200 [inflation!] and this will include a yummy boerewors
roll. There will be a cash bar, but we will organize very affordable
and absolutely delicious bottles of wine, as we did last year.
This is YOUR SECOND CHANCE, so don’t be a drip. Do your bit for the
less fortunate! Dig into your pockets and join us. You’ll regret it if
you don’t!
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SERI
library Sakumlandela
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Sakumlandela now has a fully-functional library that is fast
becoming the hub of the school. It opened to much fanfare in
November of last year and is living proof that with a little bit of
money [relatively speaking!] and lots of hard work and good will,
little miracles can be achieved.
Establishing the library was a breeze! The space had already been
allocated and furnished, and a stock of about 1000 books had been
accumulated. All SERI needed to do was augment the stock with fun
reading materials and set up the systems. And the school
participated every inch of the way. The Fun'ulwazi kids gave up
their holidays to cover the books, joining Mrs Pato [the deputy
principal] and Mrs Mokomele [the wonderful library lady] in this
task. To these ladies, teaching is not just a job. That is why
Sakumlandela is a flourishing oasis in Khayelitsha.
Andiswa Njoli, SERI’s own library lady, now divides her time equally
between the Sakumlandela and Sivile libraries.
Watch this space for a report-back on the progress of the reading
and literacy programmes.
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Grade 12 Organic Chemistry |
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A comprehensive set of
resources sponsored by SASOL.
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Murray and Roberts
sponsors Fun'ulwazi and Get Building |
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Construction
company Murray
and Roberts has sponsored the Fun'ulwazi and Get
Building Projects for a period of 3 years (2008-2010).The sponsorship
amounts to R 1 800 000 with 25 COSAT students being supported for
three years at the school. With funding secured for these
students, SERI can focus on assisting COSAT in the preparation of
its learners for science and engineering studies at university.
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Public Schools Maths
Challange |
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First, congratulations to the 2009 matriculants for their magnificent Maths results! Of the 56 entrants,
12 students were awarded As and 13 Bs and the average mark was a
whopping 66%! It must be noted that ALL students registered at COSAT do
Mathematics, as opposed to Maths Literacy, so there is no longer the
opportunity to downgrade the less talented at Maths to the Standard
Grade course. This has proved a huge challenge to staff and students
alike, a challenge they have met with enthusiasm and success.
In 2010, SERI has been awarded R 240 000 by
the
Optima and Epoch Trusts to improve the number and quality of
Mathematics passes at the matric level. The initiative was in response
to 2007’s national pass rate, in which only 4,8% of learners writing
matric received Higher Grade mathematics passes. Of these, only a
quarter were African and two-thirds of these passes occurred in only 10%
of South Africa’s schools.
Several projects were implemented in
2008, the key innovation being the development and implementation of the
Advanced Mathematics course for Grades 10 to 12. The purpose of this
course was to bridge the gap between mainstream university first year
Mathematics courses and school mathematics.
But all COSAT students benefited from
the Maths Challenge: The weaker learners received regular remedial
tuition.
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Robotics
Competition achievers! |
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Until fairly
recently, only real engineers with an advanced degree and a lab filled
with computers and heavy machining equipment were able to build and
programme robots. But today LEGO robot kits can be found in classrooms
all over the world, where teachers are using them to teach a myriad of
science and engineering topics. Robotics is now a core component of the
Funu’lwazi curriculum. For the purpose of teaching robotics, SERI has
purchased 8 laptop computers and 16 Lego NXT kits. Learners find
robotics interesting and exciting. The Fun’ulwazi Curriculum covers
basic topics including robot construction, basic programming, sensors
(touch, light, sound and ultrasonic), If structures and loop Structures.
After completion of basic tasks learners are required to complete a
number of specific challenges. This course lays the foundation for the
annual FIRST Lego League robotics competition.
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Techno-kids with
coach Tulani Tafeni |
In 2009 SERI
entered two Fun’ulwazi teams, the Techno-kids and Majestix. The
Techno-kids team achieved a 3rd place out of 19 participating teams and
was invited to participate in the National competition held on 12th
December 2009 at the Scibono Science Centre in Gauteng. The team
travelled by train to Johannesburg and returned by bus. This was the
first time any of the team members had visited Gauteng.
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