September 2022
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| In Memory of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II Like millions around the world, it was with great sadness that we learned of the death last week of Queen Elizabeth II, whose son, now His Majesty King Charles III, was a close personal friend of David Rattray and has generously acted as Patron of the David Rattray Foundation, operating locally as KHULA Education, since its founding. We join with so many others in sending our deepest condolences to The Royal Family and remain thankful for their contribution to the mission of KHULA Education.  It was during a 1997 trip by the King and his son Prince Harry (pictured here with the Rattray family) to Fugitives’ Drift Lodge that the longstanding friendship between The Royal Family and KHULA Education began, with the Rattray family subsequently receiving annual invitations to Balmoral. As we wish His Majesty success and strength in this momentous new chapter, we are also marking the start of Spring here in South Africa and a number of new beginnings for KHULA. Read on to find out more about the support we’re giving our Grade 12s as they contemplate what’s next after matriculation, the appointment of our new Director of Philanthropy and Partnerships, and more. We are also delighted to share with you our 2021 Annual Report, which details some of the incredible impacts we had for our students despite the continuing challenges posed by the pandemic, none of which would have been possible without you, our friends and supporters. Scroll to pages 30 - 31 for the highlights of 2021 in numbers. Read our 2021 Annual Report here   What's my Next? Career Days for our Grade 12s as matriculation approaches With just a few months left of the school year, our Grade 12s were recently invited to two Career Days to learn about the different opportunities available to them, including further study and possible career paths. With some 550 young women and men in attendance, our team offered a mixture of lectures and high-energy breakout sessions to help our soon-to-matriculate students learn about subjects including entry requirements for different types of tertiary study, application processes and insights into different careers including Information Technology, accounting, media and tourism. Our speakers and panellists also covered important topics such as surviving the move from school to higher education and how to set and achieve realistic goals. We had a fantastic range of speakers including experts from different employment sectors and former KHULA students who have progressed to tertiary education in subjects including Medicine, Economic and I.T.  Support our future to support their futures! Make a regular gift today Ready, Set, Go! Sports Day for our Pre-schoolers With approximately 90% of a child’s brain development taking place before the age of five, the importance of early childhood education cannot be emphasised enough, and play is a vital part of this. So, we were thrilled to bring together all three of our KHULA preschool students (nearly 200 girls and boys!) on 25 August for a fun day out including relays, beanbag throwing and scooter racing. As you can see from the concentration on their faces, some of these budding athletes took proceedings quite seriously!   Building local capacity: Leadership Development Training for 160 Educators KHULA is committed to delivering sustainable interventions which benefit not only today’s children, but future generations, and crucial to this is building capacity among Educators. Last month we did just that, bringing together 160 educators from 19 schools for our Profuturo Leading Development Training, in collaboration with Teach the Nation. Modules included Digital Skills for Teachers, Strategies for Managing Large Classes (a huge challenge for educators in the region) and Goal Setting for Classrooms. We also held roundtables to bring together senior educators in Maths and English to discuss and find solutions to more challenging areas of the senior phase curriculum.   Welcome to our new Director of Philanthropy and Partnerships! Coinciding with the arrival of Spring in South Africa, we’re delighted to welcome Iona Bergius as our new Director of Philanthropy and Partnerships. Iona joins us from the child and youth empowerment NGO Friends-International, with previous roles at the UK-based NGOs Christian Aid and the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC). Based in the UK, Iona will be joining the KHULA team in South Africa in late October and you’ll be sure to hear more from that visit in our next newsletter. As this post has been vacant for some time, we are conscious there may have been gaps in our communications with you – if you have any questions, concerns or simply want to say hello, Iona welcomes the opportunity to hear from you, our friends and supporters – you can reach her at iona@khula.org.uk  |
