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 The PSP works through a range of projects that feed into and inform each other.
Innovation Project
The PSP’s Innovation Project develops primary teachers’ knowledge and skills and provides materials to support learning. We offer a regular programme of courses for teacher development and classroom innovation in the areas of Natural Sciences, Mathematics, Language, Social Sciences and the Environment. At each course, teachers learn about a specific aspect of the curriculum and engage with each other about practical teaching strategies and learner experiences. The PSP draws on this engagement with teachers to develop new resources to encourage classroom innovation in line with National Curriculum requirements. All project schools and participating teachers are provided with the PSP materials. Other schools and teachers purchase the materials at cost price. The PSP Cluster Project In collaboration with the Education Department’s District offices, the PSP Cluster Project works with and provides resources to small clusters of schools in urban townships and rural areas. We offer in-depth support with how to plan, assess and teach the Natural Sciences (NS) curriculum. Since its inception in 2002, the Cluster Project has now worked with 170 schools in five Districts. (Metropoles East, South, Central, North and Cape Winelands). The current three-year cycle of the Cluster Project is being carefully evaluated. We are using a combination of internal monitoring and external moderation, analysis and reporting. Every Cluster school received the Old Mutual Out of the Box Environmental Resource and worked with the PSP to integrate Environmental Education into their NS planning and teaching. WCED CTLI Courses After having won the tender to offer the Intermediate Phase Natural Sciences (NS) courses on behalf of the WCED at the Cape Teaching and Leadership Institute for the past three years, the PSP offered a follow-up course in the July holidays in 2008. This was for teachers who attended previous courses at the CTLI. Over 50 teachers from the whole province attended this course. The PSP is once again running the Natural Sciences course for Intermediate Phase teachers in 2009. This course is offered in two blocks of two weeks each, with follow-up visits in between.This course is running currently. Hands-on Environment Project (HOEP) The HOEP Project offers termly workshops for teachers to experience practical activities at the park to equip teachers to bring their learners to spend a morning in the Edith Stephens Wetland Park (ESWP) where they engage in practical environmental learning activities with their teachers. We expect one thousand children per year to benefit from these visits. The Zenex / Spark Project The PSP and other service providers were invited to work in partnership with the Metropole South District to participate in a three-year project to work with and support all the Foundation and Intermediate Phase teachers in seven primary schools (total of 181 teachers) in order to boost the Literacy/Language and Numeracy/Mathematics levels of learners. Full-day workshops are run each term at each Phase level, and every school is visited at least once a term for individual classroom based support.
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