Projects

The PSP works through a range of different projects, addressing the inequalities in education in South Africa. It aims to improve the quality of teaching and learning in primary schools in the critical fields of Mathematics & Numeracy, Natural Sciences & Environment, Language & Literacy Development and Social Sciences.

The two core programmes of the PSP are the Innovation Project, an annual programme of short courses for individual teachers, and the Cluster Project, a two-year cycle of intensive training and support for specific schools. Furthermore, the PSP runs a Joint Mentorship Project for first-time teachers as well as specific training courses on Environmental Education.

In addition to the intensive classroom support, the mentorship and the teacher training workshops offered, the PSP develops quality teacher support materials and resources as well as delivers contract work for the Department of Education and other fixed-term development projects.

Read more about our projects below or support our work and donate to the PSP.

Innovation Project

PSP’s Innovation Project develops primary teachers’ content knowledge and teaching skills and provides materials to support learning.

Cluster Project

The Cluster Project provides small clusters of primary schools in urban townships and rural areas with in-depth training and support on how to teach and assess the Natural Sciences curriculum and integrate it with Language development as well as Mathematics. Teachers receive high quality PSP classroom focused support materials. All PSP support is aligned to the current curriculum.

Mentorship Project

The Joint Mentorship Project (JMP) is a collaborative partnership between the Western Cape Primary Science Programme (PSP), the University of the Western Cape (UWC), the Mathematics Education Primary Programme (MEPP) and the Western Cape Education Department (WCED).

Zenex Project

In phase one of the Zenex Spark Project between 2007 and 2009, the PSP worked with the Metropole South District, the Zenex Foundation and a range of service providers to implement an integrated project in 7 primary schools, boosting English and Mathematics competencies in the Foundation Phase and the Intermediate Phase.

Environmental Education

The PSP is situated at the Edith Stephen’s Wetland Park, an urban conservation area in Cape Town. This is a biodiversity hotspot surrounded by urban sprawl near to the communities the PSP serves. PSP runs environmental courses for teachers using the extensive outdoor resources available on this site.