Metro South (2014): Support visit to Heinz Park Primary

Another support visit for recently trained teachers: 12 March 2014

Louis and Diane from Basic Concepts (BC Unlimited) and Fiella from the Department of Education did another support visit this week – this time to Heinz Park Primary in Philippi.

Again, we are pleased to report that the teacher we saw is implementing the BC approach with some of her learners. She seemed encouraged by the support and feedback we gave her. She mentioned that after seeing Louis model the approach she has gained further insight into how to mediate and encourage the learners to communicate more.  Her enthusiasm certainly increased when she saw how some of the children were responding by the end of the session! She also realised that some children who she thought were going to struggle through the year may, after consistent BC work, become stars in her class!

In general, the teachers appear to be going through the programme too fast. It is important to focus on one sub-concept (e.g. blue) and make sure that the learners have really understood it and are using the correct language before continuing on to the next sub-concept.

 The vocabulary builds as one goes through the sub-concepts.So for instance, they may struggle with the concepts of ‘the same’ and ‘different’ initially when they do the first colour but once they get it, they will be able to use those words with the next colour and can then build their vocabulary by learning more words, e.g. dark and light. So by the end of the second colour they will know and understand ‘the same’, ‘different’, ‘dark’ and ‘light’.