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Welcome back to THRASS GOES LIVE! and the
next stage of our exciting journey from MPUMALANGA to MILTON KEYNES.
Follow our journey by tuning in to our regular videostreams from locations in
South Africa and the UK. See how quickly children learn as they use THRASS and
see how impressed the educators, student teachers and Government Ministers are.
We rejoin a group of student teachers from the University of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg, and Dr Jean Place on their two-week tour of primary schools in the
UK.
The student teachers have all completed a
THRASS two-day course and wanted to see how THRASS was taught in UK schools.
The student teachers have now moved to Conwy in North Wales and we see some
lovely views of the Welsh countryside. They are on a tour of primary schools,
where English is often taught as a second language.
Dr Place tells us how the student teachers have been sent to separate schools
where they have all taught a small group or class. We join them one evening when
they are relaxing and they recount their experiences to us. They have been doing
a range of different activities with the children: playing THRASS games, telling
them about South Africa, and teaching each other to count in Welsh and
Afrikaans. They are surprised that they have managed to form so close a bond
with the children over so short a period of time and one of the student teachers
tells us how she has never cried so much in her life before because the children
have such lovely voices and sing so beautifully.
Conwy LEA officials and educators alike are very impressed with the professional
approach of the student teachers. They point out that there is a very similar
bi-lingual situation in Wales and South Africa and feel that the experience that
the student teachers gained in the Kwena Basin Farm Schools, where the children
also have a language other than English as their mother tongue, has helped them
to understand the problems of children whose mother tongue is Welsh.
Dr Place concludes by explaining that for some of the student teachers these
were the first THRASS lessons that they had taught. They have risen to the
challenge of the responsibility they have been given as she had every confidence
they would and she is really proud of them and their professionalism.
If you would like to view the videostream from the day, click on the link below
the main picture on the left.
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