The language stimulation room project was developed as we identified that our learners enter school with a severe language delay. Since we follow the mainstream curriculum, our learners need to have Age and Grade appropriate language levels when they enter Grade R in order to be able to succeed and follow the curriculum. This room is set to mimic a natural home environment incorporating a child size lounge, kitchen, bedroom, and play area. As natural language acquisition occurs in a home environment we have replicated that environment to best overcome the language delays that our students endure. The projected started in late 2017 and was finished in early 2018. For the year it has been running it has been a huge success and allows our learners more opportunity for expressive language and to experience hands-on learning.

Our sports field recently had new concrete stands installed. These make it easier for spectators to watch our many sporting events. It makes the field more user-friendly for our learners during break time and weekends as they can sit somewhere and enjoy themselves. But the heat that is experienced from the sun is too demanding. We need covers for the stands. It is simply too hot sitting on them for just the length of a soccer full match.

Our laundry is the supportive backbone of the school. But an ever-increasing number of learners means the machines battle to meet demands. We have recently upgraded all our machines and now have five industrial washing machines and four industrial dryers. This allows us to ensure that all our learners are ready for the day and do not have to worry about washing their clothes in order to focus on playing sports, chatting to friends, and catching up on school work.

Sanitation is an important – but often unspoken about – concern of a school. We have recently redone our Preschool toilets; which means our learners now have a high-quality ablution facility. But the rest of the school is in need of a full renovation as many toilets do not function. This is an enormous task but is important for the smooth running of the school and the hostel.

Ensuring that we have a continuous and reliable water supply is critical, as we house 364 learners and have over 100 staff members. We installed a borehole by our school field to have access to water even when the municipal supply is shut off or under strain. This ensures that we can keep the school and hostel open. However, our water storage capacity is limited to only one day’s supply which means that we need more JoJo tanks to increase the storage capacity.