Hartley Road Primary opened its doors in 1998. Two years later, I was appointed as principal. The task of transforming the school was a daunting one, but I realised that the education of our children is a societal concern. Therefore transformation was going to be a collective effort according to the context in which we were operating. Having the passion, vision and energy for education, I took on the challenge.
In the day to day management, the management team and educators are drivers of transformation, where governance or policy is key; the school’s governors are drivers. None can act in a vacuum and must do so within constitutional and regulatory constraints together with social expectations. The importance of the alliance cannot be questioned as SA’s new political landscape unfolds for failure to listen to the alliance partners. Hartley is on the right track for a positive future. We are part of the education system that is in the midst of deep and fundamental changes since the onset of democracy. I am pleased to report that for us the process has shown very positive results.
We consulted all stakeholders and then formally adopted our vision of being “a leading school in the country”. We had set out very clear goals and had embarked on a multi-pronged restructuring approach addressing
- Holistic development of learners
- Improving the infrastructure incrementally
- Academic quality
We continue to commit ourselves to the realization of the strategic goals that we set ourselves. In particular, we strive to continue providing effective leadership that is not only motivational and visionary, but leadership that also takes and accepts ultimate responsibility. It is mainly through this kind of leadership and commitment from everyone in the school that we have been able to make significant strides in realizing some of our strategic objectives.
There are some ongoing events that are important to us as a school. The first is the academically linked consultations, such engagements allow us to evaluate our performance and re-orientate our focus in terms of our strategic direction and core business and to assess the home-school relationship and to test parent commitment. The second is the various non academic events like the annual budget meeting and fund raising support in our famous Winter Fair, Fun Run and charity drives. We look forward to your support in these events.
We had set and improved policies and systems and hence today are proud of the harvest we yield.
Education brings changing times and new challenges. The reality of the times is that many schools are ill equipped to cope with the digital learner. Educators are digital immigrants while the learners are naturally digital. We at Hartley take on the challenges with vigour and perseverance to ensure our learners are properly positioned for a holistic yet academic future.
Together with our internal efforts we wanted to strengthen external relations and focused on building Hartley as the hub of community life. To this end we were successful.
We want to expand our footprint to the early childhood phase. We intend building an early childhood development centre for the community to cater for a crèche and preschool. The investment will ensure that Hartley is truly community focused, needs driven and self managing. We always ask the question, how resilient and adaptable our school really is. Can our school remain sustainable regardless of constant challenges in society and changes in the environments? If not, the message is simple: At Hartley it is.
There is always a need to initiate changes in the school. This ‘active, not reactive’ mindset is key to the long term sustainability of our school.
We take this opportunity to thank all our learners, parents, governors, staff, sponsors and well-wishers for their continued loyal support and contributions towards helping us grow our school into a key educational institution. Remember Hartley will always remain a place where you belong.