Young children in underprivileged families in South Africa face massive challenges if they are ever to break out of the cycle of poverty. Their early years are seldom conducive to their eventual entry into mainstream schooling, resulting in great difficulty adapting.
Full House bridges that gap by providing these children with two years of intensive preparation, so that when they enter primary school, the transition is significantly easier.
To provide underprivileged children with intensive preparation for mainstream schooling, enabling them to flourish in a quality primary school, followed by high school and eventually tertiary education – thereby affording the opportunity for a family to be lifted out of poverty.
MISSION
Enroll the children in a quality pre-school up until Grade R.
Through the medium of a small, home-based cottage school of no more than six children, starting from Grade 1, focus intensively on language, literacy and numeracy.
Develop the children’s experience of the world beyond their communities.
Socially integrate them with a quality primary school through sport and extra-mural activities.
As each child becomes ready, enroll them in a quality mainstream primary school.
Monitor each child’s progress and facilitate their eventual enrollment in a quality high school.
MEDIUM TO LONG TERM VISION
To roll this model out across the country, in order to afford the opportunity to as many people as possible to be lifted out of poverty through education.
THE BACK STORY
Apartheid’s legacy of “Bantu education” left the standard of education in many underprivileged areas in tatters. In many of these areas this legacy has not been eradicated.
There are many qualified teachers living in the suburbs who are not teaching because they are either home-schooling their own children or are “stay-at-home” mom’s in order to be available to their children in the afternoons.
These teachers are a lost resource to a country with such a huge need for quality, qualified teachers.
If a qualified teacher is home-schooling their own children, what difference is a few more going to make. And if a teacher is a “stay-at-home mom” (or dad), why not use the mornings to make a difference to a few underprivileged children.
HOW IT STARTED – Sisipo’s story
Sisipo Dlakavu was born in Westlake, a Cape Town township, where she currently lives with her mother and grandparents. Her single mother has struggled to secure long term employment. As a result of her situation, Sisipo’s grandmother, Nosimo (a domestic worker) is her legal guardian.
Sisipo was sponsored by Nosimo’s employers to attend a quality English-medium pre-school, providing her with a good foundation.
But moving to primary school, she soon became lost in the system without the home support enjoyed by the other children.
Tamsin Irish launched Full House in 2014, and hearing about Sisipo (aged 9 at the time), knew that she was a perfect candidate. Sisipo completed three years at Full House, thriving both emotionally and academically. She was over the moon at returning to mainstream schooling in 2017 and began her high school career at Wynberg Girls High in 2019. Inspired by Sisipo’s story, Tamsin began to realise the potential of what she had started. And so the journey began in 2016 for Anothando (3) and Amyoli (4) from Khayelitsha Township. Amyoli, along with three others, started at Full House in Jan 2018.
