Fairview Primary upgrade almost complete

Fairview Primary School in Grassy Park is a brick away from completion and will be officially opening its new upgraded school at the end of the year.

The school is one of a few prefabricated schools in the area which have been transformed by the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) into a brick structure.

Die Duine, Buck Road and Plantation primary schools are among the other schools which were upgraded.

Southern Mail visited the school when it was barely halfway through the process of replacing the prefab classrooms with a brick structure (“Fairview Primary – going up brick by brick”, Southern Mail, September 26 2012).

Fairview Primary School was built in 1975 by the Cape Education Department and was formerly known as De Klip Primary School.

Rated as one of the best schools in the Western Cape, according to principal Aubrey de Wet, Fairview’s admission numbers have never dwindled. “We started our school in a prefabricated structure but we have always had up to a 1 000 pupils.”

He said the school is currently accommodating 1003 pupils. “We already have 84 Grade R pupils on the waiting list for 2017.”

Children at Fairview Primary are from Ottery, Grassy Park, Parkwood and the surrounding areas.

“However, when they step into the school, they must all behave the same way,” said Mr De Wet.

The school also accommodates special needs children.

Discipline is key to education and that drives them to excel. “We have been the top scoring school in the province for literature and numeracy in 2015/2016.

“The pupils are also doing well in athletics,” said Mr De Wet.

He said most of their pupils are accepted at feeder high schools such as South Peninsula and Norman Henshilwood.

Another key to education is trust. “Our parents have a good relationship with our teachers and our school meetings are well attended. If we have a good relationship with the parents then the pupils flourish in their school work.”

He said parents also showed “goodwill towards the school and some of them donated the trees and plants”, to beautify the school.

He said the next generation of young teachers will easily fall into place where new technology is concerned as the school has embarked on e-learning.

e-learning uses electronic technology to access educational curriculum outside of a traditional classroom. For example, it refers to a course, programme or degree delivered completely online.

Mr De Wet said the school has already put wi-fi in place, so they are preparing the next generation of teachers to settle into the new way of teaching.