The Nova Pioneer team is excited to make some of our custom-designed and comprehensive learning resources available on our website. Parents and families who are not part of Nova Pioneer’s community can now access online learning resources for their children through the website. This initiative has been launched with the intention to support learners and families who may not have access to any, or high-quality, learning materials during the schools shut down. All of the learning packets were custom-designed by our in-house Learning Design Team for Pre-Primary to Primary School learners.

About our Learning Design Team

Our Learning Design Team is a unique offering available only to Nova Pioneer schools. The team is responsible for designing and creating standardised curriculum, assessments, and lesson plans for all our schools – in Kenya and South Africa. This is to ensure there is consistency in learning across all our campuses and geographies. 

In preparing for possible school closures, the Learning Design Team, in collaboration with the School Leaders and School Teams, worked to find solutions to keep learning happening remotely. The virtual learning programme that they created replicates as much of the in-class experience as possible.  

Our Culture Principles in action

What’s been amazing to see is that, while we normally associate our culture principles with positive times as an organisation, they are also just as applicable in this global crisis. We have put our culture principles in action over the last three weeks:

• #SolutionsFirst in our ability to quickly transition to online learning and remote working.
• #HighExpectations in continuing to hold a high delivery bar for our students. 
• #GreaterTogether in the partnerships we have strengthened with our parents as they continue to support their children from home. We have been touched by the many thank you messages received from parents. 
• #JoyofLearning in creating and delivering highly engaging learning packs.
• #ServantLeadership in how teammates from across the organisation have worked long hours to ensure that everything continues to run smoothly during a time of uncertainty.
• #AlwaysGrowing in continually improving through feedback that we get from our families on how to best deliver a home-based curriculum.

With the help of our amazing parents, we have made strides in ensuring that education and student learning continues at home, while we as a nation and a community practice social distancing. During this time, we have also all been inspired by the stories of those who have already done much to ease the tough times that many of our fellow South Africans and Kenyans are facing. 

We are all in this together

However, as an organisation, we have had to ask ourselves, “how can we reach beyond our own students and families.” Collectively, we feel the need to do our bit, however small that may be. With the launch of the online remote learning resources, parents who are not part of Nova Pioneer’s community will now have access to past curriculum resources for their children. While the benefits of this will not match the benefits of the full teacher-supported home-based learning programme that our own students receive, we are thankful to be able to share some resources that will support motivated students across Africa who are doing what they can to continue learning in these unprecedented times.

Building partnerships to support learners

Furthermore, recognising that the majority of learners in our country do not have access to internet or smart devices and, as such, are losing valuable teaching time during lockdown, Nova Pioneer has partnered with the National Association of Change Entities in Education (NASCEE) to provide learning material to children in vulnerable communities throughout South Africa.