WHY SUN VALLEY
We are particularly proud of our learners’ resilience and love for learning. We will continue to ensure that the learner’s aspirations are not formed by the circumstances around them, but that they will form their future through high expectations and a desire to fulfil their goals and potential, whatever their circumstances. We believe that the following are foundation principles that have strengthened our existence in the schooling community:
UNDERSTANDING BY DESIGN CURRICULUM
A curriculum with an integrated and blended approach to learning that embeds skills, concepts, attitudes and values to ensure life-long learning. This is essential information as it will affect how easy it is to find a place in the world of schools; Sun Valley Primary School caters for the whole child as a holistic approach is adopted into every aspect of teaching and learning.
This includes Reception – the first year of school when your child is in Grade R until your child is Grade 7. Our medium of instruction is English. Afrikaans is our First Additional Language while isiXhosa is offered from Grade 2 as a Conversational Additional Language. It’s important to be realistic about every child’s abilities; academically, socially, emotionally and physically and for this purpose, the multi-intelligences are strongly considered when lessons are planned and executed for every learner to be able to taste success.
The learner’s experience provides sufficient scope to be creative while being passionate about academics, culture, sport or music. Our philosophy believes that it’s important to observe what drives them is a desire to perform and if they would wilt without as many opportunities to perform, act, produce or design in the arena of Arts and Culture. Sun Valley is well known for the breadth and width of a holistic approach that any school may offer. The extra-curricular activities is a key component of your child’s welfare. Participating in activities that learners love will boost their confidence and will help all other aspects of their school life fall into place so they will flourish across the board.
SPECIAL NEEDS
We have embraced the need for Special needs within education. We ensure that learning problems, barriers and difficulties are addressed as soon as possible so that all learning becomes an enjoyable journey rather than a struggle, thus not holding them back.
If your child has special needs, our team of dedicated Support in Inclusion consultants will support you through the process; they have a thorough understanding and have the ability to identify a solution together with you as a parent.
BRAIN-BASED
We boast about the application of research in psychology, neuroscience and cognitive science in brain-based learning and teaching. It has presented us with leverage on how the brain learns in creating a new set of guiding principles for learning, teaching, training and education. Brain-based learning takes a different approach – the way learners are motivated, the way attention works, the way memories are formed, the way information is presented, etc. become the crucial facet of all teaching and learning experiences. This improves immediately the depth and breadth of learning, problem-solving, critical thinking, and creativity.
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
As a school, we develop and support our learners’ emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence within Sun Valley refers to every learner’s self-awareness, emotional control, self-motivation, empathy and relationship skills. We encourage healthy dialogue and good communication with others – and is therefore a gateway to better learning, friendships, academic success and employment. Skills such as these are developed in our formative years at school and thereby often provides the foundation for future habits later on in life.
THE ROLE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN THE FUTURE OF EDUCATION – ai
Our Sun Valley Future generations, our learners, are growing up with technology at their fingertips – such as artificial intelligence and robotics. We live in a period in education where the internet is their primary source of information and education. As technology and society have continued to evolve and develop, Sun Valley has studied the way our learners learn and are aware of the fact that it will continue to change; for children and adults alike. With this rapid advancement of technologies and changes within the global market, it will ultimately increase the demand for data scientists and other AI specialists and we have the responsibility to consider the future employment and career opportunities of all our learners.
All Ai considered, we have collaborated with the annals of History when man landed and walked on the moon for the first time Sunday, July 20, 1969, and Astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface. As his left foot touched the surface, he said solemnly, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Sun Valley advances steadfastly in Future Learning – one byte at a time.
VARIFORM
By definition our uniform worn by our learners are varied in form. It is a deliberate choice to vary the choices available to match the choice of each individual while maintaining a uniform appearance. Our learners are therefore comfortable while creating a sense of belonging, overall satisfaction, sense of togetherness and a mind-set of unity. Due to the weather in Cape Town with special reference to the Sun Valley – Fish Hoek area, it becomes unbearably hot and our Sun Valley learners have the option to be barefoot when wearing their summer variform otherwise slip slops or tackies with white socks. Refer to our Variform.
REFLECTIVE AND RESTORATIVE DISCIPLINE
Reflecting is an important part of keeping our teaching relevant to our learners in order to improve their focus and learning. Why does anyone reflect on anything? To improve. Self-reflection on how one interacts with others gives one the knowledge to actively improve one’s life skills. This changes the emphasis from a punitive discipline system to positive personal engagement, clarity, honesty and goal-setting with the ultimate hope to improve the learning experience and outcomes for our learners. Self-reflection helps to identify strengths and weaknesses and the opportunity to determine how to develop a skillset to progress the development as a teacher within a lesson plan. It provides a student-centred learning environment by being reflective and adapting learning opportunities to suit the learners – this is a key part of putting our students’ best interests first. They are actively engaging in self-reflection. An irreplaceable life skill that is transferable to life once they leave the scope of a classroom.
