RIDGEWAY COLLEGE
School in Makhado

Transforming the lives of underprivileged children, creating entrepreneurs and leaders who will make significant contributions to the future of South Africa. We do not see service as a dispensing of charity, in whatever form, by the privileged to those in need but as a working together from which everyone benefits. Essentially, this is realised through Ridgeway’s partnership with the Sumbandila Scholarship Trust. To be a centre of academic excellence in the Limpopo Province, advancing ideals of mutual respect, service, leadership, entrepreneurial thinking and an appreciation for the environment while extending our unique influence throughout our region, especially to those excluded for socio-economic reasons. The Primary School develops the child as a whole in a creative atmosphere which nurtures and stimulates the development of young minds and characters. In line with the vision, the individual child is at the centre of everything that happens in the Primary School. In this culturally and socioeconomically diverse environment, mutual respect and understanding flow naturally from the experience of working and playing together, creating projects, art and drama together. Regular field trips not only immerse the children in the riches of the wider environment but are yet another source of cross-cultural enrichment which encourages team-building. The academic program combines the National curriculum with the Cambridge International Primary Curriculum. This enables us to benchmark our academic standards globally and remain locally grounded. The College aims to seek out and nurture the gifts and abilities of every single student, enabling and encouraging them to continue acquiring the skills, knowledge, selfconfidence and articulateness needed to enable them to be a productive, capable and responsible member of society. We offer the internationally benchmarked Cambridge international curriculum alongside the South Africa IEB, which aims to make our students problem solvers and independent creative thinkers in preparation for tertiary education and the workplace. The curriculum encourages students to use an investigative approach to problem solving. There are three teachers and a psychologist is available when needed. The children are divided into groups and each group participates in the full range of activities on a rotational basis. Activities are grouped around themes which are explored and which become progressively more complex as time passes. Group activities, both structured and free, foster social and co-operative learning skills in a funfilled atmosphere. Teachers are always on hand to guide and encourage. Age-appropriate pre-reading and pre-writing skills are introduced and systematically extended during the child’s Pre-Primary years. Knowledge and confidence in numbers is encouraged and developed through a wide range of concrete operational activities suited to each child’s stage of numeracy development. Much of the learning happens through the media of music and art.We know that a secure, stimulating and happy environment provides the basis for learning and development and so the Centre has its own premises in a spacious house and garden close to the secondary school. An abundance of toys and playground structures encourage a natural process of experimentation in conditions where the children have choice, control and support. It’s important for every child to experience success, to build self-esteem and develop sensitivity towards other children. The acquisition of fluency in English comes naturally through the multitude of activities with teachers and peers.