What was Ikona struggling with before she was enrolled at Edublox?
- Lack of concentration.
- Lack of confidence and freedom of expression.
- Fear of engaging in and discussing academic-related matters, such as feedback from daily school activities and homework.
- Caught between trust and mistrust.
- Fear of failure and that all eyes are looking at her negatively.
- She felt that she was not receiving the desired attention and felt ignored.
Why did you decide to enrol Ikona at Edublox?
- She needed a change in the environment to the less congested.
- She needed direct or one on one engagement with her tutors.
- She needed convincing that she was being appreciated and loved.
- She needed to build congruence or a good memorandum of understanding with her tutors.
In what respects have you noticed improvement?
A good relationship was built with her teachers, such that she freely speaks about them daily. She even aspires to their likes, e.g., pizza and doughnuts. As a parent, I realised how much she adores her teachers, and these relationships have transferred into her relating more and better with other students. On our daily driving from school, she now freely provides me with feedback on daily school activities, homework, and messages from her tutors. Regardless of written messages she confidently, eloquently, efficiently, and fluently relays messages and how she has engaged with other students. Such congruence has resulted in improved academics and willingness to freely participate and contribute more to the directives related to her homework and practical activities.
Why would you recommend Edublox to other parents?
It is with a profound effect that I, Ray Sizwe, the father of Iko, can attest on behalf of my daughter. Iko is a very vibrant extrovert and possesses an open-minded and outgoing character, although she tends to hold back initially. An addendum to that lies within the ambit of her communication or, rather, a positive engagement with her Edublox teachers. From that, one would agree that as she got along, she was able to build a relationship of trust. She aspires to her teachers and sees them as her role models. Every day, when I fetch her from school, she has a story about her engagement with her teachers and peers. She even follows her teacher’s eating habits because she sees herself operating at their level one day.
Academically, Iko has special needs. She realised that it is of utmost importance for her to be at school daily, even if the odds are against that at times. She is always enthusiastic about doing her homework. As a cautious parent, I gave her a notebook for her teachers to write any communication messages. I have noticed that Iko can verbally relay messages and instructions from her teachers without even me referring to the book. Such endeavour has invoked in me a sense that in bridging the gap on her shortcomings, Iko learns better by association and interaction. Her limitations academically were also influenced by other outside factors, I think.
For her lower grade school, we enrolled her at an institution with at least 34 kids in her classroom. Such traffic congestion affected her confidence and frustrated her, especially when it was time to go to school. She felt ignored and was academically challenged, and that stress impacted her grades. Her previous teachers tried more than their best to accommodate and motivate her. We observed that things were not getting anywhere nearer to good and had to conjure something immediately.
Nomntu, (Iko’s mother) is a Googling guru. She speedily checked for other options — and boom! There she got captivated by EDUBLOX. After weighing the options, it didn’t take long to agree that Edublox is a much better place for her. The sooner we engaged, we received some happy returns and warm regards; the rest is history. Enrolment with Edublox brought us some happy returns, for as Iko was engaging with other pupils, we noticed that she doesn’t only speak about others at school but was enthused by their qualities and presentation of themselves. For example:
- From time to time, Iko would talk about Maxine and how often she invited her to spend some time on a swimming outing. Swimming excited her.
- Mila: how she expresses herself and her art/drawing skills.
- Ako: his love for football.
Such undertaking resulted in Iko engaging more in sport, football to be precise. Last year she caught the eye of the Brazilian Academy coaches in Goodwood. Sadly, the football academy was closed in July last year. Iko has since joined Tramways Football Academy.
Iko’s engagement with others and in sport had some positive results in that it helped to improve her grades at school and in socialising. Shades of the ENGLISH writer who coined the phrase, “A healthy mind in the healthy body.”
Ray Siwze Maliti
Iko’s report card in 2019 (Grade 3), before Edublox:
Iko’s most recent report card:
Ray Siwze Maliti Iko’s Father
