Zithulele Independent School

Zithulele Independent School is a unique primary school based in Zithulele, Mqanduli. It aims to be a school of hope - rooted in the community, yet with wide horizons - offering a well-rounded, high-quality education that values diversity, multilingualism, empathy and independent thinking. Zithulele Independent School was founded in 2016 by a group of parents and community members from a remote village in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. We serve a diverse range of families - probably quite uniquely so among South African schools - with 60% of our children coming from the local community and the balance from families working at NGOs or the nearby hospital. This mixture of language, race and socio-economic backgrounds makes for a wonderfully rich and vibrant context for teaching and learning. Zithulele Independent School is focused on providing a safe, stimulating environment where children can discover their individual strengths and interests while learning to function well as part of a team and community. The classes are intentionally small to allow learning to be individualised and experiential. Given that most South African children come from multilingual contexts, our aim is to support this existing asset in the classroom. Each class has an English-speaking and isiXhosa-speaking teacher so that children are taught, can access help and express themselves in both languages. The aim is to foster confident bilingual communication, the valuing of multilingualism and respect for diversity.