By Brandon Scanlen
The 29th of July 2022 saw a momentous occasion in the relationship between Ukhanyo Primary, CoolPlay and with our partners at MasiSport.
For the first time, a CoolPlay Introduction workshop was held especially for the educators. They were familiar with the CoolPlay Champions and the learners taking part in the programme, however they hadn’t had a formal chance to unpack what it was all about. They had showed a keen interest in finding out what CoolPlay did to form such fun environments that developed trust with the learners and promoted such growth.
The sunny Friday afternoon started slowly, but excitement levels picked up quickly as the well-known Operations Manager Luqmaan Ismail took charge of the room and got the teachers engaged and talking about their own social and emotional wellbeing, and how that flows through into their own educating techniques.
The crowd of twenty educators soon unpacked the CoolPlay cards and learned about the ethos of confidence, empathy and respect. Luqmaan provided a space for practical discussion and participation, by adapting the games used in the coaching sessions to a class-room setting.
In addition to the practical examples, Luq also provided a fresh perspective on the minds of their learners and offered different approaches to engaging large groups of learners using the CoolPlay Way.
The feedback on the workshop was positive and many educators felt they had valuable insight into the programme and how they can use techniques to drive conversations with their learners.
Over the course of the next term, more of these workshops will be held as CoolPlay assumes the role of the “warm body” and advocate for Social and Emotional Learning within the 21 partner schools.