Grow ECD Success Story | Emily Ngobeni | Firm Foundation Education Centre
Emily Ngobeni is the proud owner of Firm Foundation Education Centre in Benoni. As a former teacher, Emily knew that assessing learners’ developmental progress is a big part of their learning process. She started noticing that when children were admitted to Grade 1, they were not school-ready. They lacked the basic skills necessary and couldn’t cope at the big school. That’s when Emily decided to open her own ECD centre.
“I wanted to help our kids to be able to learn through play and be able to learn in a safe environment,” says Emily.
Your free helper during assessment time
“What attracted me to Grow ECD is how beautiful the programme centres were, the materials that they were using, and that it was paperless. You could monitor the functioning of your centre on the palm of your hand (cellphone).” Emily started using the Grow Giraffe app to help her manage Firm Foundation Education Centre too.
Even though she was determined to get her learners all school-ready, Emily’s centre was struggling with the themes and lesson plans. They were confused about which themes they were supposed to use for the week, which activities to do with the children, and which activities were age-appropriate.
“The worst challenge was with assessment time. Assessments are important if I wanted my learners to reach their developmental milestones and be ready for big school. After doing the free online Learner Assessment training and using the learner assessment tool on the ECD app, we were all clued up.”
Now Emily monitors both teachers’ and children’s attendance through the Grow ECD Giraffe app. She also uses the app to manage her finances. “I’m 100% sure that teaching and learning are taking place with the help of the Giraffe app.”
An ECD Small Business Programme to help learners become school-ready
“I saw how Grow helped other centres to improve the standards of their centres, and I wanted to have that for my school too. I invested in the Grow ECD Small Business Programme. Joining Grow will change your centre for the better; there are workshops available that will help you develop as an owner as well as for the teachers. If your centre is not yet registered with other Departments, they will guide you with the steps to be compliant. Grow helped us with a loan to buy their learning and teaching material at a very low interest. They also delivered all the material and on top of that, they gave my centre a small grant so that I don’t pay the full amount of the loan – it is a big help,” raves Emily.
Grow ECD’s Small Business programme includes:
- A play-based and NCF-aligned curriculum
- Classroom kit of educational equipment
- Online, interactive teacher’s guides
- Business and education mentoring
- In-person training
Now Firm Foundation Education Centre has beautiful, relevant teaching materials, education equipment, fantasy toys, and loads more. Emily’s teachers are happy; they love how easy it is to access the learning materials. The children have improved tremendously; they are more informed, and they love the materials that they are using daily.
Grow ECD is an early learning social enterprise. We equip ECD businesses and organisations with the skills, support and resources they need to provide 5-star early learning for every child.