The Impact at Durban Girl’s High School
“The fact that the programme is able to identify learning gaps for individual learners and it’s not a pen-and-paper test that learners are writing. Just knowing that something is able to give me a very quick diagnostic of many learners; that is a massive time-saver for us. We’ve loved using Reflective Learning and believe that it has had a positive impact on our learners.”
– Sandra Kemp, Durban Girls High
Durban Girls’ High started using Reflective Learning at the start Term 2 in 2022 with Grade 8
students. Because of the late start, time was of the essence. They quickly managed to get their
students assessed, however, with the timetable set down already, they were only able to allocate
one period in a two-week cycle (we recommend a minimum of one period per week). Despite this
and the heavy flooding in Kwa-Zulu Natal reducing the overall dosage, sessions were regular and
students received ongoing access which resulted in decent improvements for the amount of
contact time.
It should be noted that a significant proportion of students are still currently busy with the catch-up for these topics and thus have not yet been re-assessed. As such, some improvement in knowledge may be hidden until more time has elapsed and re-assessments completed.
This caught up knowledge has correlated with a slight improvement in the Term 3 marks in comparison to previous years, but more starkly, an improvement at the lower end with the proportion of students receiving 60% and above increasing by 12% from last year (66% to 78%) as a result of fewer students falling into categories lower down.
In reflection, Sandra Kemp from Durban Girls’ shared this:
“After their June exam results, I did not expect their results to look the way they do right now. A pleasant surprise. Certainly the lowest percentage of learners below 40% that we have had in years. Something else I am quite glad to see is the percentage of learners getting above 60%. So we are seeing a clear move of learners from the 40 to 50% into the >60%, which is what our big aim was this year! Although it is multifaceted, I do believe that Reflective Learning has contributed to these results.”
However, it is not only the academic results that have been impacted but also the confidence of
students.
