A Rockstar Girl’s Education: She Has an Academic Bursary, Now What? There are many inevitable challenges that arise when introducing a disadvantaged girl with a poor educational background into a better school. This lack of a quality education will leave her at a major disadvantage compared to other young girls of the same age, who have been attending good academic schools from an early age. It is therefore important that every Rockstar Girl’s education be addressed holistically - and patiently. Many people want to know how we ensure that our Rockstar Girls successfully adapt in their new, academically orientated schools. The answer is to be prepared and involved. The Rockstar Foundation builds a strong, professional network of support structures around each young girl’s specific needs. The type and degree of support that each young girl requires will vary and will mostly be determined by her age. At a younger age there will be fewer and smaller educational gaps to bridge, making it ideal to recruit young girls at primary school level. Tutoring Upon recruitment, the majority of Rockstar Girls will need professional tutoring in order to rebuild their poor educational foundations. Subjects like English and Mathematics are particular points of concern and require a lot of personal attention. Mariana de Sousa currently has a professional TEFL Tutor who assists her with her English homework, as well as interpreting her other homework projects. Being a Xhosa speaking girl, it can be quite challenging to fully comprehend this unfamiliar “sophisticated” English in which she is now being educated. Compared to her classmates, a girl like Mariana has a relatively basic grip on the English language and therefore needs a lot of support in this area. At her previous school, no attention was ever paid to teaching children the basic building blocks of Maths -like subtractions and additions. Mariana’s lack of understanding of these basic principals in Maths initially made it difficult for her to keep up with increasingly tougher problems. With the help of the Kumon Maths Centre, where they tackle Math problems at the core, Mariana is finally starting to understand and love the subject. Her newly found confidence in Maths is part of her success and can be attributed to the professional help she is receiving, as well as her commitment to do well. She attends classes twice a week after school and has daily homework to complete. Supporting The Rockstar Girls Holistically There is still a long way to go, but the full impact of these first few months of personal attention is evident in Mariana’s incredible improvement. We encourage the girls to take part in sports, music etc, and Mariana just loves her drama and recorder lessons. These have helped her make new friends and she gained a lot of confidence over the past few months. This journey of education has a lot of positive outcomes, but also has its fair share of emotional challenges for the girls. Sessions with a counsellor provides the Rockstar Girls with a safe environment where they feel comfortable to talk about their challenges and frustrations. It is a safe haven for the girls which they treasure! Without this network of support, the girls would have a near impossible journey ahead of them. Having these structures in place, however, gives the girls the confidence they need to take the first big step towards getting an education. And this quality education will surely change the outcome of their entire future. Kind regards, Marianne Hibbers http://www.therockstarfoundation.org marianne@therockstarfoundation.org Cel: 083 557 6602 Ph: 021 914 8097 Fax: 086 658 3960