Cawood Academy

Cawood Academy is a special needs school catering for a wide scope of children, ranging from gifted to autistic. All children need special attention and we pride ourselves on developing each individual’s unique talents whilst remediating their developmental delays. Small classes enable the staff the unique opportunity of identifying problems and rectifying them quickly. Our Foundation Phase learners develop at individual paces and are given frequent short breaks to get rid of excess energy and rejuvenate their minds. All of the children are accepted as “out of the box” thinkers who enjoy a hands-on approach to learning. Art, crafts and music are approached in such a way that the learners don’t realise that they are learning. P.E is non-competitive. Good old-fashioned games are played as well as ball games. Our two houses are used for incentives as well as debates etc. Staff are experienced and knowledgeable about their particular areas of expertise. Each pupil is well-known to each staff member and each child feels comfortable with the teachers. The children are nurtured and are free to be children at Cawood. Break-times see children aged 5 to 13 playing and interacting happily together. We have a secretary who is a P.A. to the principal, a sounding board for the staff, a go-between between Cawood and the parents and, more importantly, acts as mother to those who feel ill or scrape a knee. Our school pets add a unique touch to Cawood. The children are taught to handle our pets with respect and love. In return, it is not unusual to see a dog on a child’s lap (who is at an emotional low) or a cat sitting in a window sill in a teacher’s classroom basking in the sun. Our dogs are protective of our pupils, greeting each one of them every day. When a new-comer arrives at Cawood we are alerted and this adds to the children feeling safe here. There are no bells separating lessons, leaving the teaching day open to flexibility. If a teacher needs time to finish off an important lesson, a message is sent to the next teacher and therefore the children can progress happily with the lesson they are busy with. An example of this was our recent Senior Elections which lasted for a fair deal of the day. Lessons ‘lost’ are made up with flexible time-tables. CAPS is followed as a base-line. Many of our children want to go deeper into topics offered by CAPS. We can do this at Cawood as we do not have assemblies, sports day practices or major play practices. Our children often go on outings which will equip them with skills for later on in their lives. Discipline is based on “Respect”. Within boundaries we have flexibility. Many of the children who join us have emotional or social problems which have to be attended to with love and understanding before they can even begin to reach their potential. Swearing and bullying (physical or other) are not tolerated. The children are punished for misdemeanours, but we always try to match the punishment to the “crime”! Parents are encouraged to develop a good relationship with staff, working together to make each child the best he/she can be. Cawood Academy is a “home-away-from-home”! It is a nurturing environment to cultivate extraordinary minds. The building is warm and inviting and we try to keep our classrooms cosy and interesting. It is a mixed gender, mixed age and mixed cultural environment where we learn to get along with each other and respect each other’s views on family values and religion. When main stream schooling is not sufficient….. Cawood Academy is your best choice.
Data sourced from department of basic education, last updated on December 2016.
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Address

41a Old Main Road, Gillitts

Phone

++27031 7658288

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