Meet our Pre-Schools

Little Flower

In August 2019, Educate Mpame proudly opened its second Early Childhood Development Centre at the request of our village chief. Strategically located in a central area, this new centre ensures greater accessibility for families in our community.

Guided by the dedicated care of our teacher, Nomzamo, and nourished by the delicious meals prepared by our cook, Funeka—both proud locals who grew up in our village—this centre embodies community spirit and the shared commitment to giving our children the best start in life.

Our 2 preschools are about 5km apart. In our village there is no public transportation and villagers have to walk everywhere. This is especially difficult for small children and we get so many requests each year to build more preschools.

Sunshine

Sunshine Early Childhood Development Centre, nestled in the heart of rural Mpame, is a nurturing haven for young learners. Established by Educare Mpame, in April 2019, it began humbly in a small rondavel, driven by a passion for early childhood education.

No other preschool facilities exist in our village and was much needed. Through the unwavering support of our community and generous donors, we proudly built a small school, offering a brighter environment for our children to learn, grow, and dream big.

Our teacher Nthombozuko and assistant teacher/cook Namhla is from the local community. This causes a ripple effect in the community, creating jobs, better meals at home as well as a passion for learning.

Another Pre-School Coming Soon
Education

Language of Learning and Teaching

Our preschool is multilingual. Education in rural government schools is only in isiXhosa. Furthermore schools in Mpame teache only up to grade 9.  After this, parents need to send their children to out-of-town schools, only if they have the funds.  Here they arrive with no English and therefore the failure rate is about 90%. We teach in both English and isiXhosa to give these children a better chance of making a success at this transition.

Excellent Foundation

We wish to provide our community's children with a solid foundation in education.

We wish to provide our community’s children with a solid foundation in education.  Where there had been no preschool education before, we now aim to prepare our learners to be at the mainstream school entrance level when they leave our preschool.

What we Teach

As at every preschool, we teach numeracy and literacy.

But in a very rural community it is also necessary for us to teach our learners to respect each other, their teachers, their parents and the environment.  We teach good manners such as ‘please’ and ‘thank you’.  We teach them not to litter.  We teach them not to hit each other and to treat their animals well. These basics seem normal to us, but are not always the norm in all cultures.

Montessori

Educare Mpame follows a mixed Montessori approach to learning.

Early Childhood Development

The Montessori method for early childhood development emphasises independence, hands-on learning, and respect for each child's unique pace of learning.

In Montessori classrooms, children work in mixed-age groups, choose their own activities, and learn through self-directed exploration with specially designed materials.

Teachers act as guides, fostering independence and providing support as needed. The focus is on practical life skills, cognitive development, and social-emotional growth within a structured yet flexible environment.

​Overall, the Montessori method aims to nurture the whole child – intellectually, emotionally, socially, and physically – and to cultivate a lifelong love of learning.

A guest reading a story

Story Telling

At Educare Mpame we place huge importance on storytelling and reading.

We use colourful picture books, puppets and animations to keep the kids captivated and to stimulate their creativity.

We always ask guests to the school to read the story and encourage them to ask lots of questions about the story and characters.  This helps with the development of listening skills and a love of literature that will last a lifetime.

Sports & Outdoor Activities

We follow a holistic approach and because of this we also include lots of physical activities.

Each week we spend some time outside engaging in  gross motor coordination exercises such as wheelbarrow walking, roly poly, balancing and clapping.  This develops core strength, balance, coordination, crossing the midline, body awareness and posture.

Our kids are huge fans of running races and relay races which we do daily.

And on the weekends, we take some of the older kids swimming in the rock pools.

Snorkelling

We have taught some of the older kids who have been through Sunshine creche how to swim in the rock pools.

They really just love swimming and have recently discovered the magical new world under the sea by learning how to snorkel.

Our kids are huge fans of running races and relay races which we do daily.

And on the weekends we take some of the older kids swimming in the rock pools.

Sponsor a Meal

Ensuring that we maintain healthy bright minds
Monthly Meal: R100/month (R1200/year)

Sponsor a Child

Full Sponsor: R500/month (R6000/year)
Portion Sponsor:'R200/month (R2400/year)

Sponsor a Teacher

Full Sponsor: R4500/month (R54,000/year)
Portion Sponsor: R500/month (R6000/year)

Sponsor a Garden

Monthly assistance: R100/month (R1200/year)