The previous state of the property & Improvements

The state of the property was appalling and in a state of decay and run down. We were given permission to improve it. We had to build, renovate & put a lot of money and resources into it, to become the school of standing that it is now.

 

Community responsibilities

Dixon Academy has a social responsibility towards our community as such.  We have raised funds for individuals for operations, e.g. The children did a skipping “Jump a Thon” to raise funds for Lennie Pienaar who needed a back operation. They raised an amount of R3000.00 which the children learned the value that we all don’t have the privilege to walk and need to take care of those who don’t.

We also have been a patron for the Doulas Aids Home in Vereeniging for children for the past 12 years.  During a workshop on Aids we had a project to collect a Christmas present for each child in 2014.

We are also in the process of developing a bursary program from independent companies to cater for underprivileged age children as our resources are not of that extent that we can run free education.

 

What does Dixon Academy offer?

Educational Vision:

Our vision is that each learner leaving our school will be able to go forward into the world with knowledge and skills to be able to either continue with tertiary education, and if that is not financially possible to go out and gain skills to be an entrepreneur.  We supply them with the life skills to be an entrepreneur asserting themselves as an honorable and fully functional member of our diverse South African society.

Motivation:

Having stated the center on the 1st of July 2014 I had the privilege of having 8 learners under my care. The center grew (78 children current total) by word of mouth from these children and parents who saw a radical change in their children, not only in learning, but where they can experience life and be happy.  I was ask the other day what set our institution apart from others?  My answer was that we have heart.  We have achieved a list of achievements in the past year what we find phenomenal and we could never have done it without our team. Our team has commitment and pride in their work. Our music center grows in heaps and bounds, and as we do not have the finances yet to open a sports field, but it is one of our projects. We have currently utilized our learner’s talents in horse-riding, designing, music and debating. Thereby including in our curriculum: Hospitality, Tourism, Computers.

Tools For School

We have adopted a policy of rising up and standing for what we belief in. Hence our song which was composed by our learners and the assistance of their music teacher: SA RU with us? We have talent & designing competitions also ongoing for us. As this is Youth year, our Youth have shown that they have commitment to society, and they have commitment towards the adult world and challenges. We have set out all our achievements and we can only go forward with pride.

Dixon Academy is made up of various sections and run on different times. The nursery, which are babies up to 2 year’s old. Tiny tots up to three year’s old. Then grade RR is from 4 to 5 year olds. The grade R’s which is the school ready class. Then there is the grade 1 to grade 11 classes. Next year we will have our first grade 12’s.

The day care section – for working parents, we provide daycare to children with extra lessons. These lessons are given in different classes as a grade 3’s cannot do the same work as a grade 11’s. They also do workshops on different topics and give help on doing assignments and projects. We fetch learners at different times from home and also take them home when they are done.  Some stay for extra murals where social interaction takes place.

Aftercare – these learners are fetched after school from different local schools. They are provided with lunch and supervised homework takes place

Hence we close for learner collection at 18:30 and start at 6:00 am again every day.

Then there are the following activities:

  • Read a thon, Spelling bee, Hip-Hop, Modern Dancing, Computers, Music, Singing. Drama, Art. Horse Riding, Tia-Kwando, Swimming, Baking, Ping-pong, Designing, Speech and occupational therapy, Brain Train, Youth Debating and Chess. The most popular activities are music and  horse riding.  Youth debating had now become popular as they have taken part in an open discussion with the Operah Academy for Girls, this was engineered by Sandy Kerr.
  • A group of children prepared a song for the Woolworths competition with Pharrell Williams and out title is … SA R U with us? This is on u-tube and there is tremendous interest in the song.  We made Top Ten in the country out of 240 schools.
  • We have also entered in the Vaal has talent competition, where the Drama class has performed singing and dancing.
  • We have also entered the Young Designers of the year competition for 2015. Our young designers have designed an unusual T shirt and a stunning evening gown.
  • We putting on the production of Mama Mia by ABBA in October and have been practicing for this.