The Prescient Foundation’s long-standing partnership with Amazing Grace, an early childhood development (ECD) and community upliftment centre in Westlake, Cape Town, is helping more children start school ready to learn.

Amazing Grace, which supports children and families through education, feeding schemes and family support, is now looking to extend the reach of its Happy Learning Education Programme to more children, ECD centres, schools and organisations.

Activities

The programme, made up of an activity book, games and optional stationery, is designed to help young children develop essential skills before they enter the classroom.

Nicole Wentzel, CEO of the Prescient Foundation, said the initiative reflects the Foundation’s approach to sustainable impact.

“The first years of a child’s education shape much of what follows. The Amazing Grace team built Happy Learning from what they see in their classrooms every day, and that understanding of the children they serve is what gives the programme its value,” Wentzel said. “We encourage others to consider how they can help more children start school ready to learn.”

Happy Learning was developed by Lydia Ingpen, Founder and CEO of Amazing Grace. It began during the COVID-19 pandemic as worksheets for children learning at home and has been used in Amazing Grace’s own programme for the past two years.

“Happy Learning came directly from what we were seeing every day at Amazing Grace,” Ingpen said. “We work with children who enter our programme without having had the benefit of ECD. Some don’t know their colours, shapes, numbers or letters yet, and many haven’t developed the fine-motor skills they need to hold a pencil confidently.”

She said the programme uses repetition, play and reading to help children learn at their own pace. Very few children who have gone on to enrol in school from its programme have needed additional remedial support.

Educational hub

“School readiness is about trying to level that playing field. I want a child to walk into school feeling, ‘I can do this,’” Ingpen said.

Founded eleven years ago by helping “one child and one family at a time,” Amazing Grace has grown into a community hub. The Prescient Foundation’s support extends beyond operational costs to investment in its safe house.

Amazing Grace is now inviting companies, foundations and individuals to sponsor Happy Learning packs for under-resourced communities, with the goal of reaching children across South Africa and eventually Africa.

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