IT is a new season for Sunshine Special School for intellectually impaired learners with the appointment of Magdalene George as the new principal as from September 2021.
She follows in the footsteps of Sunshine’s first principal, Candice Kivedo, who retired at the end of March 2021 after 29 years of dedicated service to the school.
“I am honoured, excited and looking forward to taking this special school to new heights. It is a huge challenge following in the footsteps of Mrs Kivedo, who fulfilled a major role in establishing Sunshine Special School which is equipped to meet the developmental needs of intellectually impaired learners and children with Down Syndrome,” said George who obtained her honours in Augmentative and Alternative Communication.
“My goal is to foresee that Sunshine learners will earn their respectful place in the community. This is a fantastic school, and I would like to see our specialist rooms that accommodate practical subjects like hair-dressing, domestic science, and woodwork to deliver not only capable entrepreneurs but also to produce and start to generate an income.
“We will also look at job coaching, to involve local business in imparting practical skills to our learners.”
Sunshine’s state-of-the-art hydrotherapy pool facility, which is a first of its kind in Kariega, also needs to be finalized. According to George, utilizing this facility would be of huge benefit to their learners who need this kind of therapy.
Phase two of the upgrading of Sunshine Special School involves the building of a hostel.
“I would like to see this phase realized as we struggle with transport and the ideal would be to accommodate learners on the premises in our own hostel,” said George.
George has been the vice-principal at Sunshine for the past 13 years and prior to joining this special needs school she was an educator at Caritas Primary School for 20 years.
Sunshine Special School currently has 281 learners between the ages of seven and eighteen years (vocational phase).
