Projects
Our 13 Projects
With a dedicated team of five full time staff supported by a committee of six Trustees and committed volunteers, we oversee 13 core projects which, and on th basis of ‘fair exchange’ in a sustainable manner, we hope will deliver significant improvements.
Our projects are initiated in partnership with our ‘footprint’ schools, based on a deep sense of commitment towards placing the school at ‘the centre of the community’.
Our projects fall into 5 pillars of support:
- Leadership and Governance
- Quality Education
- Skills Development
- Holistic Care
- Sustainability
Leadership Development
We conduct annual workshops with FEDSAS to improve SGB/Principal governance capacity. Four times per annum we meet with all Principals through CitizenLeaderLab to improve leadership skills and school functionality
Reach Stats:
32 Schools, 32 Principals
Project Champions:
Karen McKenzie and Steuart Pennington
Impact
Our Principals have significant teaching loads in addition to their leadership responsibilities. Our workshops focus on budgetting, SA school legislation, governance, discipline and SGB collaboration. The impact is significant, better schools, better results and growing enrolment.
Teachers & Instructional Functionality
On an ongoing basis we offer teachers training workshops to improve both subject knowledge and teaching skill
Reach Stats:
16 schools, 242 teachers, 6924 Learners
Project Champion:
Akhona Sikhakhane
Impact
These workshops, in addition to the provision of 35 Eduhelpers (see below) has resulted in significant improvement in teacher confidence, curriculum delivery and Grade pass rates.
Infrastructural Maintenance & Dignity
Annually we evaluate infrastructure in all our schools to develop a maintenance and care programme on the basis of a ‘fair exchange’ model
Reach Impact:
16 schools, 16 principals, 242 teachers, 6924 learners
Project Champion:
Steuart Pennington and Vuyo Ngcobo
Impact
The infrastructural dignity of our schools improves every year with better learning facilities, improved hygiene and greater extramural opportunity
Educational Technology
We wish to equip our schools with improved technology in the form of ‘smart’ classrooms and IT teaching expertise
Reach Stats:
26 Teachers, 1378 learners from grades 10, 11 & 12
Project Champion:
Andrew Schaefer and Gavin Erasmus
Impact
We run teacher IT development workshops and we are increasingly improving access to education technology in our schools especially in the area of coding and robotics, resulting in improved tertiary opportunity.
Learning Outcomes
We hope to improve our pass rates at every level, increase the number of bachelor passes in Grade 12 and move towards a more holistic education experience involving extracurricular activity. We focus on five critical components:
- Functional Early Childhood Centres
- Literacy development
- Increasing the number of Core maths attendees
- Culture in the form of Art, Choir and Sport competitions
- Online Career choice programmes
Reach Stats:
16 Principals, 242 Teachers, 6924 learners
Project Champion:
MCPT Office
Impact
Since 2024 we have expanded our footprint to include 10 ECD centres and since 2026 we embarked on a considerable mother tongue literacy improvement campaign covering our 10 primary schools and our 10 ECD centres. The improvement ‘reading to learn’ has been remarkable
Career choices through Eduvelopment
We have adopted a career development app ‘Eduvelopment’ which assists learners with subject choices in Grade 9, and tertiary education options, bursary applications and access to tertiary institutions in Grade 12
Reach Stats:
In 2025 we hosted 225 matrics from our Senior schools. By the end of 2025 we will have hosted an additional 460 grade 11s as well as 390 grade 9s
Project Champion:
MCPT Office
Impact
Across the board there has been an improvement in the number of Bathelor passes at our schools. We are improving our ability to assist matriculants with bursaries to access tertiary institutions and hope to improve our ability to track their career paths
Internships
We employ young graduate teachers, ‘Eduhelpers’ and deploy them into our schools to assist with teaching and administration, currently 35 are sponsored. We wish to increase the number to 40.
Reach Stats:
Number of learners benefiting directly from having Internship candidates in their schools is 4828
Project Champion:
Akhona Sikhakhane
Impact
All of our 16 schools have at least one Eduhelper (some 4) assisting with both the teaching and the administration. This has enabled better curriculum delivery and more time in the classroom for our learners, evidenced in our improved pass rates across the board
Transport Subsidies
We provide subsidised transport to learners in the junior grades from Mooi River to Shea O’Connor and Hlanganani in Nottingham Road.
Reach Stats:
96 children, 6 taxis
Project Champion:
Jon Bates
Impact
Very few of our learners across our 16 footprint schools have to walk, with significant reductions in absenteeism and considerable improvements in learning outcomes
Literacy
Consistent with national stats approximately 80% of children in Grade 4 cannot read for meaning in their mother-tongue. In 2026 we have engaged the services of KICP (Khanyisa Inanda Projects) to embark on a three year programme to significantly and sustainably change this. We engage with teachers and parents alike to enable a love for reading.
Reach Stats:
437 learners and 15 Eduhelpers benefit. Reading for meaning functionality at Grade 4 as well as more substantial libraries have been identified as key objectives of the project.
Project Champion:
MCPT Office
Impact
In 2026 we commenced with comprehensive literacy improvement programs across our 10 ECD centres and 10 primary schools. We anticipate children removing rapidly from “learning to read” to “reading to learn”. Our objective is that all our children when they leave primary school will be able to “read for meaning” in both their mother tongue and in English
Primary Healthcare - St Raphael's
A primary healthcare team focusing on nutrition and eye testing across Partner schools together with ancillary community focused healthcare services.
Reach Stats:
4 community clinics per year, 200 community members screened and referred to Balgowan clinic
Project Champion:
Mpho Phakathi
Early Childhood Development
We monitor and support ECD capabilities in the 10 ECD centres that serve our footprint schools with ongoing training and monitoring. In addition, during 2025 and 2026 we have funded the construction of state-of-the-art facilities in the Lions River and Zenzani communities.
Reach Stats:
10 ECD Centres, 360 Children, 21 teachers.
Project Champion:
Akhona Sikhakhane, Mpho Phakathi and Steuart Pennington
Impact
The 1000 days between the ages of two and five are the building blocks of every child’s education journey. The 10 ECD schools in our footprint have all been significantly upgraded to enhance both literacy and numeracy development.
Core Maths – SIMI
Paul de Wet, a maths teacher at Michaelhouse runs SIMI workshops for Grades 8,9,10,11 an 12 to both encourage learners to move away from Maths Lit and improve Pure Maths competence, the programme has been adopted by the DoE and is increasingly improving its reach both provincially and nationally.
Reach Stats:
3417 learners benefit from printouts and revision sessions.
Project Champion:
Paul de Wet
Arts, Choir, Theatre & Sport Competitions
Annually, as part of improving our Learning Outcomes, we conduct inter-school events at Michaelhouse often engaging with the wider Midlands Community
Reach Impact:
500 learners / 16 schools
Project Champion:
MCPT Office
Impact
The DoE does little in the way of extramural activity after school. In most of our rural schools the taxis arrive at 14:00 hours and take both the teachers and the learners home. By staging arts, choir and sports competitions and with the participation of our boys we enable many of our learners after school to practice their cultural pursuits. During year we hold inter-school competitions, attended by significant observers from the Midlands community. This is a key element of enabling our learners to develop their full potential
Our Impact
Over the past 10 years much has been achieved, expanding our reach to a 16 schools and 10 Early Childhood development centres schools with an increased number of focussed, holistic projects, consistent with our Theory of Change.
2016
In 2016, MCPT was essentially a Michaelhouse Boy’s community project conducting annual sports, choir and art competitions and only involved with Asithuthuke School (the Michaelhouse Farm School). The long-standing St Raphaels team conducting home based medical care for the Zenzani community. There was a library bus that made school visits where books were read to by the boys for service. Matric results averaged below 50% passes. Donor contributions increased slightly
2018
The concept of Eduhelpers was introduced based in 2 schools providing educational support in the classrooms. The MHS Boys occasionally visited these schools for service and the St Raphael team continued providing primary medical care to the community. Inter-school Sports, Choir and Arts tournaments continued. Donor contribution at R1m
2019
Eduhelpers were placed in 5 schools and a significant infrastructure improvement programme was initiated at Asithuthuke. Boys service continued with reading, homework and sports. St Raphael’s team broadened their reach to Lidgetton and Nottingham Road,. Interschools Sports tournament as well as the Arts & Choir festival continued. Donor contribution at R2.5m
2020/21
Eduhelpers placed in 9 schools, providing educational support and mentoring to students. Leadership workshops for Principals initiated. Infrastructural evaluations introduced, General maintenance programmes commenced. Donor contribution at R3.5m
2022
MCPT expanded its reach, working with 11 schools and increasing its number of Eduhelpers to 21. School evaluations expanded to include core components of leadership, teaching skills, infrastructural dignity and learning outcomes. Workshops were facilitated for Principals and teachers. An MCPT strategic workshop was conducted. School results across the board started improving noticeably. Donor contribution improved to R4.5m
2023
MCPT continued to expand its impact, working with 16 outreach schools and increasing its number of Eduhelpers to 25. Our strategic document resulted in 13 projects being launched embracing ECD, Edtech, Literacy and FEDSAS training for the first time. St.Raphael’s work continued, as did sports tournaments and an arts and culture festival. We converted tow old building at Asithuthuke into boarding schools for the Grade 12 boys and girls to enable improved revision during the week and on week-ends with dramatic results. Matric pass rates were the best on record. Donor contribution increased to R5m
2024
With our operational projects mostly embedded we realised that there were two areas that needed special attention; literacy training, Early Childhood development and education technology. Our service providers did not deliver and it was very much back to the drawing board. On the positive side our matric results continued to improve and the quality of boys service went up a level. Matric pass rates again were the best on record. Donor contribution increased to R6m
2025
2025 was a big year for MCPT, we expanding our partnership to include 10 Early Childhood Development centres, including converting a disused building in Zenzani Village (where many of our staff reside) into a functional ECD centre, and opening one in Lions River in 2026. Our Eduhelper programme, young recruits who assist with both teaching and school administration (now at 35), continues to make an invaluable contribution. Nine of our 16 schools now have functional computer labs, but we have very little in the way of classroom technology. In collaboration with Breadline Africa we replaced the pit latrines in Crytal Springs Preparatory school, Lidgetton, with 13 flush toilets. With the assistance of Barloworld we significantly renovated and refurbished the Jabula Combined school kitchen and toilets serving 800 learners. With the assistance ABSA and Kusini Water we have installed solar powered boreholes at Eminyezaneni Secondary school and Brunville Primary. We have re-energised our Literacy training efforts by implementing a comprehensive program in both our ECD centres and our primary schools. We continue to evaluate all our schools annually to benchmark their progress in respect of leadership, infrastructural and instructional functionality. The Trafalgar maintenance team visits monthly to repair urgent maintenance requirements. We are particularly pleased with the 2025 matric results in our six ‘footprint’ secondary schools which now average well over 90% up from +/- 50% four years ago, the exception being Dabulamanzi where it is rumoured that it will be closed down and replaced with an agricultural college.We have significantly improved our fundraising capacity by enabling our manager Akhona Sikhakhane to spend more time in this function in conjunction with the MHS Development Office. Our refreshed website is up and updated regularly https://www.mcommunitypartnerships.com
Annually we award a Service Shield to the house with the most service points and this year an MCPT Service ‘Impact’ award was donated by Steuart Pennington in recognition of the house contribution that has the most significant impact as judged by the M.I.C.