Koa Academy, South Africa’s leading high-engagement online school has announced that it is opening Koa Akademie in January 2025. The new Afrikaans home language virtual campus is a first for South Africa, offering Afrikaans-speaking families a unique choice when it comes to their children’s education. Today, only 5% of government schools in South …
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The passion for STEM-education came into the spotlight at Koa Academy recently with the news that one of its Grade 9 learners, Matt Greenwood, was part of the winning team at the 2024 FIRST® Tech Challenge international competition. Alongside his South African teammates, the 15-year-old from Cape Town, joined more than 18 …
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Koa Academy, South Africa’s high-engagement online school will be ending the 2023 school year on a high note by hosting an online workshop for grades 8-11, featuring some of the country’s top creative writers. The stellar line-up of presenters includes best-selling novelist Lauren Beukes, beloved musician and lyricist, Majozi, award-winning …
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The final exam season of the year is almost here, and it’s not unusual for a sense of dread to creep in. It’s not just the learners who are under duress; exam time can be stressful for families and the school community. Parents and teachers want to provide the right …
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Although machine learning and AI models have been built into many of the apps and platforms we have been using for years, we’re having a different kind of AI moment in 2023. Natural language processing and computer vision models such as OpenAI’s ChatGTP and DALL_E have put AI tools directly …
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The recent explosion of AI into our daily life is testimony to how fast our world can change, and how thoroughly it can be disrupted. AI has already profoundly changed how schools need to think about assessments. Within two months of becoming available to any internet user, AI language model …
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Online schools are not all the same. Just as the quality of teaching and learning varies immensely across traditional schools there are online schools doing a great job, those that are mediocre and some that are failing. You won’t know that difference though if you’re just scanning websites and social …
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As learners across the country prepare for and write their last Grade assessments of the year, there are a lot of parents who are dealing with children overwhelmed with high levels of anxiety. Test anxiety is a real thing, and because the traditional South African assessment approach is to have …
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There is no other school subject that gets as bad a rap as Mathematics. It even has a mental health disorder associated with it – ‘Maths anxiety’. There are a range of reasons why Maths is so polarising, some will say it’s too hard while others complain that it is …
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In South Africa, learners following the CAPS curriculum achieve their Matric qualifications (National Senior Certificate – NSC) either through writing the assessments of the Department of Basic Education (DBE) or the Independent Examinations Board (IEB). However, this is not to say that DBE and NSC learners just write different final …
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From school through tertiary education, post-grad studies and work-based training, the South African digital learning environment is developing and expanding at a record rate. For families, online schools are offering a range of choices they have never had before. While geography has been a traditional limitation when it comes to …
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In 2020, across the world, many families had an extraordinary experience of online schooling as the pandemic shut down brick-and-mortar schools for extended periods. All things were far from equal. Many low-income families didn’t have the data and devices to get their children properly connected; while the middle-class and up …
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It has been another busy week behind the scenes 18 March 2022 and I am so grateful that today is break up day! I am really looking forward to turning off my alarm and having a break from the school routine. The live video this morning was so much fun …
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At some or other point during their child’s education, most parents will experience the frustration of feeling that their child is just a ‘face in the crowd’ at school; whether it’s because they are being left behind while the class moves on, because they are alone out front and losing …
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We’re in the midst of a seismic change in the world of work. We’ve seen tech disruption so far eliminate industries, transform others and usher in brand-new ones. Many working parents have experienced this first-hand. We expect emerging and evolving technologies to continue their innovation and disruption at an ever-escalating …
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SAMA-nominated hitmaker, Majozi, takes to the stage in SA education this year as Koa Academy’s Head of Culture. Appreciated for his warmth and humanity, we sat down with Majozi so that SA parents can get to know him better: What was your favourite subject in school, and why? “It was …
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As parents, we want our children to be enthusiastic about their learning and enjoy their day-to-day schooling experiences as much as possible. Overall, we aim for them to love their school. Many parents assume that this will happen automatically when we enrol them in a reputable brick-and-mortar school with good …
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The global pandemic has emphasized how important our digital world is to modern life as we pivoted out of necessity to remote working, at-home schooling and online shopping. Many millions of us got our first experiences of certain digital platforms and applications that have now become part of day-to-day life. …
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School is rooted in tradition, and all too often we, as parents, look to nurture our connection with our growing and increasingly independent children through them having a similar educational experience to us. This might have worked for past generations. However, the seismic changes in our world accelerated by relentless …
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Kaboutjie SA Mommy Blogs by Lynne Huysamen