St Peter's Boys Prep Grade 6s unpacking Apartheid in their Flexible Learning Programme

It was a busy week for the boys at St Peter's. The Grade 6s enjoyed their FLP week and learnt about some of the history of this country and about values, which are also an important aspect of life at St Peter's Boys Prep. 

The Big Question:

“Values were at the core of impacting South Africa’s journey from struggle to liberation, to transformation. How might your values impact your life and that of those around you to bring positive change?”

As a precursor to the Flexible Learning Programme, the boys visited the Apartheid museum. The reason was to build a platform of knowledge that the boys could use as a base from which to build their research tasks during the Flexible Learning week.

During the week they also visited Liliesleaf. Liliesleaf was a place of safety for people fighting apartheid. The boys researched the values, reasons and the results of the raid on Liliesleaf on the 11 July 1963 so that they could travel the journey of enlightenment, from struggle to liberation.

It was a fun week where the boys had to use a variety of different resources, books, internet, parents, guest speakers and facilitators to complete their work.

The Grade 6s had to use all their Thinking Tools to complete the variety of tasks. They used Thinking Routines and focused on explaining what they have seen and learnt, what interested them about the Rivonia trialists and what emotions they experienced at different times and places during the tours. The boys created a Bubble Map of a chosen trialist and also presented their biography as a poster or iMovie. They used Double Bubble Maps Comparing themselves with a trialist.

The boys watched and studied the film, Invictus.  They had to choose three moments in the film that embodied struggle, liberation and transformation. They had to take screenshots of these moments and give an explanation of their choices. They also had to create a Rap or Song unpacking the understanding of “Values were the problem and values were the solution.” They had to explain how South Africa was unified through the values evident in the 1995 Rugby World Cup journey. They did this by designing a rugby ball portraying the understanding of these values.

Some boys created “Top Trumps” with12 trialists, comparing various values and strengths. Others created a cartoon showing a value bringing positive change to a situation that they experience in their community. Some boys created a sculpture symbolising one of values that a  Trialist portrayed.

The boys had the opportunity of creating a struggle song or dance.

The week ended off with the boys reflecting on their FLP and all wrote a short piece that could be read in chapel describing their thoughts and what they had learnt.