Four decades of community service: Lantana Primary School has celebrates its 40th anniversary

Lantana Primary School has celebrated its 40th anniversary.

Since its opening in 1983, the school has been servicing the Lentegeur area with generations of families passing through its gates.

“The first principal was the late Mr Chris Weilbach, who retired from the school. Mr Mogamat Labeeb Gasant was his successor. Lantana Primary was first named Mitchell’s Plain Primary no 29 before it was renamed Lantana Primary School,” says school principal, Vanessa Berry.

“Lantana is a school of choice for most parents and we are serving fourth-generation families. We have made great strides in our academic results, especially the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) Systemic Tests over the past couple of years, although it is still not where we would like it to be. We are a values-driven school and everything we do, is underpinned by our values,” she says.

“In 2019 we formed part of the WCEDs Transform to Perform Mantra. We consciously infuse our values with our curriculum. We inculcate our values to ensure we produce good citizens once they leave our school. Learners are taught to understand and value our school’s code of conduct.”

Learners attended the special assembly on Thursday 2 March to celebrate the School’s 40th anniversary.

Learners performed various items at the assembly.

The school’s motto, “Strive to improve” has been their driving force to excel, says Berry.

“We take ownership and pride in our school therefore learners and all staff are proud of our neat and tidy school grounds as a collective.

“Our parents are very, very supportive of all initiatives run by the school. Despite the fact that we are a no-fee paying school, we are very successful in all projects run by the school because of our parents’ support for the school,” says Berry.

“Since 2019 we have had a successful After School Game Changer Programme, allowing learners to participate in after-school activities. However, it was impacted negatively by the Covid-19 pandemic, but we have managed to revive it again. The SA Scouts in schools is one of our very successful codes established at the school in 2022. In 2022 we also formed part of the Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport (DCAS) programme. Volleyball was introduced at our school in 2022. Our Girls’ u-13 volleyball team won the District South Volleyball trophy in November 2022. We are extremely proud of our learners for their achievements, both on and off the field.”

The school currently caters to 1 252 learners enrolled in Grades R to 7.

The school hosted a celebration in honour of the 40 years on Thursday 2 March.

“It was so very exciting to host our current and past School governing body members, past teachers, who have retired before 2010, our neighbouring schools’ principals, our Circuit Manager, Mr Terence Woolf and our local Councillor Mr Avron Plaatjies, who is a past pupil as well as Head Boy,” says Berry.

Learners performing on stage

The school has more than 1200 learners from grades R to 7. Invited to the programme were past school governing body members and retired teachers.

The stage decorated in school colours for the event. A red carpet was also rolled out.

Berry, who has been with the school since 2012, after being deputy principal at Sans Souci Girls’ school says teamwork makes the dream work at Lantana Primary.

“Our teamwork turned into dreamwork to ensure that all the proceedings of the day went off very well. For this I am eternally grateful,” she says.

While the school remains a pillar of the community, Berry says it is not without challenges. “Our immediate concern is that we spend a very huge chunk of our annual budget on security because our family school is broken into and vandalised often. We need more community members to become the eyes and ears of the school and not to turn a blind eye to criminal activity,” she says.

• For more pictures of the event, read this story online on our website www.news24.com/news24/community-newspaper/peoples-post