2019 was a huge year for SOHK. Our first full year of Schools programmes. As an organisation we worked with 160 youth in 4 schools across Cape Towns CBD, and we are encouraged by a strong belief and real evidence that the ‘Hard Knocks’ are having a positive impact on coaches, teachers and players alike. Find out more by downloading our Annual Report.
Kyle Bown has enjoyed an illustrious career as a professional rugby player. His achievements are unparalleled and he recently retired at the top of his game.
In Episode 2 of social media series, Overcoming the Hard Knocks, Kyle shared with us some of the mental games he had to deal with on his rugby journey.
Ahle Fisa, Grade 10 at Trafalgar High, has participated in SOHK since the beginning of the 2019. Since she joined she reports levels of resilience and personal growth.
Ahle was suspended quite a few times at the beginning of the year for displaying ‘acting out’ behaviour. On one occasion she was stabbed during a fight at the school, and there was also another incident where she was suspended for arguing with a teacher and for fighting with a boy at school.
This year she is repeating Grade 10. Since she joined the SOHKs sessions our Counsellor Kauthar has reported that she has calmed down a lot and is passing all her subjects. She speaks positively and has developed ambition through learning her character strengths. She says she can’t wait to come to the sessions as “it provides opportunities for growth and the coaches always offers words of encouragement."
Summing up the year she stated “I feel like we (SOHK staff) had a certain bond, we learned so much stuff. When I needed someone to talk to, whenever I needed to share something with someone, I knew Coach would be there, and was always there for me.”
Our latest staff show us that learners are behaving better in school. After two terms we have seen:
27% reduction in students being given 'many' behavioural referrals
22% of students have improved their behaviour
Mrs Southgate, Principal of Trafalgar High states that "The students are a lot more positive and have more self respect, you can see more discipline which is really great”
School of Hard Knocks Director and Schools Manager Scott Sloan and Cass Carels were on Benito Vergotine’s Inspiration Hour with Andre ‘The Positive Guy’ on Mon Aug 05 2019.
We talked about why we use sport as a tool for youth development and how sports creates a learning environment for almost anything. Scott also admitted to not being very good at rugby, and he’s keeping very quiet about Ireland’s chances at the Rugby World Cup in September.
If you want to listen to the whole thing you can find the podcast of the episode here: https://smile904.fm/podcasts/
Since February 2019 SoHK have delivered 94 weekly rugby and life skills training sessions to 224 individual learners (122 boys and 102 girls) at 4 low fee government schools in Cape Town.
Our rugby and life skills curriculum is based on the Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility (TPSR) model developed by Don Hellison.
The TPSR philosophy is to develop learners inner resources so that they grow in their ability to self assess, manage their emotions, and make better choices when it comes to education, risky behaviour and their career path.
As part of our participatory approach to monitoring and evaluation we let students tell us how they’ve grown. Here’s how we do it:
TPSR is a internationally acclaimed and researched life skills methodology.
The Journal of Sport for Development just released THIS report of another TPSR program showing signs of success in South Africa. Findings supported
“the potential value of the program in cultivating the development and possible transfer of personal responsibility (e.g., self-direction skills such as goal setting and decision making) and social responsibility (e.g., interpersonal skills such as respect, self-control, conflict resolution, and caring) behaviors. The study provided preliminary support for the contextual utility of engendering these developmental outcomes in an environment where youth are facing a major health threat (i.e., HIV/AIDS) and community challenges (e.g., gender-based violence, poverty). Continued investment in long-term sport for development programming in Eswatini is warranted.”
