Highlands pupil wins big for her school

A Woodlands primary school pupil won tech equipment worth R50 000 for her school.

Madison Davids, 12, a Grade 6 pupil at Highlands Primary School was announced runner-up in the Growsmart 2022 literacy competition at The Avenue, at the Two Oceans Aquarium in the V&A Waterfront in September.

Prizes for her school included an iPad, headphones, speaker, projector and adaptor, which were handed over during a special assembly on Friday November 4.

In addition to the school’s prizes, she also won prizes worth R10 000 for herself and the literacy mentor won a R5 000 voucher.

Madison told the Plainsman last week that she was thrilled to have accomplished this for her school.

“I’m happy that I won and that I could do this for my school,” she said.

Deputy principal Nicola Brown made the pupils promise that they would work with their teachers to do better in next year’s competition.

“Thank you to Growsmart for giving our pupils the opportunities to showcase their abilities,” she said.

“We are going to focus. Read daily and ensure that our learners are readers,” she said.

Ms Brown said they had started at the bottom and were steadily working themselves to the top.

“We need to sacrifice to success. We need to work hard,” she said.

Madison placed second place out of 25 finalists, chosen from 400 participants, who were tested on their ability to correctly spell, define and use the words in a sentence, as well as on verbs, nouns, idioms and adjectives throughout the competition.

Kaylin Hufke, from Kalkfontein Primary School in Kuils River, won first place and Azra Hendricks, from Pelican Park Primary School in Grassy Park, came third.

The Growsmart Educational Programme is a corporate social initiative by Growthpoint Properties in collaboration with the Western Cape Education Department.

They selected the top five pupils in literacy, mathematics, story writing and teams in entrepreneurship.