This document outlines an approach to school excellence through intentional design of school systems and processes. It discusses 12 topics that characterize a school focused on excellence versus one experiencing chaos. Some of the key points include having daily lesson plans that are 50-60 minutes long and include 15-20 minutes of classwork, allocating 170 days for teaching and learning, conducting risk analysis on learners to provide early intervention, and including digital teaching time to support self-directed learning. The approach aims to move schools away from seeing failure as normal and toward the goal of 100% learner success.

1. Presenter:
Dr Muavia Gallie (PhD)
SchoolTurnaround
All our learners can and should
be successful in our schools.
STF-EMU
Excellent Schools
by Design
www.slideshare.net
Register to download – it is free
Search – Excellent Schools brief

2. ZWELETHEMBA HIGH SCHOOL

4. TOPICS:
1. SUCCESS FOR ALL LEARNERS – 100% PASS-RATE
2. LEARNER DREAMS
3. TARGET SETTING
4. RISK ANALYSIS
5. 170 DAYS OF TEACHING AND LEARNING
6. TIMETABLE TRANSITIONAL TIME
7. DAILY LESSON PLANS
8. NO HOMEWORK, RATHER CLASSWORK
9. INTERNAL EXAMINATION PAPERS
10. TEST & EXAM PREPARATION
11. LEARNER SELF-ASSESSMENT
12. DIGITAL TEACHING TIME
13. 3Lx4Mx3H QUESTIONS

5. CHAOS BY DESIGN
• Teachers believe in the
’normal distribution
curve’ that some
learners are good,
some weak and bulk in
middle
• Success of learners is
linked to socio-
economic status of
learners;
• Failure is seen as
’normal’.
EXCELLENCE BY DESIGN
1. SUCCESS FOR ALL
• Failure is not an option in the
school – 100% Success is the
motto;
• Success of individual learners is
a priority;
• Early warning signs to identify
and support learners;
• High performance is expected
from all learners, and hard work
is seen as the solution;
• Psycho-social problems are seen
as solution opportunities.

6. CONSEQUENCE:
• Deep understanding of the socio-cultural and
economic situation of learners – 40
Developmental Assets of Youth;
• Understanding ’poverty’ and how to teach
learners with psycho-social challenges – E-Book:
Teaching with Poverty in Mind;
• Regarding education ”as the way out of poverty”
for all learners – Learner Dreams;
• Internal mechanisms designed to ’give learners a
break’, without compromising on their overall
commitments and targets – Day Pass.

7. CHAOS BY DESIGN
• Learners attend school
as a routine of past
practice;
• They have limited or no
specific sense of ’why’
(purpose) they attend
school other than ’that
is what everyone else
is doing’;
• They respond to daily
challenges in education
on an ad-hoc basis.
EXCELLENCE BY DESIGN
2. LEARNER DREAMS
• All learners have a clear idea
and purpose ’why’ they
attend school;
• Most have a ’higher
intension’, while others have
a specific ‘job’ or ’sector’ in
mind;
• They know when challenges
confront them, that the
sacrifice is worth it;
• The purpose is ’long term’
rather than short term,
minor ’turbulence’ driven.

8. CONSEQUENCE:
• All our learners work towards an 80% Bachelor
pass;
• They know that through a ’growth mindset’, they
can improve gradually to achieve their dreams;
• They are ’self-driven’, and therefore are prepared
to sacrifice short term gains for long term
dreams;
• They know that all inside and outside school,
contribute and assist them towards their dreams,
and therefore have no ’personal agenda’ rather
than ’being in service’ to their dreams.

9. CHAOS BY DESIGN
• All or most Learners,
Teachers and
Principals don’t have
a specific Target they
need to work
towards every year;
• If you don’t have a
target, you don’t
need to be
Accountable!
EXCELLENCE BY DESIGN
3. TARGET SETTING
Everyone in the school has a
target for the year:
• Learners – uniquely
identified, and linked to their
own previous performance, in
every subject;
• Teachers – linked to the
individual and collective
learners they teach;
• HoDs, Deputies & Principal.

10. CONSEQUENCE:
• Everyone is working towards targets;
• All assessments are ’compared’ with the
’targets’ – measuring progress, or not;
• Encouraging ’grow mindset’ (improving):
– 40% in Grade 8: 5% x 5 years = 25% à 65%
– 40% in Grade 8: 8% x 5 years – 40% à 80%
• ’Effort’ and ’Commitment’ of learners –
heutagogy (self-driven/directed learning);

11. CHAOS BY DESIGN
• Every year is regarded as
’new’, as if previous year
never happened;
• No or limited learning is
taken from the previous
year, and therefore
’mistakes’ are duplicated
(dragged) from one year
to the next;
• No pro-active
interventions in order to
deal with ’known’ or
potential challenges;
EXCELLENCE BY DESIGN
4. RISK ANALYSIS
• Staff members understand that
most learners come from
challenging situations;
• Staff members pro-actively
analyse the different risk levels
of each learner;
• Types of risks: (i) Academic, (ii)
Behavioural, (iii) Psycho-social,
(iv) Special needs, (v) Literacy
(languages), and (vi) Household;
• Learners see school as a
support structure, responding
appropriately to their needs,
where necessary.

12. CONSEQUENCE:
• Academic risk – teachers know the subjects
where learners need support in from the first day
of the academic year;
• Their levels of risk are per subject, and these are
responded to through support session from
16h00 to 17h00 daily;
• This analyse is done quarterly in order to ensure
a level of mastery of at least 50%;
• Learner are aware that when they perform below
50% in their assessment tasks, they will have to
get to mastery level during the support sessions
of the follow-up quarter.

13. CHAOS BY DESIGN
• Most schools are
only offering
between 100 to 150
school days of
teaching and
learning, despite
CAPS requiring 170
days;
• Average in South
Africa is 82 days
(Chisholm, 2005)
EXCELLENCE BY DESIGN
5. 170 DAYS OF T&L
Of the average 200 school days
per calendar, we allocate:
• 170 Days for Teaching and
Learning (including the FATs
and Revision);
• 27 Days for Examinations;
• 3 Days for Sports, etc.
• Any other ’time needed’ with
be on Saturdays, holidays and
’after teaching time’.

14. CONSEQUENCE:
Teaching &
Learning
Days
Missing
Days per
Year
Missing
Days per
Primary
Missing
Days per
Schooling
Missing
Days in
Years (12)
90 Days 80 560 960 5,64 yrs
110 Days 60 420 720 4,23 yrs
130 Days 40 280 480 2,82 yrs
150 Days 20 140 160 0,94 yrs
160 Days 10 70 80 0,47 yrs

15. CHAOS BY DESIGN
• The ’beginning’ and
’end’ times of
periods on the
timetable are the
same;
• No ’transitional time’
in timetable
• School days end
before 15h00 most
days
EXCELLENCE BY DESIGN
6. TIMETABLE TRANSITIONAL TIME
• There is a 5 minute ’transition
time’ between periods;
• Give learners and/or teachers
to change classes;
• Or given foundation phase
teachers to ’pack away’ their
things before starting with a
new area;
• Ensures that teachers ’get’
their full time as indicated on
the timetable.

16. CONSEQUENCE:
• Additional 45 minutes per day to the ’closing
time;
• Teachers can follow their 50-60 minutes daily
lesson plans, per minute;
• Learners get their full 5,5 hours per day or
27,5 hours per week;
• The potential of decent CLASSWORK can be
structured, rather than giving HOMEWORK,
which I believe should be banned from
schools.

17. CHAOS BY DESIGN
• Believe that the CAPS is
detailed enough for
teachers to know what to
teacher every day;
• Two-weekly lesson plan
on an A4 page – mainly
for the district officials;
• Lesson plan is ’vague’
statements, and very
generic;
• Daily plans are not
actively used during the
lesson implementation.
EXCELLENCE BY DESIGN
7. DAILY LESSON PLANS
• CAPS curriculum is divided into
140 chunks, covered in daily
lesson plans;
• Other 30 lessons are used for FATS
and Revision/Reviews;
• Plans are between 4-8 pages long;
• Daily lesson plans are 50-60
minutes long;
• At least 15-20 minutes classwork,
which can be completed within
class;
• Include work for ’early finishers’;
• Plans have at least 3 low, 4 middle,
and 3 high level questions.

18. Outline of Daily Lesson Plan
1. Topic
2. Concepts and Skills to be achieved
3. resources
4. Prior Knowledge
5. Review and Correction of Classwork (10)
6. Introduction (5)
7. Lesson Presentation Development (20)
8. Classwork (20)
9. Consolidation, and Conclusion (5)
60
Minutes

19. CHAOS BY DESIGN
• Timetable periods of
30-40 minutes;
• Given most of the
time to ’teaching’, and
very limited time to
’facilitation of
learning’;
• Learners are given
’tons’ of homework,
without a central
management process
from the office.
EXCELLENCE BY DESIGN
8. NO HOMEWORK
• CAPS curriculum is divided
into 140 chunks, covered in
daily lesson plans;
• 30 lessons are used for FATS
and Revision/Reviews;
• Daily lesson plans are 50-60
minutes long;
• At least 15-20 minutes
classwork, which can be
completed within class.

20. CHAOS BY DESIGN
• No or limited design
on internal
examination papers;
• No weighting or ’end
of year’ weighting as
per CAPS;
• Design initiated by
individual teachers
and/or subject head.
EXCELLENCE BY DESIGN
9. INTERNAL EXAM PAPERS
• Shape of term papers are
designed based on completed
work;
• Weighting of topics based on
% of time spent to teach topic
as per CAPS;
• This is ’first phase’, before
integration of topics across
subject is facilitated.

21. CHAOS BY DESIGN
• Teaching and learning
are disconnected –
teachers must teach,
learners must learn;
• Success in test and
exam is the
responsibility of
learners alone,
especially when results
are not ’good’;
• Preparation is allocated
to the ’learner’ and
his/her ’home’.
EXCELLENCE BY DESIGN
10. TEST & EXAM PREP.
• ’Facilitation of learning’ is seen
as the connector between
teachers and learners –
therefore relationship building
is crucial;
• Preparation is planned at
school, in an organised way;
• Learners are guaranteed a 5-6
hours of ’preparation’ before
writing examinations;
• Preparation sheets (mind maps)
are generated by teachers.

22. CHAOS BY DESIGN
• The activity of
’assessment’ is seen as
the responsibility of
teachers only;
• Learners are the
recipients of ’marks’ from
teachers, and often have
not clue how to ’judge’
the value of their work;
• Learners sometime see
teachers as people who
can ’give them any marks’,
disconnected from the
value of the work
submitted.
EXCELLENCE BY DESIGN
11. LEARNER SELF-ASSESSMENT
• Teachers devise means to ’teach’
learners how to evaluate their
behaviour and their own work;
• Clear criteria exist in advance, and are
known how work will be evaluated;
• Regular opportunities are given, and
expected for learners to engage in the
’own’ assessment, both behavioural
and academic;
• Teachers don’t see themselves as the
’police’ of learners’ behaviour and the
quality of their work;
• Learners are expected by the school to
’drive their own learning’.

23. CHAOS BY DESIGN
• Teachers see themselves as the
only ’source of information’ in
the learning process;
• The primary resources will be
teacher and the textbook;
• Primarily a ’manual’ process of
teaching and learning;
• Technology, such as cellphones, is
not allowed (banned);
• Technology is seen as ’threat’ and
’distraction’ in the battle for the
attention of learners;
• Teachers suspect that presence
of technology could be used to
’share’ digital content.
EXCELLENCE BY DESIGN
12. DIGITAL TEACHING TIME
• Teachers see technology of a ’source of
comfort’ for most young people;
• Daily lesson plans included digital time
per week for learners to ’drive their
own learning’ through the integration
(blended learning) of online (and
offline) content that are automatically
marked (immediate feedback and
support) when learners engage with it;
• No ’control’ needed from teachers
since processes in software ensures
educational ’check and balances’;
• Teachers are informed by progress of
learners.

24. CHAOS BY DESIGN
• Teachers don’t have prepared
questions they want to engage
with learners, before they deliver
their lessons;
• And if prepared, the majority of
questions are ’low level’
questions the learners have to
engaged in during the lesson;
• Teacher will give ’middle and high
level’ questions during the
homework or test and
examination time;
• Learners will see a fair amount of
middle and high level questions
for the first time during exams.
EXCELLENCE BY DESIGN
13. 3x4x3 ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS
• Every daily lesson plan has at least 3
low, 4 middle and 3 high level
questions;
• Learners are exposed to all levels of
questions, and therefore build up the
confidence that they can score 100% in
all assessment task if they are
prepared well;
• Most, if not all questions in exams can
be linked back to the specific ’daily
lesson plan’ where the specific work
was covered;
• Assessment tasks are not see as
opportunities to ’catch out’ learners.

25. CONSEQUENCE:
• The construction of the daily lesson plans is the
process of ’shaping the content of the exam paper’;
• A databank of questions and answers are available to
learners during examination preparation time;
• Learners are aware of the different levels of
complexities of content, and are able to build up their
confidence;
• The school will eliminate the ’vulnerable’ events of
’learners reporting to office that certain questions in
the exams were not covered’;
• Allows the moderation process to be more specific in
terms of content coverable and levels of complexity
covered during lesson delivery;
• Quality assurance can be implemented, since a variety
of question papers can generated from database.

26. Thank You!