Background

    
SNAP Academy was started 3 years ago and now consists of 2 Grade 0 classes, 2 Grade R classes, 2 Grade 1 classes, a Grade 2 and Grade 3 class. Says Vice-Principal, Salomé Smit with tears in her eyes “The children are just streaming in and it does not stop.”

SNAP Academy teaches the National Curriculum for children on the Autistic Spectrum and children with other special needs. Some children have never been allowed entrance to a mainstream school, for some the holiday has been too long, but for most they were happy to be back at a school where they are understood, helped, taught, supported and where they can make friends.

The dream started with a little class 6 years ago that taught the children to listen and function in a group, after having had one-on-one tutoring. In the afternoons, they still received their tutoring and the combination proved to be a winner. The children learned to socialize, wait, loose, accept “no” as an answer and were taught social skills.
Now 6 years later SNAP Academy is a Junior Phase school with 8 classes, a teacher and class assistant in each class. There is good discipline and the children are learning and making progress.

In one class a child might have a facilitator, in another the computer is used as an aid for writing, certain children will do their work on their iPads and if a child needs a 45% angle to work in order to see better, that is also provided. Children with difficulty writing can also pack out their words and sums instead of writing. Through this process learning is continuously taking place, although the method applied will be what each child needs.

We look back to 14 years ago when SNAP started with one child and one teacher and we thank God for everybody He has sent to us and the progress we have been able to make under His Blessing.