From teachers:

"It helps us to go to see good pre-schools so we can see what is actually needed for pre-school children."

"When I was teaching the children the theme "flying things", the children wanted to know if a plane could land in the street outside the school and take them for a ride. It gave me the opportunity to explain about buying tickets, airports and how you got into a plane. The children were so interested. They call me when we see a plane in the sky now and we talk about it together."

"We did go to educare training but we did not implement what we were learning, because maybe we didn’t always understand and we could not afford the toys and art materials."

"We are taught a little piece at a time so that we really understand. We can also ask questions when we don’t understand."

"In the beginning I was thinking, "Why is it every week?" – I can see now that it helps me to plan for the next week, and shows me how to teach the children step by step."

"I feel encouraged to plan what I am going to do next at my centre."

"I feel happy to go to work now because I know what to do."

"We have good relationships with the other teachers in our cluster, and share problems and get suggestions from others. It is better than sitting alone not knowing what to do."

"We are helping each other – at the moment we are helping one of the schools in our cluster to do a concert to fundraise."

"Our training co-ordinator met parents to tell them why pre-school is important, and to explain the ways they can give support the teachers if they can’t pay."

"We feel glad that our centre are now attractive – they are now nice to work in."

"I thought we were teaching the right way, but have learnt that we aren’t. It was bitter to learn that but now I feel happy to be learning and teaching the children in a pre-school way."

"At the work day at our school, the parents said that I should just ask them if they need to help with things I need done at the school. I am so happy about that."

From children:

A little child from one of the centres we made over arrived at class, peeped in, looked around in wonder for a minute or two, then jumped into the room shouting, "My school is beautiful!"

A teacher tells of the children from her centre running to class on a Monday morning, calling, "What are we learning this week?"

A teaching award

A teacher (ECD practitioner), Nozuko Ntsomboyi, who had been following our programme for 18 months was made teacher of the year in the Eastern Cape in 2009 (elected by the Dept of  Education and the SABC).