Teacher Louise and the Matific software

When our son Ryan returned from Alice Springs after his year 10 trip, I was moved by his passion to contribute in a more meaningful way. So, when I left Investec at the end of 2014, Ryan and I went back to the Aboriginal school in Alice Springs. We took with some Maths teaching software so the children could learn numeracy while playing games. We knew the school had received donated tablets four months prior to our visit. When we arrived at the school, to our amazement, we found the fully-charged tablets in a locked cabinet – unopened – because the teacher in charge of IT is a full time classroom teacher and does not have the time to explore software options, let alone load it on the tablets.

For that week, we became the school’s IT department. We set up the tablets, demonstrated the software to the teachers and then used it to teach the students – with miraculous results.

Students who had not previously ever engaged in Mathematics classes, suddenly ‘got it’ and lit up with excitement. Kids with previously poor attendance records started arriving early at school to ‘play Maths’ on the tablets. By teaching using the software, Ryan gained rapport with even the most shy and disengaged students.

Louise, the class teacher, said she was witnessing magic.

It was a remarkable experience and the catalyst for my journey to find a way to create magic in every Aboriginal school.

My vision started with the idea of sending an educator in a remote area to a school with significant technology reach to learn how to set up the technology for their school, to implement it in the classrooms by engaging and educating the staff and most importantly to continue to receive ongoing support for all subject areas. This vision has now expanded to educating multiple educators from the same school to drive technology in their school and forge relationships for a long term engagement with educators from the training school as well as the corporate sponsor.

Shirley Snoyman Nov 2014