“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” – Nelson Mandela

Uniqueness is mostly accepted and celebrated within a family. Family members recognise each other’s strengths and weaknesses and accommodate them in a variety of ways. Parents have their children’s best interests at heart to ensure they reach their potential. They also make sure that their children have the necessary resources to develop optimally.

We use this same approach to maximise uniqueness in our teaching and learning at The Mountain Cambridge School (MCS) here in Hartbeespoort. We are a privately owned, Cambridge International accredited school from Gr 000 – A levels. In many aspects we truly are a family. We accept and celebrate the uniqueness of each of our teachers, learners, and parents.

Mrs Carolina van Heerden, the executive Head of the school, believes that one of the true values of Cambridge is its community. From the teachers to students to parents, the Cambridge community is indeed a special group because we remain committed to the same hopes and dreams: to grow the hearts, minds and souls of our children in a loving and nurturing environment.

“I do take pride in the smaller things”, Mrs van Heerden says, “to hear all the friendly greetings, being part of the Morning Prayer groups, the smiles and hugs from the Pre-Primary and Foundation Phase learners, the High School learners’ proud and passionate war cries etc. These seemingly small things are the heart of our school and define who we are. The achievements on the sport field, culturally and academically and our social responsibilities are important, but it is these special moments with learners that makes it all so much more meaningful.”

Cambridge approach
We refer to our school as a “boutique school” because we are a small school that delivers excellent quality of service to our learners and our parents. At MCS we offer the internationally recognised Cambridge curriculum which sets a global standard for education, accepted by universities and employers in over 170 countries in the world.

The Cambridge curriculum is flexible, challenging, and inspiring, culturally sensitive yet international in approach. Through our varied learning opportunities, we strive to develop an informed curiosity and a lasting passion for learning in all our learners.

Mountain Cambridge School is also affiliated with Thinking School South Africa (TSSA) that supports and trains our staff and we are in the process of working towards getting our accreditation from Exeter University in London, UK.
At MCS we encourage teachers to know and love their students and to help them to learn in the best way they can. Individual differences in learning styles can be catered for by providing a range of ways for learners to learn a subject.
For example, through a responsive teaching approach, thinking maps, innovative and creative teaching tools, combination of reading, annotated diagrams, video, research, group work, collaboration, teaching to others, and testing, more areas of the brain are engaged, optimising their learning. This is a learner-centred teaching approach.

Our Head of the Mathematics Department, Marc Bailey, believes in a practical approach to Mathematics. “Any learner can be taught to recite formulas and to answer questions of the same structure,” he says. “True understanding only happens when a learner can be involved in the learning process. To have practical lessons where the concepts are explained, and the learners can visually see how the Mathematics is applied. This allows them to fully apply their knowledge in the subject matter.”

Teachers at MCS are invested in their personal and professional development. They role model life-long learning and work towards practising a growth mind-set approach.

Our Open Day will be on 17 September from 09h00 – 12h00, please come and visit us any day of the week by appointment for a walk through. Available spaces still available in the High School for 2023.