Sandon Academy has moved with lightning speed to establish a primary school which will help make the academy a place of complete quality education at all levels.
Sandon Academy Jnr will open its doors for the first intake in January 2019, barely three years after the seniors’ side became operational.
School principal Svodai Kutadzaushe (pictured) said the objective was to give parents an opportunity to have their children completing the whole cycle of primary and secondary education at with the same strong Sandon brand.
“We have deemed it fit to establish a primary school so that children can begin from grade one right up to form six at the same convenient school. Ours is a brand that’s growing in leaps and bounds so we are prepared for the responsibility of looking after a child for 13 years or more of primary and secondary education. Why should a child suffer the instability of a new environment all the time when they can still remain at the same school of their choice throughout?” said Kutadzaushe.
She said just like Sandon Academy Secondary, the primary side will be equipped with equally sophisticated infra
structure and services to allow high quality learning.
“Young minds are the most delicate; they require all the care and nurturing they can get. We want to give our primary pupils the support they want to excel because if you get the foundation wrong, it’s definite you will have a defective structure.
It is better to build your own structure from foundation level right to the top, than to be made to carry over with the work that somebody else would have begun. You want to be responsible for the whole thing not just for part of it.
“The primary school will feed our secondary side and everything will be smooth sailing. Let parents know of this critical development and entrust us with their young children starting this very coming years,” said Kutadzaushe.
Classroom blocks and other structures needed for a full-fledged primary schools are already in place with some minor touch ups due to be completed soon.

Staff Reporter

Masvingo Provincial Education Director (PED) Zedius Chitiga has praised Sandon Academy for its visible commitment to quality education and for introducing a primary school which would serve the local community and beyond.
Chitiga said Sandon Academy, which is located in Gutu district some few kilometres from Mpandawana along the highway to Chivhu, was a model school which should inspire the kind of infrastructure that an ideal education sector must have across the board.
Chitiga said the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education welcomed private enterprise in the education system as long as all government requirements and standards are adhered to.
“We welcome such developments, because the ministry’s responsibility starts at Early Childhood Development (ECD) right up to ‘A’ level so if one brand offers all that education at one place, then our worries would end,” said Chitiga
He said having both primary and secondary levels at one school could be helpful in creating continuity and shaping required behavioral patterns among children.
“If a pupil starts from ECD to A level at the same institution, bad behaviour could be curbed at an early stage and the child will get used to the same standards and pace that has been taught to him/her since beginning from the elementary stage,” Chitiga said.
He added that it was easier to take care of a secondary pupil who has been with the institution from infancy since the rules, policies and methods of that particular school would become familiar.
“I urge other privately-run schools to do more by creating the right learning environment for the benefit of our pupils. The idea is to produce a fully-equipped child who will be ready to deal with the challenges of the future,” he said.
Sandon Academy began as a High School three years ago but doors will be opened for the first batch of primary pupils in January 2019.

Staff Reporter

Unlike many politicians who join the government with a selfish objective of squandering State resources without shame, Lovemore Matuke, who is the Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, has a different script altogether.
As a top government official and senior Zanu PF member, Matuke has managed to lead an exemplary life-style and has established a state-of-the art private school which has set new standards on how secondary and primary school pupils should be educated.
Matuke is the most immediate former Member of Parliament (MP) for Gutu Central and the work he has done in that regard is there to see.
Matuke, who is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Sandon Academy, said he wanted to see the college growing to become the best primary and secondary education centre of excellence in Zimbabwe.
“I did not look for an urban settlement or leafy suburb to establish a school but as you can see, pupils from all over the country are coming to Gutu to enrol with us. We are just a new kid on the arena but already our impact has been felt all over the country. I do not doubt that constructing this facility was a calling and I am sure generations after another will benefit from this project,” said Matuke.
The soft-spoken Matuke, who has a strong passion for the development of the country’s education sector, said it was high time that private schools set standards that allow parents to get the full value for the money they spend educating their children.
“Parents must see the value of sending their pupils to our schools. We must meet international standards so that in the near future, pupils should be flocking from the SADC region to enrol with us,” Matuke said.
Sandon Academy is a registered centre for both Zimsec and Cambridge examinations and so far, the school has recorded 100 percent and 95 percent pass rate in ‘A’ and ‘O’ level exams respectively.

For a school to be ranked among the best, many issues are factored in, most notably the presence of qualified teachers, quality learning facilities and security of children and their property.
In all these respects, Sandon Academy is found at the top, having built its infrastructure, staff complement and other services on a strong background of excellence.
The school has grown in leaps and bounds as an educational institution where children are safe, and where they do not lack anything that is critical to learning.
Sandon Academy principal, Svodai Kutadzaushe said teachers were working very hard to keep on improving themselves.
“We set some monthly targets that teachers compete to meet. They don’t compete amongst themselves but with the target and in that way, teachers improve themselves daily.
“We always encourage our teachers to prerecord their lessons and present them to the class while they sit with the children for self-evaluation. This helps them to see areas that need improvement,” said Kutadzaushe.
She also said the teacher-pupil ratio was low, with the use of interactive boards and videos aiding clearer understanding of issues.
“We thrive on two approaches; the first one being encouraging open discussion on our weaknesses and the second one the conviction that no child is a failure; the belief that children have different learning capabilities but that can all learn nonetheless. A success story for one is a success story for all and the same goes for obstacles,” Kutadzaushe said.
She also said she was satisfied with the school’s security systems that have gave real time protection to pupils, teachers and property all along.
Besides fencing, the school has night security patrols, visitors’ entry registers that all help to strengthen safety.
Health-wise, the school has a resident nurse who is always ready to help where she is needed.
“Our resident nurse does interviews with pupils especially form ones and new comers to find out if they suffer from any illness or allergy. Once that has been established, the parents are then engaged to find a solution,” she said
The school is not affiliated to any particular church but it uses an interdenominational approach where different pastors are invited to give devotions and teach on different religious topics.