Our Rector, Celeste Gilardi behind the mic for the Power987 Woman Takeover

On the 12th August 2021, as part of the Women's Day/Month Celebrations, an inviation was extended to our Rector by the team at Power987 to be a part of their annual Power987 Woman Takeover, a hugely successful initiative that the station has been running for the past six years. Being in education and passionate about education, Celeste (despite being pushed way out of her comfort zone) viewed this both as an honour and as a teaching and learning opportunity and bravely took up the challenge along with her esteemed co-host, Zanele Mthembu, Chief Director of the Tshwane Region in the Gauteng Department of Education.  Together, Celeste and Zanele were tasked with taking over Lukhona Mnguni's PowerTalk slot from 9am to 12pm - three hours of live radio - no mean feat.

After much preparation, collaboration and planning, Celeste and Zanele took to the airwaves and we share with you the podcasts (broken down into one-hour sessions) of their three hour take-over.  The theme of the show was centred around education and rigorous conversations were had with the inspiring guests that joined Celeste and Zanele in studio who tackled questions, gave insight and shared hope for the future.   

The first hour of the show was dedicated to the learners and it was wonderful to have St Stithians College represented by our Head Students in our Colleges, Wantekenesha Mucharambeyi and Kutlwano "JJ" Manaka who were joined by Shairlin Baloyi from Sikhullekile Secondary School and Gift Mtombeni from Fusion Secondary School. 

The second hour focused on The Future of the Classroom and our own Head of Education Research and Innovation at St Stithians College, Dr Adrienne Watson shared insights into what the future of education can and may hold in times to come.  This hour continued with a discussion driven by Zanele around student performance and the barriers that our children face.  In this discussion, Sesi Dlamini, a Educational Psychologist with the Gauteng Department of Education and Bongi Nxumalo, Director for the FET in the Department of Education discuss how a student's ability to perform is not just a simple issue of motivation, but that there numerous barriers to education and trying to offer tools to overcome these. 

The third hour kicked off with a session hosted by Celeste who chatted to her in-studio guest, Ntombi Langa-Royds (Past Parent and Chair of our People Talent Committee) about role-modelling and mentorship and how vital this is.  The final half hour of the show was dedicated to a discussion around infrastructure and the key role that this plays in determining outcomes for education.  There is strong evidence indicating that among other benefits, high-quality infrastructure facilitates better instruction, improves student outcomes and reduces drop-outs. 

We invite you to listen back to the show and to reflect on the many key topics that were discussed. 

Part 1: Openline and Conversation with the learners.

Part 2: The future of the classroom and Performance Barriers

Part 3: Role modelling and School Infrastructure

St Sithians College and our Rector, Celeste Gilardi were honoured to be given the opportunity to be a part of this celebration of women.  We would like to thank Power987 for the opporunity, Zanele Mthembu for being a wonderful co-host and partner, Lukhona for his mentorship and for giving up his seat, the management and team at Power987 - Banyana, Sinethemba, Peter, Rose and Sibongile for their guidance and support - and finally to the listeners of Power987 for thier participation and for listening.  

#987Woman #PowerTalk #InspiringExcellence #MakingAWorldOfDifference #StrongerOneAndAll