The summer holidays have come to an end as children from across the country made their way back to school this morning to mark the start of the academic year for 2017. In the Western Cape, more than one million pupils set out to kick start the first term for the year.
Voice of the Cape broadcasted live from the Mountain Road Primary school in Woodstock. The atmosphere was a mixture of emotions from parents, playful laughter from students and determination to succeed by educators.
The principal at Mountain Road Primary school, Natasha Pedro, is optimistic that in 2017 the students and educators will contribute to the vision of maintaining high academic standards.
“For the year 2017 we aim to maintain our high status of academics that is a core value that we work towards.”
Speaking to VOC, Pedro highlighted that one of the challenges they face at the school is space.
“One of the biggest challenges we face is often just space. We get loads of applications and unfortunately we can’t accommodate all the applications. We have to use our space wisely because we are based in the CBD, even things like recreational fields we have to access municipal fields in order to have our learners exposed to extra mural activities,” she explained.
Despite the challenge of space the learners at Mountain Road Primary school excel in the field of sports.



The start of the year is also a very scary time for students beginning their schooling year. Below are the Grade R class of Mountain Road Primary school. With eager smiles and excitement these little ones had no tears on their first day.
VOC wishes the class of 2017 well for the coming year and everything of the best for their future endeavours.
VOC (Najma Bibi Noor Mahomed)
Photo Credit: Quanita Kamaar and Shireen Fisher