Amanda Ceglowski

Amanda Ceglowski's first teaching post was as an Afrikaans teacher at Westville Girls' High School in 1976. She had just completed a BA and a Higher Education Diploma at the University of Natal, with English, Afrikaans, History and Speech and Drama as her subjects. A year later she moved to St Mary's Diocesan School for Girls in Kloof to teach English, Speech and Drama and Religious Instruction. Within two years of joining St Mary's she had been appointed head of the English department.

In the mid-1990s she lectured in the English department of the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg. She taught extracurricular Speech and Drama at Highbury in Hillcrest for 32 years. From 1998 she provided English and Afrikaans academic support and remediation to Highbury's primary school learners, and she still teaches Highbury learners who need private tuition. At Kearsney College she worked as a teacher and remedial therapist, and at St Mary's DSG, from 2007 to 2017, as a specialised academic support teacher in English, Afrikaans, History, Art Theory and Speech and Drama. From 2016 to 2020 she was the academic and educational support and remedial therapist at Curro Hillcrest High, a role she continued online through the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Two honours degrees, fifteen years apart

In 1993 Amanda completed a BA Honours in English Language and Literature through UNISA, cum laude. In 2008 she completed a second postgraduate degree, a B.Ed Honours in Inclusive Education, also cum laude. It specialised in academic support and remediation in English and Afrikaans, in designing individual learning programmes, and in counselling. Her areas of particular study included dyslexia, attention deficit disorders (both hyperactive and inattentive), behavioural and emotional barriers to learning, giftedness, underachievement, study skills, and the teaching of English and Afrikaans as second languages.

Amanda is therefore qualified both as a senior English and Afrikaans teacher and as a remedial specialist.

The practice in Hillcrest

Since 2007 Amanda has run her own practice from a classroom at her home in Hillcrest. Learners have come from Kearsney College, St Mary's DSG, Curro Hillcrest Christian Academy, Waterfall College, Thomas More College, St Charles College, Epworth, Westville Boys' High School and many other schools, writing the DBE and IEB National Senior Certificate, Cambridge IGCSE and AS & A Levels, the American GED and the Australian (Queensland) syllabus. Online lessons, which began during the lockdowns, are now a regular part of the practice, for learners across South Africa and abroad.

Most of her learners are in Grade 11 and Grade 12, the majority of them IEB candidates. Some have lessons in groups to prepare for the trial and final examinations, and others need specialised individual tuition. She also teaches primary school children, learners with significant barriers to learning who need one-to-one remediation, gifted and high-achieving learners, university students, and adults learning English or Afrikaans as an additional language.

How she teaches

Amanda's lessons are built around the individual learner and the particular examination they are preparing for. She plans each learner's work around their school tests, projects and examinations. Written work is marked against the examiners' own rubrics where these are available. Parents are kept informed and encouraged to take part. Her lessons are a safe, encouraging space: learners can ask questions without embarrassment, difficulties with learning or attention are met with patience, and what learners share with her is kept confidential. She teaches strong learners aiming for distinctions as well as learners who are struggling. Learners and families who need it can also draw on her counselling experience, offered as a separate service and in confidence.

She is a member of the South African Council for Educators (SACE) and of the National Professional Teachers' Organisation of South Africa (NAPTOSA).