Page 48 - Education Supplement August 2025

Cub Club: Building Thinking

Classrooms in a System

Under Pressure

By Nicola Killops

t 7:45 a.m. in some South African What Cub Club Does (And Why It’s Different)
classrooms, the day begins with Cub Club follows the CAPS curriculum. However, it restores the elements that
Aa headcount and a whispered the standard system often overlooks.
prayer: “Please let me get through this.”
• Critical thinking
Some teachers face 86 children
Children learn how to think, not just what to think. From the first
before the bell has even rung. Not 86
grades, they use CORT strategies and the Six Thinking Hats in
sets of eyes looking to learn, but 86
Maths, Languages, Life Skills, and beyond. These are not treated as
stories. Some carry trauma. Some
bonus activities. They are the lesson.
carry hunger. Some carry the weight
of getting younger siblings out of
• Emotional literacy
bed, fed, and dressed before walking
Every day begins with A Better Me reflections. Children learn to
themselves to school.
pause, to check in with themselves, and to build self-awareness as
part of their learning, not alongside it.
And yet, somehow, lessons begin.
• Multiple intelligences learning
This aspect of education is often
Lessons include interactive videos, group work, movement, quiet
overlooked in policy documents. It isn’t
moments, and open discussion. No two learners process the world
about device rollouts or curriculum
the same way, and Cub Club is designed to meet them in that
targets. It is about real people, under real
truth.
pressure, trying to do the impossible with
whatever they have that day.
• Real digital access
For many children, Cub Club is the first time they hold a tablet for
The Why Behind Cub Club
learning, not for distraction. They are building digital literacy that
Cub Club wasn’t built for the kind of
will stay with them long after they leave the classroom.
classroom that fits in glossy brochures.
It was created for the ones held
together by determination, coping
strategies, and hope.

It isn’t a shiny extra for a system that
is already running smoothly. It is a
support structure for schools under
strain. For teachers who don’t just
feel overwhelmed—they live there.
For learners who need more than
academic content because their
lives demand more from them than
memorisation and grades.

Cub Club changes the way learning
feels. It shifts the rhythm of the school
day. Not through headline reforms or big
announcements, but through small, quiet
moves that build from the inside out.

Education | August 2025 | 46