Page 24 - Dainfern Precinct Living Issue 10 2025

ESTATE MATTERS
ESTATE MATTERS
EDUCATION
LEAP 4 DIEPSLOOT

A school that just feels different

B Y NIC OLA KILL OPS

didn’t quite know what to expect when
I visited LEAP 4 in Diepsloot. I’d heard
about the LEAP Science and Maths
I Schools before — their strong results,
their unique approach, their focus on heart
as much as head — but nothing really
prepares you for what it feels like to step
onto their campus.
From the moment I arrived, I could sense
it. The energy was calm yet alive, filled with
laughter and the steady hum of purpose. Two
Grade 11 learners, Miriam and Mangaliso,
walked me through the grounds with obvious
pride. Their excitement about their future
was infectious — the kind of hope that
doesn’t come from slogans or speeches, but
from lived experience.

The first thing I noticed was how spotless
everything was. In more than two decades of I met with Progress Masilo, the school’s classrooms you find focus, respect, and
teaching and visiting schools, I’ve never set leader, and James Malope, part of the quiet determination. Every student receives
foot on a property where litter simply isn’t fundraising and executive team. Their breakfast and lunch, funded through
a problem. LEAP 4 is that rare exception. It passion for education is both practical and partners like Lunchbox, because a hungry
speaks volumes — about ownership, respect, profound. They speak about children the way child can’t learn. The school day runs long —
and a culture where every learner feels true educators do — as whole human beings from 7:30 to 4:30 — and Saturdays are often
responsible for whose emotional, social, and psychological spent in extra classes or community-service
the space well-being is inseparable from academic projects.
they success.
share. The results speak for themselves: consistent
At LEAP 4, that philosophy is lived every day. 100 percent matric pass rates, alumni who
Life Orientation isn’t a box to tick; it’s a circle return as teachers, and a reputation that
— literally. Learners and teachers sit together, stretches far beyond Diepsloot’s borders.
talk through emotions, share experiences,
and listen. When a child says they’re “fine,” Progress Masilo describes the school, the
someone gently asks what “fine” really family, and the learner as the three legs of a
means. It’s a space where empathy is taught, tripod — “if one breaks, the structure falls.”
modelled, and practised until it becomes James Malope calls it “head, heart, and
habit. hand”: the hand does the work, the heart
understands, and the head makes sense of it.
Many of LEAP 4’s learners come from Between them, they’ve created a community
challenging home situations, yet inside those where learners not only study but belong.

LEAP 4 Diepsloot is one of eight LEAP
Science and Maths Schools across South
Africa — from Cape Town to Johannesburg
and Pretoria, right through to Paarl and
Polokwane — with a ninth campus scheduled
to open in the Eastern Cape in 2026. Each
school is built on the same belief that
education must nurture the whole child.
But this particular campus, tucked inside a
converted warehouse in one of Gauteng’s
most densely populated areas, is proof that
purpose matters more than privilege.

I left Diepsloot that day inspired. The
teachers, the learners, and the leadership
team are doing something extraordinary:
reminding us that great education doesn’t
depend on money or status — it depends on
love, structure, and belief.

And that’s something every school in South
Africa could learn from.
22 DPL issue 10 2025