ABOUT OUR TEAM
Our Staff
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Our dedicated staff form the backbone of our success. For this reason, we appoint qualified and dedicated teachers and assistants to ensure that they are able to implement our MiniGenius curriculum to our required standards. We also deliberately foster a specific culture of care which puts the physical and emotional welfare of our children above all else. All teachers undergo our in-house MiniGenius and MiniRobotics induction course and attend annual MiniGenius and MiniRobotics workshops. We also partner with the SA Noodhulpliga / SA First Aid League for our First Aid certification as well as additional annual refresher courses to best prepare our staff in case of an accident or medical emergency.
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Practical Stuff:
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We are open during all school holidays
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We close in the second week of December and open in the first week of January
Principal: Nikita Rika Pretorius
BE.d Foundation Phase
BE.d Honours Learning support
Nikita is a BE.d Foundation Phase graduate from the NWU (Potchefstroom) and completed her Postgraduate studies (Hons.) in Learning support at the NWU (Potchefstroom).
She started her career as a preschool teacher and was fascinated by the development of preschool children. She also worked with learners who had different learning disabilities. After that, she left the mainstream teaching space to specialise in teaching learners on the Autism Spectrum. She formed part of a team of specialists who focussed on the development and educational outcomes for non-verbal Autistic learners. She was involved in numerous educational projects including curriculum development for Foundation Phase learners and in the Early Childhood development field.
Nikita developed MiniGenius, our specialised academic programme. MiniGenius is a comprehensive Early Childhood Development curriculum that fosters holistic development, encompassing social, emotional, cognitive, and physical skills through play-based, age-appropriate activities, nurturing a strong foundation for lifelong learning. Nikita is passionate about Education and the holistic development of young minds.
Dr J (Lieb) Liebenberg
PhD & MIT (Information Technology)
Owner & founder of Crayon Kids & MiniGenius
Dr J (Lieb) Liebenberg holds a doctorate from the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and MIT (Information Technology) from the University of Pretoria (both with distinction). He has a keen interest in how humans of all ages understand and learn and has delivered and published academic papers on learning and eLearning locally and abroad since 2006. He is on the review panel of the South African Journal of Childhood Education. Dr Liebenberg was also the organiser of the first Mind, Brain and Education Seminar in Africa (2018) as well as the follow-up in 2019. He has presented workshops on “Mind, Brain and Education” to educators all over South Africa and written a number of blogs and popular articles on “learning and the brain”.
Dr Liebenberg founded ITSI (which pioneered eLearning in South Africa) in 2006 and was the CEO until 2019. During his time as CEO the ITSI platform was used by many of the top private and public schools in SA as well as by the University of Johannesburg and University of Pretoria. He has been involved in learning research and development since 2006 and has delivered academic papers on eLearning as well as published on the subject in peer-reviewed journals.
His current research focus is Mind, Brain and Education - specifically how foundation teaching and learning could benefit from the latest findings in neuroscience, cognitive science and pedagogy.
