No bells, no homework - school's so much fun

Imagine a school with no bells, no detention, allows its pupils to play whenever they want and rejects the traditional marking system in favour of mastering a concept.

Instead of putting a right or wrong tick next to pupils' work, the teacher will either put "yet" or "not yet".

This is Sun Valley primary in Fish Hoek, Cape Town, where the headmaster is pushing ahead with innovative teaching methods after the success of his decision to scrap homework in 2015.

"Children should do what comes naturally to them and that is playing," said principal Gavin Keller.

Keller saidhe was inspired by the works of Stanford University's Carol Dweck and US psychologist Angela Duckworth and their work on growth mindset and grit, respectively.

He saidthe best way to produce grit is to instil a growth mindset, which encourages development and adequate learning. A fixed mindset prizes accuracy and knowledge, which, for Keller, is not the best way to teach a child.

School awards have been replaced with grit awards where the school recognises every pupil's level of grit.

At the age of 10, pupils carry out parent-teacher interviews, during which the pupil tells the teacher and parent what his individual academic goals were for the year and what he has achieved.

The length of the class will be determined by the teacher. So, if after 20 minutes pupils lose interest in the subject, they are allowed to go outside and play before resuming learning.

"It is the doing away with the ticks and crosses and telling pupils they haven't understood the concept just yet, so struggle on a bit longer. We are telling them that it is OK to get it wrong."

Walking through the colourful passage of the school, it is not hard to see why Keller saidthere had been an increase in school attendance and children overall were happier since the stresses of academia had been relaxed.

"The emotional reasoning of the pupils has definitely increased since the new teaching method," said the school's counsellor, Michael Raven. He has been at the school for five years and said he had seen a tremendous change in the pupils.

"Sun Valley kids are undoubtedly highly confident and there is less need for punitive discipline."

Each class has two teachers: one for teaching and another who gives individualised attention to those who need it.

"Never give up on what you do," said a Grade 4 pupil when asked what the school's teaching method meant to her. "I wrote a song and sang it in front of the school and even though I didn't want to because I was nervous, I was able to do so because I had grit."

Liesl Krog, who has two children attending Sun Valley, said the family was able to spend quality time with one another instead of the hustle and bustle to finish homework.