Nov 5 / KARINA ANDERSEN

ELSWOOD HIGH TURNING POINT

MEDIA RELEASE

After seven months partnering with The SmilingOne Foundation, Cape Town school leadership pauses to rethink reactive disciplinary approaches.

Cape Town, Western Cape - Nov 5th 2025

Every tool in the discipline playbook has been tried at Elswood High School. Detention. Suspensions. Community service. Book confiscation. None of it works. Students keep disrupting. Teachers keep punishing. The cycle continues. Until now.

Seven months after partnering with The SmilingOne Foundation, Principal Mr. Kiewiet sat in a quarterly review meeting on November 4th and described something different: 

"We are starting to look through the lens of what happened to the learner.”

It's not a declaration of transformation complete. It's a pause. A realisation. A willingness to try something different. And in a school system where reactive disciplinary approaches have dominated for decades, that pause is revolutionary.

The school, located in Elsies River - one of Cape Town's most affected communities - serves students navigating complex realities that most people only read about.

THE QUESTION BEHIND THE QUESTION

When teachers ask "Why are you acting like this?" they're really asking: "Why are you choosing to disrupt? Why can't you just behave? Why are you making my job harder?" The assumption is that the student is choosing this behaviour. The response is to impose consequences: punish the behaviour, enforce the rules, maintain control. The student is the problem to be fixed.

But when you dig deeper - when you move beyond surface behaviour to understand what's beneath it - and ask "What happened to this student?" you're asking something fundamentally different: "What is this student experiencing that makes this behaviour their best available response right now? What are they navigating that I can't see? What's happening in their world that shows up as disruption in mine?" The response is understanding: address root causes, build capacity for different choices, equip rather than punish. The environment is the problem; the student is surviving it.

"When in survival mode, aggression is often the go-to," explains Franklin, SmilingOne's Project Coordinator. "I'm trying to protect myself. I have no other way to protect myself but to harm you.”

Students at Elswood aren't being defiant - they’re using the tools their environment taught them. At home, vulnerability gets punished, softness gets exploited. Students arrive at school having learnt: "If I'm soft, people gonna walk over me." They're doing what they must to survive.

Ground Zero: Understanding a Level One Environment

Elsies River is one of Cape Town's most affected communities, where students navigate realities that shape every interaction:

  • Gang violence and drugs: The area is dominated by territorial gang warfare with frequent shootings. Tik (methamphetamine) has devastated families. Some homes function as drug dens. Students know which routes are safe, which aren't, and that violence can erupt without warning.
  • Food insecurity is real and consistent. Students arrive at school having not eaten, affecting concentration and behaviour. Families struggle with unemployment, uncertain if rent will be paid or if there will be food - this becomes the baseline students operate from.
  • Violence as learned behaviour: In homes where stress is constant and coping mechanisms are limited, violence becomes the problem-solving tool. Students learn early: this is how conflict gets handled. Vulnerability gets punished. Softness gets exploited.
  • Witnessing violence, losing family members to gang shootings or drug overdoses, living with the hyper-vigilance that survival requires - this creates layers of unprocessed trauma that students carry into classrooms.

Students don't leave this reality at the school gates. They bring it into classrooms. Teachers see disruptive behaviour, defiance, aggression, lying. The old question - “Why are you behaving this way?” - leads to punishment that doesn't address what's actually happening. The cycle continues.


A shift from Ground Zero level one to Ground Zero level two (the goal)

SmilingOne's aim isn't to fix but to equip, helping students and teachers navigate their environment and become drivers of the change they want to see. Together, they co-create a healthier space, shifting into a Level Two reality: from chaos to calm, from reaction to reflection, from 'nobody cares' to 'I am seen' - a space where growth conversations can take place and potential can be unlocked.

STUDENTS SPEAK - ADULTS LISTEN DIFFERENTLY

SmilingOne's strategy works on two levels: casting a wide net through exposure classes, and offering a deep dive through the SmilingOne Club for those ready for more intensive support.


Since launch, SmilingOne has facilitated 77 exposure classes with 26-27 students per class. Using the Level One Environment Map, they tackle conversations adults usually avoid. Students open up about lack of motivation, aggression, defeat.
The honesty startles: "I must lie. I must survive this. If I don't lie, I'm not gonna get away."

Management teacher Mr. Olyn witnessed these exposure classes in his own classroom. "It changed how I see students," he said. "I now understand so much more about what they are going through.” When teachers move from judging behaviour to understanding context, transformation begins.

Twenty-eight students chose the deeper dive: the SmilingOne Club. Students describe it as "the only space to get away from the chaos, a place to finally just release everything” - a space where judgement stops and listening begins. For students who in a Level One reality have learnt that vulnerability invites attack, this is revolutionary.

From isolation to "I'm Not Alone"
The breakthrough comes quietly. In the club, students make a discovery: they're not alone in their struggles. The isolation - the "nobody cares" feeling - begins to crack.

  • 60% of club members maintain middle to high attendance. 
  • Two students achieved top attendance (14 sessions). 
  • Student leadership emerged organically. Blessing, a Grade 10 student, recruited seven friends - not because she was appointed, but because she believed in what she'd found.

"Leadership can't be imposed - it unfolds naturally when you create the conditions for growth," said Karina Andersen, Founder of The SmilingOne Foundation. "These are the champions that are going to help us shift the environment.”

Teachers: An Army of Support


Seven months of exposure classes have shifted how teachers see their role. It's no longer just about academics - making classroom space work requires something deeper.

The exposure classes reveal why students disengage. Past experiences led to defeat and disconnection. When passion fades and negative experiences remain unspoken, students cope through silence, avoidance, or escape. They've learnt that talking about difficulties feels "horrible" and failing is shameful - so they stop trying. Students caught in survival mode can't receive teaching the way students who've been seen, met, and understood can.

The task isn't just to teach curriculum - it’s to find a new meeting place with students that helps them reengage in life, in learning, in their future. Teachers are now actively making space for this work. They're referring students to SmilingOne, sharing observations, participating in SmilingOne support sessions themselves. They're becoming ambassadors of change, an army of support essential for shifting school culture.

WHAT COMES NEXT?

"Small shifts with big meaning" that represent "a positional change from where we were to now” - that’s how Principal Kiewiet describes what's emerging at Elswood. After witnessing SmilingOne's capacity for having these difficult conversations with students, school leadership is now considering a restorative approach rather than a punitive one. The question behind the question is starting to take root.


SmilingOne will continue building alongside their partners at Elswood High, inviting them to show up in what the foundation calls "the daily leadership gym” - the ongoing practice of choosing understanding over punishment, growth over reaction.

The work continues: expanding exposure classes, deepening teacher partnerships, enrolling more students into the club space. In 2026, the foundation aims to activate parent conversations as the next phase of their Partners in Education strategy.

Beyond Elswood, SmilingOne is developing a Project Resource Guide so other schools and organisations can benefit from their approach to shifting stuck places.

ABOUT THE SMILINGONE FOUNDATION

Since 2008, The SmilingOne Foundation has worked in some of South Africa's toughest environments. Its evidence-based methodology has been refined over 18 years and uniquely bridges prisons and schools: Change Agents mentored inside correctional centres return as relatable role models in schools, disrupting cycles of violence and disengagement. These rehabilitated men, who grew up in the same high-risk environments, walk next to youth as authentic guides who understand the reality students face.

SmilingOne's six-year success at Ravensmead High (2019-2024), and ongoing work inside Brandvlei Maximum Prison, prove that transformation can be sustained and replicated when environments are healed. The work at Elswood High applies these lessons - bringing a proven approach to another community in need.


CONTACT

🌐 visit our website: www.circlesofchange.academy/sof 

📩 Contact: Karina Andersen | karina@smilingone.com

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