Renate’s Visionary Leadership: Coherence to Drive Education Success in South Africa
Education Leader Spotlight
One World helps educators around the world implement solutions to the complex challenges they face so that classroom learning can thrive. Our work gives us unique insight into how dedicated leaders inspire and develop others to build systems that endure. In this series, we interview leaders at the classroom, school, network, and system level of education to share their best practices. Renate Van der Westhuizen is the founding principal of Apex High School in South Africa.
Renate van der Westhuizen’s journey into education is a powerful testament to the transformative impact of visionary leadership. As principal of Apex High School, a no-fee school in South Africa, Renate has faced significant challenges. What sets her apart is her ability to recognize a critical issue at the heart of her school’s struggles: misalignment. In South Africa’s educational system, particularly in under-resourced schools, there is often a lack of coherence—the failure to align resources, structures, and accountability systems in a way that effectively supports student success. Renate’s leadership has been about creatively addressing this misalignment, aligning every part of her school’s ecosystem to support the academic and emotional needs of her students.
The Early Awakening: Spotting the Problem of Misalignment
In the first week of Apex’s opening, Renate recalls chatting with students in the morning and casually asking a girl what she had had for dinner. “Sugar water, ma’am,” the student responded. This hit Renate hard. She realized that not only were many of her students struggling academically–81% of the founding class of ninth graders read at a fourth grade level–they were also facing severe emotional and physical challenges that no classroom setting could overcome without targeted support. Outdated methods and systems simply would not do. What was required was a holistic, integrated solution that reflected the vision and values of the school. “When you come from privilege, you know people are poor but you don’t know how it affects their lives every day. You don’t know that children go to bed with a glass of sugar water and are expected to function the next day. This made me more angry and more desperate to change the situation. In the end, if we can give that girl a proper grade 12, a proper bachelor course, and a proper sponsorship, then yes she might still struggle at university for four years but at least she’ll have a seat at the table.”
Designing a Coherent Intervention: Aligning Resources, Structures, and Accountability
The first step to creating a school culture that gives kids a seat at the table is training staff in the systems, routines, and management strategies that allow for a safe learning environment. Renate recalls that when the school first opened, the principals of the neighboring schools told her that in less than a week the windows of the school would be broken. To date, there has not been a single instance of vandalism at the school. The students and the community love, respect, and value the learning that happens within it and protect it.
That is because the school’s systems rest on a foundation of strong relationships. “Never underestimate the value of relationships with your students. If you don’t have relationships with kids, you can’t teach them. It’s virtually impossible,” she advises. “We spent almost a year creating student culture. You spend as much time as you need to get the student culture right.” She reminds school leaders that, “Rome wasn’t built in a day. There will be setbacks. There will be days when you cry in frustration. That doesn’t mean what you’re doing isn't working. You will never reach everyone on the first day but you will reach someone. And that is the journey.”
This relentless consistency is what Renate credits with the success of her school even through the COVID-19 pandemic. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the school did not miss a single day of instruction because the staff quickly adapted its curriculum to the moodle application and Renate reappropriated resources to ensure that every student and teacher had the data packages necessary to deliver and receive instruction. Seeing how teachers and administrators hustled to make learning happen no matter what the circumstances, living up to their “whatever it takes” mantra solidified the students and community’s trust and respect for the school and its staff.
The success of building a safe learning environment coupled with an unwavering commitment to high quality rigorous instruction created a happy challenge for Renate–Apex High School now had 3000 applicants for only 200 seats. Again, she saw this as an opportunity to create coherence and align the successful methodologies of online learning with the challenge of high demand for her classrooms and shortage of teachers. She introduced a blended learning model that combined online learning with face-to-face instruction, helping to alleviate some of the pressure on teachers and providing students with more personalized learning experiences.
This approach also allowed Renate to address the challenge of large class sizes. By using technology to handle certain aspects of instruction, teachers could focus on small-group instruction, closing the gaps in student understanding. The result was an academic environment where every student’s needs were addressed, and teachers had the tools and support to adjust their teaching based on real-time data.
Building a Culture of Accountability and Continuous Improvement
To ensure that the school’s intervention was effective, Renate also aligned her school’s accountability systems. She introduced a data-driven approach, where teachers and leadership staff regularly reviewed student performance and used the data to inform instructional decisions. This was a fundamental shift for many educators who were used to working without much oversight. Renate’s vision was clear, however: creating high-achieving students meant that teachers had to be held accountable for the learning happening in their classrooms, and they also needed the tools and support to succeed.
But rather than imposing a top-down system of accountability, Renate focused on creating a culture of shared responsibility, where everyone understood how their actions impacted the success of the students.
One of her key strategies was to foster instructional leadership throughout the school. Recognizing that her leadership team played a pivotal role in supporting teachers, Renate empowered them to take on the responsibility of coaching their colleagues and facilitating data meetings. This created a feedback loop where teachers were constantly refining their practices and aligning their teaching with the school’s academic goals. Renate’s leadership team was not just overseeing the operations of the school—they were deeply involved in improving teaching and learning, ensuring that all efforts were aligned with the overarching vision of student success.
Additionally, Renate shifted the focus of teaching to include critical thinking and student engagement. She recognized that students were not just passive recipients of information but active participants in their education. To encourage deeper engagement, Renate introduced a critical thinking challenge that required teachers to ask high-level questions and create opportunities for students to think for themselves. This shift required teachers to rethink their lesson planning and align their teaching practices with the goal of fostering independent, critical thinkers.
Overcoming Resistance: Aligning for Long-Term Success
Renate’s leadership has not been without its challenges. Getting teachers to buy into new approaches was not always easy. Many teachers were used to the traditional model of “I do, we do, you do” and found it difficult to adjust to a more dynamic, student-centered approach. But Renate’s unwavering belief in the importance of coherence—aligning all parts of the system toward a shared vision—helped her navigate these challenges.
She faced resistance when asking teachers to integrate critical thinking and active student participation into their classrooms. Many teachers were overwhelmed with the demands of their already heavy workloads and felt that adding new elements to their teaching would stretch them too thin. As a teacher herself, Renate was empathetic to these concerns but also pushed for a shift in mindset. “Teacher’s don’t always see the intent behind what we push for as administrators. We don’t try new strategies to be punitive or to micromanage. It's to get results so the kids can do better.” Renate showed her teachers through modeling how the new approaches would not only benefit the students but also make teaching more engaging and rewarding. By aligning their professional development with the needs of the students, Renate helped her teachers see the value in these changes and the long-term benefits for both their students and themselves.
“Our school is different and when you walk in you can feel it is different. When people ask what we do differently my answer is always the same. When I started here I knew nothing. I wasn’t a very good teacher or even a good principal. But I’ve always loved the kids. I’ve always wanted change and so I pushed myself to learn what would make me a better teacher and a better principal. We are an institution of learning and so we all must learn. What makes us successful are the principles of instructional leadership because it works. It takes the principal outside of the office, outside of administration and places them where they are needed the most and that is being responsible for the learning and teaching that is happening in the school.”
Achieving Success: The Fruits of Coherent Leadership
Despite the challenges, Renate’s efforts have paid off. Under her leadership, the school has seen marked improvements in both academic performance and student engagement. One of the most telling signs of success has been the school’s ability to outperform other, wealthier schools in the area. Despite being a no-fee institution, Apex High School consistently ranks among the top schools in its district–currently number 8 out of 61.
The school’s academic results are a reflection of the coherence Renate has built within the organization. By aligning teaching strategies, instructional methods, data-driven accountability, and emotional support, Renate has created an environment where students are given the tools they need to succeed—regardless of their background or circumstances. In 2018, the same principal who told her the windows would be broken, also pointed to one of her students and said, “you see that boy, he’s going to end up in the streets before the end of the year.” That student has finished his bachelors and is currently studying to be a teacher. He’s gotten a seat at the table and will be working to get others like him a seat too.
Looking Ahead: Building on a Foundation of Coherence
As Renate reflects on her journey, she remains committed to meet the needs of her students. Her leadership has shown that achieving coherence is not just about fixing one problem—it’s about creating a system where every part works together to support student success.
Key Takeaways:
Aligning Resources, Structures, and Accountability: Effective leadership requires aligning all elements of the school system—teaching strategies, resources, and accountability structures—toward a unified goal. Renate’s leadership demonstrates that achieving coherence across the school ecosystem, where each component supports student success, is essential for long-term impact.
Creativity in Overcoming Resource Constraints: When resources are scarce, leaders must be creative. Renate’s blended learning model, which combines online and in-person instruction, maximized limited resources and allowed for personalized learning. This creative solution not only addressed logistical challenges but also enhanced student engagement and academic achievement.
Building a Safe and Supportive Environment: Coherent leadership is not only about academics. Renate’s approach integrates emotional and social support, recognizing that students’ well-being is critical to their academic success. Creating a safe and nurturing environment allows students to thrive both personally and academically.
Empowering Teachers through Instructional Leadership: Successful schools thrive on strong leadership at all levels. By involving her leadership team in coaching and supporting teachers, Renate fostered a culture of continuous improvement. Empowering teachers to take ownership of their instructional practices can significantly impact student learning outcomes.
Fostering Critical Thinking and Student Agency: Shifting the focus from teacher-led instruction to student-centered, critical thinking promotes deeper engagement and better academic performance. Educational leaders should prioritize creating learning environments where students take an active role in their education, which leads to long-term success and independence.
Written by
Lariely García, One World Network of Schools