Karen Gottschalk has been a Learning Support Educator at Herzlia Constantia for over 20 years. Throughout the time that I was the Principal of Herzlia Constantia, Karen has offered support and advice to children who experienced barriers to learning in all areas of literacy and numeracy.
She is skilled and experienced and completes outstanding assessments that guide the teachers in the classroom and advise the parents. Karen is always learning new techniques and challenges herself to try strategies that enhance the child‘s learning.
As a colleague, Karen offered time to discuss the cases she worked with and attended all Learning support meetings offering valuable insights and advice. She is empathetic and caring and takes great pride in delivering excellent lessons and support.
Karen is also very thorough and writes Termly reports for the parents to give feedback on the child‘s progress.
Karen attended Training in the UK to enhance her skills as well as has written and developed a programme that comes with a manual to assist children in their study skills.
Throughout the year of Covid Karen continued to teach and guide children online. She upskilled herself to be able to assist in the virtual space. This is a huge challenge as children with barriers to learning sometimes find online learning rather difficult, yet they succeeded with her.
I wish Karen all the best for her future and know that the children who need her support and expertise will benefit hugely from engaging with her and being supported by her.
In Grade R, it was recommended by Layla’s teacher at Herzlia Constantia that she start Remedial lessons with Karen in Grade 1. It was daunting at the time, but we decided that we could not turn back anything if we did not commit to this, and we did not want Layla to face the challenges that lay ahead as each year the work load got more, and became more difficult.
We were incredibly blessed to have Karen helping Layla in the 4 years that she assisted her. Karen was patient, understanding, and encouraged Layla in every lesson. She gave her homework to reinforce what she was taught. Karen was thorough, professional and very caring towards Layla. Karen gave us unbelievable advice and feedback on Layla’s progress through all the years she helped her. We appreciated Karen’s honesty when she told us that Layla could stop Remedial Lessons in the middle of Grade 4 as Layla was coping so well in class. Today, we have a confident, well-rounded, happy Grade 9 daughter who absolutely loves school and since she has been at Middle School has achieved As each year. We have no hesitation in recommending Karen to children who need assistance with their learning.
Karen’s caring and attentive manner of teaching over a 2 year period provided our son with valuable tools which have guided him into a space where he no longer needs additional learning support – Thank you Karen – much appreciated!
Karen not only has vast experience in remedial teaching, but she also has a true gift for working with children. Her genuine interest and care for her students shines through. Karen has helped my son overcome significant reading challenges, and teaches him in such a warm and positive way that he is always happy and engaged in her lessons, even on days when he is reluctant to do other school work.
We highly recommend Karen Gottschalk. She tutored my son Lyle Rimmer when he was in primary school and we discovered that he had a reading disability. With her help and patience he was able to overcome this challenge. She fostered a love for reading and inspired self-confidence in him. Today I am proud of him having completed Grade 12 and studied Information Technology. He is successfully employed. I am eternally grateful to Karen.
Karen is passionate about assisting children whose barriers to learning are language based. Her work is meticulously planned and thorough. She interacts with each child with compassion and understanding, meeting them on their individual functioning level and gently but effectively growing their language skills. Karen has a wealth of experience and knowledge in this field. She is constantly adding to her knowledge by attending workshops, conferences and seminars, thus keeping abreast with up to date research, methods and information in the area of language based learning difficulties. I worked closely with Karen for ten years in the field of Special Education and valued her as a colleague. Many children have flourished under her tutelage.
Karen has worked with my son for just over a year now, and has taught him essential reading skills and techniques in a fun manner. Her online classes are interactive and engaging. Karen’s magic has been able to transform my child’s confidence in reading, from fear to enjoyment. I highly recommend Karen and the Learn to Read Online program!
It is my honour and pleasure to provide a letter of recommendation for Karen Gottschalk as she will make an invaluable contribution to improving your child’s English skills and self- confidence. Karen Gottschalk and I have worked together for 6 and a half years and during all this time, I have found her to be incredibly motivated, enthusiastic, organised, diligent with an outstanding work ethic and always willing to do more than her part. She has shown an incredible passion for teaching children one-on-one or in small groups using inclusive and differentiated teaching styles. Karen Gottschalk adapted very quickly to online teaching and has already had many successes with this new approach. She also has a lovely rapport with our children, parents and colleagues which is characterised by mutual respect.
SENCO & Vice-Principal of Herzlia Constantia School
Karen Gottschalk is a simply remarkable learning support teacher with an absolute passion for teaching children to read. She is a master teacher and the combination of her passion for both reading and children, her extraordinary expertise and her never ending patience result in positive happy children who are able to master reading and regain their self confidence. As the ex special educational needs coordinator at Herzlia Constantia and the current head of learning support at The Grove primary school I cannot recommend her highly enough. Any child lucky enough to be taught by her is fortunate indeed.
HOD: Learning Support
Hi Karen. Please excuse my quietness generally in responding to your emails! I do note and read all of them. From my side I would like to really commend you on the wonderful work you are doing, and continue to do, with K. It is really amazing to see the tangible developmental results from your amazing work. Thank You Again!
