Dear colleagues
It is our great privilege to invite you and your staff to the first ACSI National Teachers Conference, which will be held at Maranatha Christian School in Kempton Park, Gauteng, on Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 February 2027.
As you know, ACSI South Africa currently hosts ten teachers’ conferences across the country each year – and we have been humbled to see how these have grown in recent years. We thank you for your support of these events and trust that they have sown meaningfully into your teachers and leaders.
Now – building on the success of these events, as well as the National Principals Conference – we are excited to launch the first ACSI South Africa National Teachers Conference. It is envisaged that this conference will only take place every four or five years, in a different province each time, and as such it is being planned to be something really special and to reflect the excellence which we believe God expects of his schools.
The focus of the conference will be completely different to the normal teachers’ conferences, which are largely workshop based. This conference will be more along the lines of the ACSI National Principals Conference, with top plenary speakers, vibrant worship, and also time for you and your team to meet to debrief about what was learned during the plenary sessions and how this can be applied at your school.
As such, our theme verse will be “So that I may come to you with joy, by God’s will, and in your company be refreshed.” Romans 15:32
We trust that the conference will be a time of filling the tanks of your teachers and of energising them at the start of the year. We plan to make this conference more of a retreat than just a conference, and hope that school teams will be able to leave on Sunday having had a meaningful and special time connecting with colleagues from across the- country.
We will not be hosting a teachers conference in Gauteng, Limpopo or the North West Province (Mahikeng) in 2027, to allow schools to get to the National Teachers Conference. These will revert again in 2028.
We know that the cost of attending the conference will be more than you would normally pay to attend a one-day teachers conference, particularly because of all the additional meals and teas during the event, but please be assured that we have kept it as low as we can, in order for as many schools to attend as possible. The total cost of the conference will be R780.00 per person for ACSI Partner Schools and R900.00 per person for Non-partner Schools.
Please note the meals included in the envisaged programme below. Water will also be available to delegates during the conference.
We would suggest that schools that will be staying overnight do some research soon to find out what accommodation is available. Although the venue is in Kempton Park, getting there from your accommodation should not be too difficult on a weekend. Some suggestions of accommodation websites that you might try are: www.booking.com & www.lekkeslaap.co.za & www.trivago.co.za
A recommendation is to make use of the first three sites to research venues, prices, reviews, and distance from Maranatha Christian School, but then to contact the venues directly to make your booking. Those familiar with Airbnb and who do not mind self-catering options can also make use of this site: www.airbnb.co.za
The envisaged programme is outlined below. We have deliberately chosen to start a bit later on the Saturday, to allow schools to travel to the event that morning, and it will end after lunch on Sunday, once again giving the opportunity for schools to return home safely:
Because we know that some schools in provinces further afield will not be able to attend the National Teachers Conference, but would still like to enjoy the various speakers, we will also make a recording of the different plenary sessions available a week after the conference closes. While this may not be quite as exciting as attending in person, we are sure that your staff will still gain enormously from the top speakers that we will have at the conference. The cost of the recorded conference will be communicated closer to the time.
We are deliberately sending out this invitation now, so that you can include it in your budget for next year. Please note, though, that payment will only be required next year. While we know that there are inevitable changes on each school’s teaching staff at the end of the year, it would be really helpful if you could give us a rough indication now of how many teachers are likely to attend the National Teachers Conference by completing the registration form, via the “Provisional Registration” button at the top of each page.
We look forward to seeing you at what we are sure is going to be a memorable event next year! Should you have any queries regarding the conference, please feel free to contact Nicole Thomas at nicole_thomas@acsi.org.
Warm regards
Neil Malherbe,
ACSI South Africa Director.
