The MADD for Africa concert was organised by teacher Louise Rowley and her drama students.

Dungog High has established ties with the JP Sanders Combined School in Tompsburg through Ms Rowley.

Ms Rowley visited South Africa in 2007 and 2008, meeting up with teacher Mariane Schmidt.

“The students have a high range of social issues including foetal alcohol syndrome which continues as the children continue to drink through their childhood,” Ms Rowley said.

“Their brains have failed to develop and they don’t have the motor skills to learn at school.

“This money will provide equipment and help implement a perceptual motor program to aid with their motor skills.”

A perceptual motor program aims to give the child experiences in seeing, hearing, touching, processing, making perceptual judgements and reacting though carefully sequenced activities which children enjoy doing like running, hopping, skipping, jumping, balancing, crawling, climbing, throwing, catching, bowling, sliding, etc., using a variety of common and specially designed equipment.

The greater the store of appropriate, automatic motor reactions, the more likely the mind will be free to consider other things such as learning.

Mrs Schmidt said these children have to be taught how to run, jump and skip – things children in Australia take for granted.

“The children need the motor skills of balance, locomotion and eye, hand and foot coordination to function properly,” she said.

“If they don’t have these things they become frustrated and won’t concentrate.”

Ms Schmidt spent last Tuesday at Dungog High School before heading to Melbourne to do a Smart Starters course, also visiting schools where the program is operational.