Your child’s future starts today.
An independent remedial school in Parkview, Johannesburg.
Therapy and learning support, built into every school day.
Every child learns differently.
Japari is an independent remedial school in Parkview where teaching and therapy work side by side in the school day. Small classes, an individual education plan (IEP) for every child, and sixty years of learning support that helps each child reach their full potential.
On one side, everything a mainstream school offers. On the other, the support we build in. They grow together.
The CAPS curriculum
Grade R to Grade 7, the national CAPS curriculum, reports, homework, Friday cycle tests in the senior grades, and a Grade 7 year that ends with the same shared assessment tasks mainstream private schools write.
A uniform, a bell, a tuck shop
Navy and grey, a blue fleece in winter. School starts at 07:30 on the bell. Assembly, break, sports day, a school play, Heritage Day in traditional dress.
Sport, art, music, drama
Cricket, soccer, swimming and athletics in established leagues against other schools, netball when we can, and chess, sewing, hip hop and board games in the afternoons.
Friends
About 190 children, so everyone is known, and every child finds classmates who understand them.
Aftercare until 17:30
Supervised homework and play, Monday to Thursday until 17:30 and Friday until 17:00, during term.
Small classes
Few enough children that a teacher notices the morning your child is not themselves, and can do something about it.
Therapists in the building
Speech therapists, occupational therapists, a physiotherapist and educational psychologists work here, in the school day, planned with the class teacher. For Grades 1 to 5, group therapy and rotating individual speech and occupational therapy are included in the fees. Therapy serves the learning, so the rest of the day stays lessons, friends and play.
An individual education plan
Every child has an individual education plan (IEP): a working document that sets out learning goals and is updated as your child progresses. You will know what we are working on and how it is going.
Teachers trained for this
Remedial teaching is a specialism. Our teachers are trained to teach children who learn differently, and to build their confidence along the way.
Ready for high school
Our Grade 7s write the Independent Schools’ Mathematics and English shared assessment tasks every October, which prepares them for Grade 8. When a child is ready for a mainstream high school, we help you choose one and we help them get there.
A child who is known, and ready.
Therapy is the method. A full school life is the point. Mainstream high school is where it leads.
Will my child be okay?
Children here are known, and they are taught the way they learn.
Classes are small, therapy happens in the school day rather than after it, and every child has an individual education plan (IEP) that you see.
Usually the first change is not in the marks. It is a child who wants to go to school again, who comes home talking about a friend, a teacher, a goal at break. Confidence comes back first. The marks follow.
- A first term spent getting to know your child: how they learn, what gets in the way, and what helps.
- An individual education plan you can read, with goals that are updated as your child grows, not a label that stays.
- One team around your child, teachers and therapists who talk to each other, and to you.
Will they be ready for high school?
That is what everything here is working towards.
Our Grade 7s write the same shared assessment tasks as children at mainstream private schools, so you see where your child stands before high school, not after. Japari children go on to mainstream high schools, ready to cope with the work.
- Shared assessment tasks in Mathematics and English every October, written alongside mainstream private schools.
- Help choosing a high school that suits your child, and help preparing them for the move.
Ask us at your visit which high schools our Grade 7s have gone on to.
Who it is for
Children of average to above-average ability who learn differently: dyslexia, attention difficulties, language or motor delays, or a confidence that has slipped.
What it costs
Fees are paid over eleven months and include group speech and occupational therapy in Grades 1 to 5.
See the 2027 feesHow to start
Book a private visit with our psychologist. It takes about an hour, during a school day. Or call Val on 011 646 2132.
Book a visitWhy families choose Japari
We specialise in an environment where children who don’t fit traditional learning models can flourish, and leave us ready for what comes next.
Personalised learning
An individual education plan (IEP) for every child, set in the first term and updated with you as your child grows.
A caring environment
Small classes, teachers who know every child by name, and classmates who understand what it is to find school hard.
Specialised programmes
Remedial teaching, with speech and occupational therapy, physiotherapy and educational psychology, inside the school day.
Proven over sixty years
Since 1966 we have helped generations of children find the way they learn, and go on with confidence.
One fee. The school and the support.
Many families end up paying for school, paying again for speech and occupational therapy, and spending their afternoons driving between the two. At Japari the school, the therapy and the people who plan it are in one place, inside the school day.
Therapy in the fees
From 2027, children in Grades 1 to 5 receive group therapy and rotating individual speech and occupational therapy as part of the school fee.
Your afternoons back
Therapy is timetabled in the school day, not after it. Aftercare runs until 17:30, Monday to Thursday, if you need it.
One team, one plan
Teachers, therapists and psychologists plan together around your child’s individual education plan, so nobody is working on their own.
Making your fees go further
- Extra one-on-one therapy, beyond what the school’s team recommends, is arranged privately with the therapist and can often be claimed from your medical aid, depending on your plan.
- Pay the year’s fees upfront and an early settlement discount comes off the annual fee.
What families tell us
A team of teachers who saw her not through the lens of her learning difficulties, but through the lens of her potential.
“The kid who was too afraid to cross the pedestrian crossing every morning… the witty, confident young man he’s become now.”
“This year has been transformational.”
Sixty years of changing children’s lives
Dr Sonia Machanick, a doctor and educational psychologist, opened Japari in 1966, when a learning difference was too often mistaken for a lack of ability. She named the school for her four children: Janice, Paul, Roy and Ian.
Sixty years on, the idea is the same. Find out how each child learns, give the right support early and inside the school day, and generations of children have gone on to cope, and thrive, at mainstream high schools.
Take a walk through the school
Classrooms, therapy rooms and the field. Press play for the full Japari 2026 film, with sound.
Ready to begin your child’s journey?
Different doesn’t mean less capable. Book a private visit during a school day, or call Val on 011 646 2132.
