Manners4Minors was founded in 2007 by Daleen Taylor. She is a Director of The Mountain Cambridge School in Hartbeespoort and noticed the gap in social skills and social emotional learning (including basic manners) and decided to create a programme to support parents, teachers and learners. Initially it was only offered at Daleen’s school but word soon spread, demand increased and the programme as we know it today was born. This programme has become necessary because our lifestyles have changed. The platform where these skills were naturally handed over; during family dinners, Sunday family lunches and playing in the street or park with friends, has fallen away. Due to the high cost of living, we currently experience both parents have to work and the time parents spend with their children has diminished along the time we spend interacting as a family has diminished. Our children are far more exposed to technology and this “isolation socialisation” has created a gap in the real-world preparedness of our children. As educational institutions and parents, we cannot only focus on a child’s academic progress in life, we also need to pay urgent attention to the social emotional learning and emotional wellbeing of our children. Manners4Minors has become a trusted programme with a dependable reputation in its mission to create socially acceptable, effective citizens of our country.

Our business consists of franchisees known as “Miss Manners” who work in areas where they approach schools to offer weekly lessons and/or monthly workshops to children aged 3 to 6/7. Although Manners4Minors started only in the extra mural field, it is more common than not that the schools take on the programme on a co-curricular basis (where the whole class attends during school time). Our puppets – Rodney Rude, Princess Penny, Caring Kurt and Boastful Betty do most of the teaching! The curriculum has grown year-on-year, and although we teach practical skills (e.g. table setting) – the hidden curriculum affecting behaviour management and development of morals and virtues (e.g. kindness), we aim to affect the core value system of children encouraging; Willingness to please, Consideration for others, Empathy, Respect, Self-confidence, Self-esteem and Conscience.