Visual Art. After the successful Arts Festival in June 2008, the two art groups at Sophumelela and Philippi High continued to have lessons in drawing, painting and design. The lessons were conducted by Khaya Sineyile,  Suzanne Duncan and Danielle de Kock. Towards the end of the 3^rd school term the learners had a lesson in perspective as it relates to architectural drawing. They were then taken on an outing to the National Gallery to view an exhibition of similar work by a well known artist and architect. These learners also began lessons at the well known Frank Joubert Art Centre in Newlands. During weekly lessons in the 3^rd and 4^th term they were exposed to clay sculpture, firing processes, drawing and painting. In the first half of 2009, the learners from Sophumelela and Philippi High continued their lessons at Frank Joubert and produced very high quality work for the 2009 Arts festival. Due to difficulty in securing funding, the lessons were almost discontinued at the end of the 2^nd term but costs were covered by Truworths Social Investment Trust through Frank Joubert's Ibhabhathane Project. The Frank Joubert group also visited the National gallery to view an exhibition on portraiture as this was the theme for their work this year. Their project culminated in a portrait painting on canvas. Sophia Rosochacki, a student at UCT, began teaching a visual art class at Intsebenziswano and Rebecca Haysom began a class at Zisukhanyo. Rebecca's class consisted of about 30 grade 8s and 9s who enthusiastically worked their way through the basics of drawing,  painting and clay sculpture.

Music. Having played to such enthusiastic applause at the Arts Festival in June 2008, the two Marimba groups from Philippi High and Oscar Mpetha continued to have weekly lessons with AmaAmbush Marimba. The teachers expressed their amazement at how quickly the groups progressed and how naturally talented they were. The Oscar Mpetha group was asked to play at SAEP's AGM where they were a definite hit! At the beginning of 2009, two new marimba groups were started as many of the previous learners had matriculated. AmaAmbush held auditions and chose a group of 8 learners each from Zisukhanyo and Sophumelela high schools to be in the bands. These bands have again had weekly lessons and the group from Sophumelela performed successfully at the AmaAmbush Marimba Festival at the prestigious Baxter Theatre in May. Both groups also performed at the 2009 SAEP Arts Festival held at Zisukhanyo in June.

Creative Writing. A group of Sophumelela learners continued their enthusiastic participation in their poetry writing class. The class was run by Simone Haysom from UCT and by Shep Willis from SAEP in the 4^th term. The group had their final class for the year at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. The Sophumelela group is able to produce poetry of a high standard and we are very proud of their progress.

Drama. In 2008, UCT Drama students taught groups at Oscar Mpetha, Sophumelela and Philippi High Schools. Anna Hartford continued to run the drama class at Intsebenziswano. The five groups worked towards a performance of issue-based theatre for their schools at the end of the 3^rd term. A discussion was held after the performances on the issues presented, such as AIDS and teen pregnancy. The Drama programme had a slow start in 2009 until SAEP began to work with the "Magnet Theatre" - a Cape Town-based theatre group. In the 2^nd term, 8 trainees from the theatre group began teaching Drama at Zisukhanyo, Sophumelela, Philippi High and Intsebenziswano. They worked towards impressive performances at the Arts Festival in June.

Film. Allison Best, a Capetonian involved in the film industry, began to teach basic film techniques to interested learners at Sophumelela in 2008. These learners were able to use cameras, create scripts and use editing equipment to produce their own short films. Some of the films were screened at the Arts festival in June 2009 and were a testament to Alison's hard work and dedication, as well as the talent of the learners.

Arts Festival. The 2009 SAEP Arts Festival was a great success with drama performances by the learners and our own Bridging Year Interns, an art exhibition, marimba performances, film screenings, a dance performance, poetry reading and a traditional African dance performance.