Sandy Maclachlan attended the Diocesan School for Girls in Grahamstown from Grade 1 to Grade 12 and then qualified as a Primary School teacher, majoring in Class Music, from Cape Town Teachers College, and have 40 years’ teaching experience. Children and music are her passion in life!

Her first post was at Stutterheim High School as a Grade 5 & 6 class teacher and teaching Class Music (songs, dances and movement) before marrying and raising three children – a daughter and two sons – all three very musical!

She then taught Class Music (Orff Instruments, class recorder, music appreciation and music history- the last two as an exam subject for Grades 8 & 9) at Kingswood College for 17 years, in a very successful music program from pre-primary through to grade 9 (and even had classes with Grades 10 & 11 for two years!). She was involved in teaching songs and playing the piano for all the school musicals and plays in that period.

She was in charge of the “Prep Department” music program (i.e. Grades 1,2 and 3) and also trained a Recorder Band and Percussion Band with the older children. She was also a tutor for Grade 12 students, facilitating general study skills and language comprehension

She ran a Pre-School music franchise- Music for Our Little Ones – in Grahamstown for 7 years- teaching songs, recorders, dances and non-tuned percussion with children between the ages of 3 and 6 and taught class music at Timlin Montessori Pre-School, Grahamstown, for a year.

Sandy Maclachlan volunteered at the Ingubo Childrens’ Haven, in the Nemato Township, Port Alfred- A Rotary Project- and taught children to play the marimbas, Boom-whackers, dances, movement and songs for 18 months before running out of hours in which to do so!

In 2013 she taught Class Music (songs, marimbas, boom-whackers, non-tuned instruments, movements/dances and appreciation) from creche level through to Grade 7 at Hermitage House, a new independent school in Addo, traveling through once a week after a morning session at Oatlands Preparatory School in Grahamstown.

She taught Class Music to Grades 1-5 at Oatlands Preparatory school in Grahamstown for 5 years, developing a successful music program there. She trained a band to accompany her on the piano for an operetta, The Elves and The Shoemaker, which was performed at the end of 2013.

She also had extra-mural groups (teaching recorders and marimbas) to pre-schoolers and school-going children in Grahamstown. For 4 years she ran music groups for babies (from 3 months old) and their mums, dads and nannies (even grans & grandads!) both in Port Alfred and Grahamstown, teaching parents and carers how to foster listening and literacy skills through songs, movement, instruments (marim-bars, bells, shakers and even triangles) and phonics- the latter through the Souns method (brought into SA through Rotary International).

She has taught for 2 years and is currently teaching Class Music to Grades 1, 2 and 3 at Kowie Foundation School- an independent school in Port Alfred.

She has been a member of the Rotary Club of Port Alfred for 6 years, serving as Director of Youth for 4 years. She has also been involved with the Port Alfred High School Interact Club. She was asked to speak at a Rotary District Conference at the Guild Theatre in East London on Literacy – “Teaching them Young” her experiences on teaching Souns in her baby classes. She was involved in the charter of and the running an EarlyAct Club at PAHS; instigated the charter of an EarlyAct Club at Oatlands Preparatory School in Grahamstown (with the Rotary Club of Grahamstown Sunset) and involved in the charter of an Interact Club at Kuyasa Combined School in Port alfred, the first in Nemato Township. This involvement, weekly, entails parliamentary style meetings and fundraising for their school and projects to help the wider community.

She was President of the Rotary Club of Port Alfred for 2014/2015 where she is currently a member