To celebrate the Ratpack’s 21st year in production, Macrat plans to honour our regular contributors by including a short biography in this year’s issues. One of our contributors responded with the following message: “21 years of the Ratpack! Can it be? I have every issue from the first volume, filed in lever-arch binders in my study at home. While paging through the various Ratpacks, I am struck by the wealth of material that is available for English teachers.”
Can there be a better endorsement of this 21-old-year?
During the course of 2017, we invite anyone who has subscribed to the Ratpack at any time in the last 21 years to celebrate with us by sharing your thoughts about the Ratpack on our Facebook page or directly with us via email. Is there a treasured worksheet from the Ratpack that you particularly enjoy using in your classroom? Or, do you have a quirky classroom story relating to one of our worksheets? Maybe you have a few requests for material or ideas on what the Ratpack should be doing next (like losing weight or putting on a tie – metaphorically speaking).
For those who do not know the Ratpack, let me introduce you.
The Ratpack is a set of English resources for Grade 8-12 delivered to subscribers four times a year. It began its life as a collection of worksheets contributed by English teachers who attended a series of Resource Rendezvous held in Johannesburg and Pretoria. Any ‘teething problems’ were soon sorted out by the first, immensely talented editor, Jenny Janisch. In those days, there was plenty of manual cutting and pasting, giving each and every page Jenny’s individual touch. Many wonderful years followed as the Ratpack developed and evolved into a well-loved, helping-hand for teachers across South Africa.
As with all offspring, the Ratpack experienced some ‘teen angst’ when forced to adapt to the many challenges presented by changes to education policy, increased online competition and recessionary pressures. Digitising the Ratpack meant more teachers could access the material online and today most of our subscribers download their issues as PDF’s directly to their computers. No more waiting for snailmail! Of course, this doesn’t mean that our grown-up Ratpack won’t continue to find the best possible way to deliver quality, affordable material to our subscribers, even if that means taking a completely new direction in the future.
Here’s to 21 years of special memories, lessons learned, amazing contributors, long-suffering editors and proofreaders and, most important of all, our loyal customers.