Dear Kingsmead Community
Half term has come upon us quickly and I am sure that the girls and staff are in need of a well-earned break. I am aware that some of our girls are busy with the production and sporting commitments, but I do hope that everyone is able to get some down-time during the half-term.
The Matric Dance was held on the 10 February and the girls looked spectacular. Not even a rain shower could dampen the magnificent vibe of the evening. Thank you to the Grade 11s who put on such a wonderful evening for the Matrics. The Joel Hall was transformed for the evening and a lot of work (of almost a year) went into making this a night to remember.
We held our Open Day on the 6 February and were so proud to showcase our school to so many prospective parents and girls. I have completed all the initial interviews for Grade 8 2019 and have been overwhelmed by the interest in girls wanting to come to Kingsmead. Most of the girls when asked, describe Kingsmead as a beautiful environment; a nurturing and caring school and a smaller school where the focus is on the individual girl. They also believe the school to give a balanced offering and that is what they are looking for. It never ceases to amaze me that we are one of the few schools that do not have an entrance exam (as this is how we were founded), and yet, we benchmark ourselves in all aspects of school life (and particularly with our Matric exams) with the other girls’ schools who do still sit entrance exams.
I wish you all a wonderful half-term!
Fond regards
Lisa Kaplan
Head: Kingsmead College
TRANSFORMATION/DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION:
Thank you to the parents, staff and girls who attended the meetings in February. There was a very impressive turnout to the initial committee meeting and then also to the open information meeting.
Follow up steps are being put in place this week:
- The composition of the Transformation Committee has been decided upon and parents, girls and staff will receive the job descriptions shortly.
- The school survey will be sent out in the next week or two to all stakeholders. Once this information is collated and feedback given to the Committee, then the focus areas will be decided upon.
The following has been completed leading up to the committee meetings:
- The admissions policy to the school has been amended.
- The Grade 8 Orientation has included a workshop with the Senior girls about “belonging” and inclusion.
- Various discussions around the Code of Conduct have been held.
- Small group discussions with staff and girls have been held where an issue has arisen.
- A new icon for our app is being created. All updates and information will be housed under this heading on the app.
Christian Focus Week
The Senior School had a Christian Focus week from Monday 19 February.
The Gideons visited our assembly and generously donated Bibles in various languages.
Mr Verlin Govender facilitated a thought provoking discussion on the topic “Does God Exist?”
Pastor Dave Myburgh addressed the girls and challenged their personal perceptions on God.
Jenny Venter
Head of Service
Arts News
MAJOR PRODUCTION
This year’s Kingsmead Major Production is performed in collaboration with King Edward VII School. Sarafina! takes place at Morris Isaacson High School in Soweto, where, in 1976, about 200 000 black students assembled to protest against government decree that imposed the “official” language of Afrikaans as the new medium of instruction in their classes, instead of their own language, Zulu. Through story and song, Sarafina! follows the activities of a fictional class at Morris Isaacson and, in particular, one girl named Sarafina, who inspires her classmates with her commitment to the struggle against the government. The class presents a play about the symbolic Day of Liberation that they all dream of – where their hero, Nelson Mandela is released after more than 20 years in prison.
The performance and ticket information is as follows:
- Wednesday 14 March @14:30 – R70
- Thursday 15 March @19:00 – R80
- Friday 16 March @19:00 – R80
Please book your tickets online at Quicket.co.za: https://www.quicket.co.za/events/?search=sarafina
Should a school wish to make a block booking for their students of 10 or more tickets (at R50 each), please email Palesa Mpeke directly: pmpeke@kingsmead.co.za
MUSIC
Congratulations to Nazrana Jhavary who has been invited to perform at the Roodepoort Theatre in the Top Achievers Competition of the National Eisteddfod of 2017. We wish her well in this exciting endeavor and know that she will do Kingsmead proud!
Interschools’ Orchestra Festival
Our Orchestra had a very exciting weekend, participating in the Interschools’ Orchestra festival with St Stithians Boys’ and Girls’ Colleges, Trinityhouse and Oprah Leadership Academy for Girls. The girls and boys worked hard over the last few weeks to prepare their own items and then on Friday 16 and Saturday 17 February, learned the challenging mass orchestra music. At the concert on the Sunday, each school performed their own items and then all the musicians performed in an impressive mass orchestra with well over 150 musicians together on stage. What makes this event so special, it that our young musicians have the opportunity to not only play alongside musicians from other schools, but also with professional musicians and conductors. Indeed a wonderful privilege and absolute joy to make music with so many talented musicians.
CHOIR TOUR RAFFLE
Our Senior School Choir will be traveling to Europe over the April holidays. To make it possible to go on this tour, we have a few fundraising initiatives this term. The money will also contribute towards a new outfit for our Choir and the entry fees for the World Choir Games in July. Please support us by purchasing a raffle tickets from any of the reception areas, the carpark in the mornings before school or from any Senior School Choir member.
KINGSMEAD MUSIC FESTIVAL – 5 APRIL
The big event for the Music Department this year is our Kingsmead Music Festival on Thursday the 5th of April 18h30 – 19h30 at Rosebank Union Church. All our Orchestras and Choirs will be involved in this special showcase of the wonderful music at Kingsmead. Please save the Date!
Elsabé Fourie
Director of Arts & Music
Sports News
INTER-HOUSE AQUATICS
Senior School students and teachers had a fantastic afternoon filled with various sports activities at our annual Inter-House Aquatics.
WATERPOLO
The Waterpolo season is drawing to an end and we have achieved good results.The 1st and u15 teams combined finished 6th out of 8 schools in the Premier league.
SWIMMING AND DIVING
They are both preparing for Inter High Diving (6th March) and Swimming on (8 March -A gala) and (10 March-Premier gala). The Junior school Premier gala is on the 9th March.
KRUGERSDORP FESTIVAL
The Netball 1st team ( winning 2, Losing 3 and drawing 1 match) and the Hockey 1st team( beating Potch, Krugersdorp, Maragon and Brescia ) had a successful and enjoyable tournament. Well done girls!
Robert Pullen
Director of Sport
Academic News
LIFE SCIENCES
Grade 10 Mitosis
This term, the grade 10 Life Sciences students learned about mitosis, the division of cells, through a demonstration of cake and candy. It was not only fun and delicious but it was also a great learning experience as it helped us to understand each phase of the process. It also helped with fundamental team-work skills and each member had their own responsibility in the assignment.
Tessah van der Westhuizen and Anjali Vishwakarma
Grade 10 Students
Genetic Transformation with the pGlo system
Being a part of the Kingsmead Life Sciences group meant being privileged enough to experience an exciting practical centred around the wonders of genetic engineering and a process called genetic transformation with the pGlo system. A group of us, kitted out with gloves and masks, expertly wielded our inoculating loops and streaked our bacteria colonies. Twenty four hours later, we had begun the thrilling procedure of transforming bacteria with a gene from the bioluminescent jellyfish, Aequorea victoria. A successful transformation resulted in the expression of the green fluorescent protein (or GFP, which enables jellyfish to glow in the dark) into the bacteria, causing them to glow bright green under long-wave UV light. From the transferring of the pGlo gene into the plasmid, to the heat shock for exactly 50 seconds, this process required absolute accuracy, care and attention to detail and brought out a little scientist in us all.
Zahra Haffejie
Grade 12 Student
PUBLIC SPEAKING
The annual Speech and Drama College Festival is well underway and the English department and Public Speakers across the grades have worked with passion and commitment to build presentations that are original, meaningful and entertaining.
The prescribed topics this year are:
Grades 7- 9: A very short quote from the lyrics of a song by a South African band to suggest a topic
Grades 10-12: Choose the name of an existing app to suggest a topic.
Congratulations to our speakers who have participated in the first four events:
Individual Speaker (Competitive event)-19 February
Cayley Lovatt
Grade 11 Impromptu speakers-15 February
Alexandra Whittaker (Chair)
Domenica Valle
Tasmiya Surtee
Tayla Schwegmann
Grade 10 speakers- 13 February
Alexa Lipchin (Chair)
Marina Georgiou
Annabel Davidson
Georgina Beart
Kaya Borkowski (Chair)
Sarah Smith
Janelle Mitchell
Gabrielle Gainer
Grade 8 Speakers- 21 February:
Nazrana Jhavary (Chair)
Alice Behr
Natalie Soloman
Keren Spyker
Ella Louise Russon (Chair)
Sophia Camacaro
Arya Mahraj
Kate Cilliers
We wish the Grade 9 speakers, the Grade 11 prepared team speakers and the Trophy Team well for their upcoming events. Results will appear in the March newsletter.
Suzanne Cambitzis
Head of English
Service News
FOOTLOOSE FRIDAY
Thank you to the Kingsmead community for supporting Footloose Friday and civvies day in support of International Childhood Cancer Day. 1863 pairs of shoes were donated and were delivered to Fight with Insight, Guild Cottage, Rays of Hope, St Vincent’s and Kids Haven.
Valentine’s CHOC drive
The Valentine’s CHOC drive was well supported. All proceeds went to CHOC in support of International Childhood Cancer Day. CHOC pins (R20 each) and heart chocolates (R10 each) are still available from the Music reception. Orders can be placed by emailing jventer@kingsmead.co.za
GREEN COMMITTEE
The Green Committee’s first project this year is to support the Owl Rescue Centre in Hartbeespoort. We are collecting plastic that will be recycled and converted into owl shelters, bat houses and bee hives.
Any of the following/similar plastic containers can be placed in the drawers in the Senior School Reception.
SERVICE EXCURSIONS
The Senior School visited Kitty and Puppy Haven on Saturday 10 February.
Upcoming Service Excursions:
Wednesday 28 February Park Care
Thursday 8 March Fight with Insight
Thursday 22 March Dlala Nje
Tuesday 27 March June’s Haven
Wednesday 4 April Fight with Insight
SANDWICHES FOR SERVICE
Our sandwich project is still going strong. The Senior School grades take turns to make sandwiches for Fight with Insight every Tuesday and Thursday during long forms.
Jenny Venter
Head of Service
The President’s Award
The next hiking opportunity is the Fanie Botha trail from 27 April – 1 May. Please contact Jenny Venter (jventer@kingsmead.co.za) for more information.
Jenny Venter
The President’s Award Leader
Medical News
BLOOD DRIVE
Thank you to the Peer Promoting team of 2018 for a very successful Blood drive. Their red socks definitely created awareness and the slush vouchers and Lindt chocolate were encouragement to some of the scared donors. The next Blood Drive will be in Term 2.
Monica Loubser
Kingsmead Medical Centre Sister