Dear Kingsmead Community
Welcome to the third term of 2018. I love this term as we have returned to warm weather and to a campus that is looking beautiful. Thank you to Mr Mitchley and his team for the work that was done on the campus over the holiday period.
The Science labs in the Senior School have been renovated and the girls and teachers are enjoying their brighter, more modern spaces. Some of the main electric cables in the school also had to be upgraded and replaced and this was completed in the holidays, causing a slight delay to our aquatics training schedule, but everything is running well now.
Staff news:
Mrs Frances Wilmot gave birth to a beautiful baby girl – Sadie – on the 16 August and she is enjoying her maternity leave. We welcome Ms Avril Cummins as the replacement locum teacher.
We also welcome Mrs Oriana Patel to the Geography department and Mr Nick Smit and Mr Rob Rhodes-Houghton to the Mathematics department. We wish them a happy term at Kingsmead.
The whole school from Grades 3 – 12 enjoyed a wonderful Heritage Day assembly with the theme “What is your story?” Various members of the staff and pupils told their stories in poetry, in song, in prose and in dance. There were many highlights of the assembly, but the Senior Choir singing with the Service Staff Choir was definitely one of them. Thank you to Mrs Banwa and Mrs Denenga from the Central Transformation Committee for their efforts in putting this assembly together. The energy in the hall was palpable and many stories were swapped during the course of the day.
We had the pleasure of hosting the Grade 6 pupils in our Senior School classes last week. Their parents attended an Information evening on the Thursday evening.
I quote an extract from my opening at this evening:
“Choosing the right school for your daughter will shape her development during her school years and will ultimately determine the type of woman she becomes. We believe that Kingsmead is a unique environment in which your daughters can grow and thrive.
I think it has to do with the clear thought, vision and spiritual energy that DV Thompson put into the founding of the School. Her ethos, mission and vision are as relevant today as they have always been.
Understandably, you want the very best for your daughters. You want to provide them with every opportunity to realise their hopes and aspirations and I can think of no better place to do this than at Kingsmead.
You want your daughter to be nurtured and happy, and to grow into a healthy, confident and capable adult. At Kingsmead we nurture our girls to make the most of their individual potential and to get the very best from their education.
We are able to combine the best of the old with the best of the new – teaching and learning with deep values and traditions. We have a superb staff who are involved in curriculum development and who work closely with the Independent Examinations Board and you will hear later how we are revolutionizing the curriculum for the girls which is a country-wide first.
I believe passionately in girls’ schools and girls’ education. We need to ensure confidence, competence and co-operation for our girls to thrive, which is part of the magic of our school. We need to ensure that our girls take risks in a safe environment and that they are stretched to fulfil their own potential.
To this end we have programmes in place and an outstanding pastoral care system that is run by Miss Venter and the Grade co-ordinators.
It is a huge privilege to be entrusted with the responsibility of educating your daughters. But we believe that we are doing an outstanding job of preparing our girls for the future and for life beyond the school gates. We ensure that their education serves the needs of young people growing up in this tremendously exciting, yet continually shifting context.
I have no doubt that these girls will leave Kingsmead well-equipped to be the next generation of thinkers, innovators and achievers.”
I wish you all a wonderful, happy term ahead.
Fond regards
Lisa Kaplan
Head: Kingsmead College
Arts News
MUSIC
Staff News
We welcome Dineo Matsepe to our Music Department as a violin teacher. She has joined us in Dorota Swart’s place.
We also welcome Esté Meerkotter as our locum flute teacher while Marli Coetzer is on maternity leave.
Congratulations
Well done to our Junior School Orchestra and Marimba Ensembles who performed brilliantly at the Kingsmead, The Ridge, St Katharine’s Combined Music Concert.
Enormous congratulations to our Senior School Choir and Glee who stole the show at the Interschools’ Choir Festival last week. They were fantastic. Please visit the Kingsmead College Music Department Youtube channel to see videos of our performances.
Upcoming Events in September and October
All dates, letters, invitations and updates will be posted on the app under Arts & Music.
Thu 4 Oct The Sound of Children Choir Festival (Grade 3 Choir) 18h00 – 19h00 Linder Auditorium
Tue 9 Oct ABRSM Practical Examinations 9h00 – 16h00 Beethoven Room
Wed 10 Oct ABRSM Theory Exams 14h00 – 17h30 Learning Centre
Tue 16 Oct Cornwall Hill College Orchestra Festival (SS Orchestra) 18h30 – 20h00 Cornwall Hill
Thu 24 Oct Music Concert (Senior School) 18h00 – 19h30 Joel Hall
Thu 24 Oct St Mary’s Ensemble Festival (JS Orchestra) 18h00 – 19h30 St Mary’s
Mon 29-Wed 31 Oct Trinity Practical Examinations 9h00 – 16h00 Beethoven Room
ART
International Portrait Exhibition
Earlier this year, Kingsmead College was presented with the opportunity to participate in an international portrait exhibition. Students who responded to the brief received 12 x 8cm boards, upon which they could use any medium to represent themselves. Kingsmead College submitted a range of entries to be exhibited, a small selection of which have been included in this newsletter. The Global Trading Card Project took place from 16th – 29th July in Perth, Western Australia. The exhibition comprised of over five thousand self-portraits from students around the world. The idea of the project, is that after the exhibition had taken place, the cards are intended to be packaged up and sent to another school in a different country for their students and community to enjoy. I am so proud of the girls who participated in this amazing opportunity.
Danielle Wepener
Senior School Art and English Teacher
Grade 10 Self Portraits
In this first major drawing project. the Grade 10’s had to combine all the skills they had practiced in class and produce an image of themselves combined with other clues as to who they are; their likes/dislikes etc. in an interesting and creative way. The end result shows their individuality and creative solution to telling the viewer what they are like as people.
Grade 11 Site Specific Art
The Grade 11’s very successfully created site specific artworks through which they commented on social, environmental and political issues that are important to them. The areas in the school that the works are exhibited, were chosen carefully by the girls to enhance the message they want to impart to the viewer. Topics include issues such as punishment of rapists, plastic pollution, animal testing and water shortage.
Elsabé Fourie
Director of Arts & Music
Sports News
WATER POLO
The Water Polo season has begun and our teams have started the leagues off very well.
The 1st team travelled to the St Anne’s Water Polo tournament from the 21st to 24th of September. The team played some brilliant Water Polo and made it all the way to the Final. Unfortunately they lost 5-3 in a tightly contested match vs St Anne’s but were deserved Silver Medallists.
Congratulations to all the girls and to Gabriella Du Preez who was voted the tournaments All-Star team.
Results
Group Stage
5-4 loss vs St Mary’s DSG Kloof
6-2 win vs Pearson High School
6-5 loss vs Durban Girl’s High School
9-0 win vs Pietermaritzburg Girls’ High School
10-1 win vs Danville Park Girl’s High School
15-0 win vs St Mary’s Waverley
QF – 9-2 win vs Maris Stella
SF – 4-3 win vs St Mary’s DSG Kloof
Final – 3-5 loss vs St Anne’s Dioscescan College
DIVING
Olivia van Vollenhoven attended the Youth World diving Championships in July and has subsequently been selected for the Youth Olympics next month in Argentina.
TENNIS
Ten girls were selected to represent Kingsmead College at the Sun City Tennis Tournament.
The girls played great Tennis and after four days of competition the A team finished 3rd in the A section and the B team finished 5th in the B section.
SQUASH
The current league is underway and our 4 teams have achieved good results. Playing both boys and girls teams, our girls have consistent results throughout. Our u14A team (Natalie Solomon, Nazrana Jhavary, Philippa Rohrs, Alice Behr) finished 2nd in the league.
Absent: Natalie Solomon
EQUESTRIAN
Lauren Courteney, Abigail McBean, Ashley Pretorius, Ella Hunt, Emma Gouws, Hannah Buttifant-Sewel, Leigh-Ann Herselman, Mia Byrne and Sarah Warren were selected for regionals. The girls who got through to nationals to represent Gauteng are Mia Byrne, Emma Gouws and Leigh Herselman. Nationals are from the 3rd to the 6th of October at Kyalami Equestrian Park.
ATHLETICS
The girls are in full training for this season.
KARATE
Nuru and Malaika Minyuku-Gutto have been selected to represent Gauteng at the KSA Women’s Cup in Durban on the 5th and 6th October.
Robert Pullen
Director of Sport
Academic News
ENGLISH
English Olympiad
Earlier in the year, we reported that the following girls achieved the 80% standard for gold certificates in the Olympiad: Tahiya Mayet, Yusaiyrah Mayet, Shivani Vishwakarma, Chantel Maina and Alexandra Phillips.
With the announcement of the top 100 candidates, we are delighted to congratulate Chantel Maina (28th), Tahiya Mayet (31st) and Shivani Vishwakarma 83rd on outstanding results. We are so proud of these girls who have performed phenomenally. Over 7000 contestants write the English Olympiad annually.
We will award their certificates in assembly as soon as we receive them from the Olympiad office in Grahamstown.
Piers Cruickshanks
Director Of Academics
SACEE Creative Writing Competition
The SACEE Creative Writing Competition is open to all secondary school learners in South Africa and the adjudicator of the competition is the highly-respected South African novelist, Jane Fox.
Kingsmead College submitted a substantial number of entries to the competition, showcasing a range of talent and diversity of voice across the categories available. We hope to encourage and maintain this level of creativity and enthusiasm in our young writers!
We are proud to announce that in the Junior Short Story category, Lucy Clegg received the Gold award for 2nd Place, while Gallia Fenster went on to win the Platinum Award for 1st Place.
Both Gallia and Lucy are congratulated on this fine achievement.
Danielle Wepener
Senior School Art and English Teacher
English Alive 2018
Chantel Maina’s essay entitled Louder was selected for publication in this year’s English Alive. English Alive is an anthology of writing that showcases high school pupils’ original prose and verse. The selection panel describe publication as, “acknowledgment of writing of quality”. Louder is “writing of quality” that echoes through Chantel’s strong, independent voice.
Suzanne Cambitzis
Head of Department-English
NATURAL SCIENCE
Grade 9 Lung Dissection
At the start of the third term we started a new section in Natural Sciences called Breathing, Respiration and Gaseous Exchange. At first many of the girls weren’t very excited about learning this particular topic in science but by the third lesson, the teachers had prepared a dissection of the lungs to reinforce our learning of all the different parts. Like any other dissection, it was very exciting. The practical was very helpful because once the lungs were cut open, you could see all the different parts, like the bronchi & bronchioles, and relate everything we learned to what we could see in the lungs. As part of the dissection, we were required to take a tube and blow into the lungs to demonstrate the act of breathing and it was very interesting to see how the lungs expanded and changed colour as the alveoli filled with air.
Grace Munro
Grade 9 Student
Service News
We invite the entire Kingsmead community to come and enjoy Goodwill Day on Saturday 6 October from 8h00-13h30. All activities are in aid of the charities we support.
Some new events to look forward to on Goodwill Day this year:
• Donate a lock of hair for A Few Grey Hairs
• Visit the puppies and kittens from Paws R Us
• Enjoy the Courage Arts Exhibition with Grade 8 art on display
• Browse through a selection of second hand books
The old time favourites are still on the programme:
• SANBS Blood Drive
• Games Area
• Tea Garden
• Wash-a-windscreen
• Marimba and drumming workshops
• Box with Fight with Insight
• Haunted House
• Henna tattoos, flower crowns and face painting
PARKING
Please use the field and Cecil Avenue for parking. Tyrwhitt Avenue will be closed from 08h00-9h30. Additional parking is available at Rosebank Mall and the Gautrain station.
GOODWILL DAY GAMES
The Games Area at Goodwill Day will include a variety of bigger games, in addition to the many carnival games organised by the Grade 8 and 9 students:
The Games Area will be open from 09h00 until 13h30. A red wristband will give children unlimited access to all the games (this excludes the Haunted House).
Red wristbands will be sold for R150 and will be available from the Music Reception (cash only) and in the main parking area before school. Alternatively, red wristbands can be charged to your Kingsmead school account with the following form (this form will be active until Wednesday 3 October):
GOODWILL DAY WALK IN COLOUR
The Walk in Colour will start at 8h30 from the Tyrwhitt gate (ending at the Tottenham gate) in aid of the Kingsmead College Junior School Bursary Fund. Coffee will be sold from 08h00. Please use the following link to register for the Walk in Colour:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1MepcoJeOt2UnjqVK_fMB6bL-1f55U_f9zQu2jXIwi4g/edit
CLOTHES 2 GOOD ON GOODWILL DAY
The Goodwill Day clothing collection will be in support of Clothes 2 Good, who buys and recycles second-hand clothing and sells it to microbusinesses.
Please fill as many bags as you can (bags are available from Music Reception) with previously loved clothes and include the permission form below (also available from Music Reception). Filled bags can be placed in the container at the wooden gate in front of the cricket pitch.
REQUEST FOR DONATIONS
Reading buddies from Rays of Hope, Boxers from Fight with Insight and girls from Guild Cottage are invited to enjoy Goodwill Day with us. We are sponsoring them for the Walk in Colour and the Games area and would also like to supply them with a snack and a meal. If you are willing to donate towards the snack/lunch, please contact Jenny Venter at jventer@kingsmead.co.za.
Bara Burns Unit – Thank you Letter
Jenny Venter
Director of Service
Green News
The Junior and Senior Schools have been working collaboratively at improving awareness forthe ‘greening’ of our school, with a particular focus for this term being on recycling at Kingsmead.
New, colour-coded, dustbins have been purchased and have been placed at 3 locations on campus: at Jabula, outside the Lange Hall in the Senior School, and outside the Joel Hall in the Junior School.
Everyone is encouraged to bring their recyclables to school and make use of these bins or to drop their recyclables off with our helpful Bekabee staff member, Adam, at the Tyrwhitt Gate entrance. We are collecting the following recyclable group items: paper, tin cans, glass and plastic. The Junior School are investigating using vermiculture to transform food wastes into organic garden products by using earthworms. The Senior School are working on the recycling of e-Waste in the future.
Kingsmead College celebrated a whole-school civvies day on Friday 7 September in aid of Recycling Day SA on 15 September. The girls were asked to bring plastic recyclables as their contribution to wearing civvies. Our aim was to create awareness about recycling at school and at home as it is now compulsory to recycle in Johannesburg. The Senior School girls were also asked to donate an optional R10-00 to be used for buying indigenous trees which will be planted at some of the organisations that we support on Service outings as part of Arbor Month awareness. The response was overwhelming and everyone is thanked for their contributions.
Saturday 15 September was also World Clean-up Day, which coincided with Spruit Day in Johannesburg. A few keen Senior School girls and staff assisted in cleaning up the Braamfontein Spruit in the Parkhurst area. It was concerning to see how much litter gets dumped and washed into the river, and the types of items that we found.
The Senior School Green Team have put a display on the Garth to raise awareness for Arbor Month. The stack of blocks represents a forest and a block will be removed each day to show how deforestation is impacting our planet.
Sister Monica continues to collect bread tags and bottle tops in the Medical Centre for the wheelchair initiative. Kingsmead College have managed to donate 9 wheelchairs already so please continue to support this venture. In addition, we are supporting LoveMats SA. This project entails crocheting plastic bags into yoga mats, picnic blankets, for example. For this project to be successful, we require clean plastic from: grocery bags, medicine bags, clear plastic, the bags toilet rolls come in, the bags fruit is weighed in etc. Please drop these off at the Medical Centre. For more information please see https://www.facebook.com/LoveMatsSA/
Angela Norman-Smith
Life Sciences Teacher