May was a busy month at Kingsmead College, especially with the return of our annual Book Fair, this time to the virtual space! In addition to celebrating African literature, we also celebrated the mothers and mother figures in our Kingsmead Community, joined a powerful network of all-girls schools, raised awareness about menstrual health and more. Take a look at some of our May 2021 highlights below.
In this term’s ‘Our Future World’ Growth Curriculum Module, the Grade 8s have been learning about and researching issues facing ‘Our Future World’. As an introduction, they were invited to play a board game developed by the United Nations (UN) on the Sustainable Development Goals, to learn about the 17 goals the UN has identified and the progress made so far. To learn more about our Growth Curriculum visit our website.
Congratulations to Micaela Bouter and Kingsmead College alumna, Julia Vincent, on achieving a first for South Africa at the Olympics – securing two qualifying spots in Tokyo! Wishing you all the best.
We are very excited to share that Kingsmead College became a member of the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools (NCGS)! You can view us on the map on their website.
We are now part of an incredible network of 260 all-girls schools from around the world. The NCGS provides networking, research, professional development, and advocacy programs focused on girls’ learning and healthy development. The global network includes more than 26 000 educators, 115 000 students, and over one million alumnae.
This is what Megan Murphy, the NCGS Executive Director, has to say about their purpose:
“Through programs and services, NCGS strives to engage the power of many voices to strengthen our schools, communities, and world. We seek to challenge limits to imagine and explore new possibilities for girls. Ultimately, we strive to inspire girls to lead with courage, competence, and empathy and lead lives of commitment, confidence, contribution, and fulfillment.
Our work, quite simply, is to advance the mission of girls’ schools. Why? Because we believe the vital role girls’ schools play in educating and empowering girls is essential to overcoming our world’s greatest challenges, from climate change to human rights, from global health to sustainable human development. Our purpose is to nurture the girls who will become the indispensable women of tomorrow.”
We wished all the mothers, grandmothers, aunts and mother figures within our Kingsmead community a Happy Mother’s Day on 9 May! We hope you had a day filled with love. We thank you for all you do.
We wished our Muslim Community a blessed Eid.
On 16 May, we wished our Jewish Community a blessed Shavuot. We hope it brought you good harvest, peace, good luck and prosperity.
18 May – It was a very busy Tuesday morning for our Grade 8 to 12 students who competed in the SANGO Geography Olympiad and Round 2 of the Old Mutual South African Mathematics Olympiad, followed later that morning by the Afrikaans Olympiad!
24 May was the beginning of Book Week, in the lead up to the 2021 Kingsmead Book Fair. We were so pleased that we were able to hold our Book Drive for gently read books to be donated to some of our partner organisations.
28 May marked Menstrual Hygiene Day and Kingsmead College has partnered with Dignity Dreams to create awareness for menstrual health. In support of this campaign, our students contributed posters with red handprints and an empowering messages. Each hand dipped in red paint is a symbol of our support in empowering young girls and women through menstrual health education.
Together we are working towards a world where women and girls are no longer limited because of periods. A world in which every woman and girl is empowered to manage her menstruation safely, hygienically, with confidence, and without shame.
In celebration of World Play Day our Little Kingsmeadians had so much fun playing all sorts of games dressed as their favourite book characters. Happiness was the order of the day! #Happiness #Play #Franchaleal
We had an absolute blast at our annual Kingsmead Book Fair on 29 May. We were back at it again this year and this time we went completely virtual. There was something for everyone.
The day was full of rich dialogue, thoughtful exchanges and comments in the chat boxes and rigorous note taking. We had a jam-packed children’s programme with exciting sessions that inspired, awed and uplifted children and adults alike. Young adults spent the morning with inspiring African leaders, adventuring through story, playing trivia and learning how to manage their money. By the end of it all we were left smiling, with a new perspective on and appreciation for African literature.
For this year’s Book Fair we partnered with Exclusive Books who also had a dedicated webpage for the books featured at the Fair. We are incredibly grateful to our sponsors: Standard Bank – Wealth and Investment and Timberland South Africa for their support of the event, as well as the authors who took the time to share their beautiful stories with us.
Despite it being virtual, we all connected very deeply. It was a truly magical experience!