This April we celebrated Freedom Month. We wished our Muslim families a blessed month of Ramadan and wished our Jewish families a wonderful Passover. As we wrapped up Term 1, we looked back on a fun-filled month of learning, academic accomplishments, and successful sports endeavours. The Kingsmead Music Department showed off their fantastic musical skills as we hosted our very own “Kingstock” music festival and our students enjoyed various outings and school events. Read our April 2022 highlights below.
The Kingsmead Grade 1s had a very special visit from SA Guide-Dogs Association for the Blind. We had four very cuddly puppies come to meet our students and they had the opportunity to learn all about the incredible work done by guide dogs. The Grade 1s learned how these dogs help enhance the lives of the visually and physically impaired people and children with autism.
When the PTA asked our Music department to provide the entertainment for a community event, we said YES without hesitation! The idea quickly grew into a huge music celebration featuring every one of our Marimba bands, Orchestras, Strings Group, Choirs, Jazz and Rock bands and our Glee group, including students from Grade 1-12. Altogether, 450 students took to the stage over the course of the 3.5 hour event.
The musicians absolutely loved every moment on or in front of the fantastic, professional stage. After two years of very few opportunities to perform live, it was the biggest joy to be able to share our music with the Kingsmead community. This may just have been the beginning of an annual Music Celebration!
The Grade 2D class visited Bunny Hop Haven on Wednesday 6 April, and enjoyed the day feeding bunnies and learning to care for animals by sweeping their pens and refilling their water.
Congratulations to Faye Greenberg in Grade 4, who was awarded her second Brown Belt (Brown 2), in her karate grading! She attends the Els Karate dojo, which is part of the World Shotokan Karate Federation. We are so proud of your brilliant achievement Faye!
Congratulations to Lalu Hu-Grobbelaar, who competed in the South African Junior Chess Closed Championships Nationals in Centurion and attained her SAJCCC and National colours! Lalu will be participating in the African Common Wealth Games in Zambia in July 2022. We are super proud of you, Lalu, what an exceptional achievement!
The weekend of April 9th was filled with exciting sports festivals. We are so grateful that our students were to be able to enjoy these.
The Junior School participated in the very prestigious St Stithian’s Prep Sports Festival. Our players showed true grit and courage. Congratulations to our grade 5A, 6A, 7A netball teams as well as the A tennis team. We are extremely proud of you!
The Senior School 1st Team Netball participated in the St Andrew’s Netball Festival. The team was placed 5th in their pool and then proceeded into the Bowl championship.
They won all seven matches in the second round and played in the final against St Andrew’s. They received silver medals in the Bowl Section and were placed 18th, and the team got to meet the South Africa Protea captain, Bongi Msomi.
The Senior School 1st Team Hockey participated at the St Mary’s Hockey Festival, with 32 schools from around the country. Kingsmead finished 6th in their pool out of eight teams. They finished 24th overall out of 32 schools, which saw them as the 3rd highest placed Johannesburg school.
Well done to all our teams. We are incredibly proud of you!
On Friday 8 April, Grade 3G were excited to welcome the Grade 3 class from our partner Organisation – Rays of Hope. Despite the chilly weather, everyone had a great time playing games and making new friends.
On Tuesday 12 April the Senior School Tech Team hosted a Coding and Robotics day. The day started with a presentation by the team from TechWays, and a guest speaker from Standard Bank Ecosystems Team with Pepper the robot. We had wonderful coding workshops to choose from and our students took the opportunity to learn all they could.
Our Junior School Easter Assembly took place just before Term 1 came to an end. The message of the day was to find your own safe and happy bubble, and embrace every sparkle in your bubble. At the end of assembly our students and staff had an amazing time blowing bubbles as we wished our community a safe and wonderful holiday. Click below to watch our vibrant assembly.
Thank you to the incredible Kingsmead Community for your support for our Share What You Can Easter collection! Dlala Nje, Fight with Insight and Sunshine Association are some of the organisations that we support through our Service programme.
Term 1 came to an end in style with the Day of Arts. It was an incredible day filled with extraordinary performances – from music, to slam poetry, to dances. The Senior School was booming with excitement and activities. We also had special guests from St David’s Inanda, with wonderful perfomances from their Marimba group.
Kingsmead is indeed the home of the Arts and happiness was the order of the day.
Kingsmead celebrated Freedom Day on the 27th of April. We reflected on the progress we have made and the strength we find in diversity.
“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” – Nelson Mandela.
