Dear Parents
WHAT LEADS TO AN EFFECTIVE SCHOOL?
I have shared the opinion before that an effective school rests on the community partnership between parents and school. Schools who have the positive support of parents are often more focused on finding solutions, involve the broader community and place the students at the center of their learning.
At a recent ISASA curriculum meeting, further research was shared with reference to what makes an effective school. Despite several assumptions, it was shared that neither the financial wealth of a school nor small class sizes contributed to the overall effectiveness of a school. The greatest contributor to the success of a school rests with the efficacy of the teachers.
It is at this point that I would like to celebrate the teaching staff at Kingsmead. Teachers at Kingsmead are invested in their personal and professional development. They role model life-long learning and work towards practicing a growth mind-set approach. Curriculum and pastoral expectations on teaching staff today are great. I am confident that what makes Kingsmead an effective school, rests in the excellence of its teachers.
Thank you to our teachers for loving what they do every day:
“By doing what you love, you inspire and awaken the hearts of others”.
Kim Lowman – Head of Junior School
WEEK AHEAD
Tuesday, 24 July
- 10:15 Hot chocolate sales
- 18:00 St Davids and Kingsmead Choir Festival
Wednesday, 25 July
- 14:00- Inter-house field events
- 17:00 Grade 3 Hockey festival
Thursday, 26 July
- 08:00 – Grade 3 – 7 Inter-house athletics
- PTA Cake and candy at athletics
Friday, 27 July
- Grade 6 visit to printing press
- 10:30 Grade 000 – 0 Fun sports morning
- JS Hockey matches vs St Katharine’s and St Dominic
Saturday, 28 July
- Grade 2 Hockey festival
- 09:00 – 11:00 Grade 4 – 7 Family coding workshop – Joel Hall
- Buddy reading
*** For all sports fixtures please see Sports News below
PTA NEWS
SPORTS NEWS
St Mary’s DSG Grade 6A & 7A tour
Congratulations to the players who took part in the St Mary’s DSG tour. They played various schools, including schools from Durban. The Grade 7 Team lost 2, drew 2 and lost 3 games. The Grade 6 team lost 4, drew 3 and won 2. A special thank you to our coaches; Mrs Cartwright, Mrs Golach and Mr Tuck who worked tirelessly this weekend in ensuring a successful weekend.
WEEK’S OVERVIEW
This week are teams played against Brescia on Friday 20th July 2018. Below are our results.
Grade | A | B | C | D |
6 | On Tour | Lost 2-3 | N/A | N/A |
5 | Won 1-0 | Drew 0-0 | Won 2-1 | Lost 0-1 |
4 | Won 1-0 | Lost 0-3 | Won 2-1 | N/A |
3 | Won 6-1 | Lost 0-3 | Won 4-0 | Lost 1, won 1 |
Inter house Athletics
Monday 23 July 2018 Grade 4 Long Jump 10:45 -11:45 (During PE lesson) Kingsmead
Wednesday 25 July 2018
- Grade 5 2pm Kingsmead
- Grade 6 3pm Kingsmead
- Grade 7 4pm Kingsmead
Thursday 26 July 2018
Grade 3 – 7 8am Johannesburg College Of Education (St Andrews Road, Parktown)
- Buses will depart from school at 8:00am
- We aim to begin at 9am or earlier if all the athletes are ready
- Buses will return approximately between 1:00pm – 1:30pm
- All pupils are expected to participate (House lists will all be up on the board and on the school app by end of school (Monday 2 July 2018)
- All pupils to travel to and from the venue on the bus
- Pupils to pack lunch (water will be available throughout the morning. The athletes will receive a packet of chips and cool drink at the end of the morning)
- PTA will have refreshments for sale. Wits café will not be open as previously published
- Pupils to bring a hat and plenty of sunscreen
- Dress code for the day – Full Kingsmead tracksuit and running shoes; shorts/skort; house shirt. Pupils can run bare foot or in spikes if they choose as track is grass.
Please note that there will be NO SPORT EXTRA MURALS on Thursday 26 July 2018
Sport Extra murals for the term will end on Friday 27 July 2018
Sheillah Denenga – Head of Junior School Sport sdenenga@kingsmead.co.za
ARTS AND MUSIC NEWS
Kingsmead & St David’s Choir Evening Tuesday 24 July
Kingsmead and St David’s Junior Schools will have our annual choir evening on Tuesday 24 July at St David’s. Our Grade 2 and Grade 4-7 Choirs will be performing. As our Grade 3 girls have another performance coming up early in term 3, they will not be involved in this event.
The girls and boys will meet at 17h00 in the St David’s hall to practise the mass item. Parents can enjoy coffee and tea from 17h00 and the participants will have hot chocolate at 17h30. The concert will start at 18h00 and should be finished by 19h00. The girls must look smart in their winter uniform and blazers. All participants are expected to remain for the duration of the performance.
A 65-seater bus will be available to transport the Grade 4-7 girls who need transport to the event. Please click on the link below should you need to use the bus.
Please note that we only have space for 65 girls and the bus will not return to Kingsmead after the concert.
We hope to see many of you there tomorrow night!
Upcoming Events:
Tuesday 31 July | 17:30 – 18:30 | *Grade 4-7 Music Concert |
Friday 3 August | 9:00 – 10:00 | End of Term Assembly: Orchestra to perform |
*Please note that we will no longer print concert programmes but post them on the app.
Elsabé Fourie – Director of Arts & Music
OUTREACH NEWS
MANDELA DAY
The girls in the Junior School reflected on the legacy of Nelson Mandela and gave of their time participating in a number of activities on Mandela Day. The Grades 5, 6 and 7 girls helped to make up sleeping bags while the Grade 1, 2 and 3 girls made up 24 blankets for the Rosebank Soup Kitchen. Our thanks go to Mr Ebrahim for his generous donation of the fabric for the blankets. The Grade 0 girls made rock buns for the patients at the Baragwanath Burns Unit. We also received knitted beanies and jerseys for the patients. Our knitted-blanket drive was a huge success again this year – we received 100 beautiful blankets! While most of the blankets have been delivered to the Burn’s Unit, we have kept some aside for our buddies from Rays of Hope. Thank you to everyone who knitted squares and blankets. Excitement built between Barons and Knights in the House competition with Barons donating the most blankets.
MANDELA MONTH
The Kingsmead preschool had a very busy Mandela Month. We started with our Madiba blanket challenge with Bana Blankets and managed to reach our goal of buying 100 blankets from the charity with plenty of help from one special family who bought 40 blankets and our other preschool parents. Bana Blankets is a community-based income generation project based in Alexandra for a group of unemployed women, mostly grannies, who are responsible for the care of their grandchildren. The blanket makers and Ratang Bana share the profits from the sale of the blankets, providing individual households and the organisation with much needed additional funds.
The Madiba blanket challenge was a double charity initiative as the 100 beautiful fleece blankets are being donated to the Baragwanath children’s ward.
The Grade 0 girls baked rock cakes and the Bluebells and Buttercups baked crunchies for the children in the ward. We have also donated 100 beanies which will be given to the vulnerable children when they are discharged.
The Bluebells and Buttercups had fun and worked hard on Mandela day making delicious vegetable soup. The soup was decanted into take-away cups which the girls distributed to the homeless, beggars or less fortunate on their way home. They also visited the area where the sleeping bags were being made for people who sleep on the street and were able to try the sleeping bags out. One of the girls made a very relevant observation and comment and told her family that homeless people should move to Durban as it is much warmer there. Many of the girls wanted to know where Mr. Mandela was but were happy to be told that they carried him in their heart.