Dear Kingsmead Community,
Our year has started with a bang and there has already been so much to celebrate. Some of the highlights of the past three weeks include:
Our Junior and Senior swimming teams, water polo and diving all did so well at Summer Splash this year and this was coming off the back of Grades 7 – 10 all having been on camp until the Friday before the Aquatics Festival.
The release of our Class of 2023’s Matric results was definitely a celebratory moment with so many of our students achieving their best performances in the Final Examinations. We are incredibly proud of each one of our students. Please see the attached flyer for further information.
Parent Information Evening for the Senior School which was so well supported. I have seldom seen the Lange Hall as jam-packed as it was on that Monday night. Thank you for showing your support to your daughters and their school. I spoke of the importance of the partnership that exists between the parents, school and the students and how when this is aligned, then it works best for the students’ success. I repeated the charge from John Hopkins University – “Our charge is to create parent-friendly schools and school-friendly homes.” We also officially welcomed our Grade 8 families into the school and wished them well for the 5 year journey on which they are about to embark.
I have been conducting interviews with prospective students for Grade 8 2025 and I am reminded of what it is that we do so well at Kingsmead. When asked why they want to come to Kingsmead, many of the students refer to the balance that we get right between academics, sport, the arts and service; to our values and to the beautiful grounds. Many of them also know other students who are already at Kingsmead and they say how wonderful these students are.
We held our Open Day yesterday and we had a record turnout it was so wonderful to meet all the families who are interested in coming to Kingsmead. As Madhuri our Head Girl wrote in her speech – “Kingsmead is truly an oasis for every student to excel and there is something for everyone. Kingsmead has created a truly nurturing environment and every students is presented with an overwhelming number of opportunities.”
I wish you all a wonderful year ahead.
Fond regards,
Lisa Palmer
Executive Head: Kingsmead College
Arts & Music
🥳 Congratulations!
Well done to the students who completed International Music Examinations at the end of last year. We are proud of these excellent results.
ROCKSCHOOL VOCAL EXAMINATIONS
Grade 1: Phoebe Higginson
Grade 2: Kristen Benjamin
Grade 3: Omolemo Tebeila, Uma Banchetti, Basha Mkhondo, Beau Laurie
Grade 4: Mohale Mlobela, Meagan Stewart
Grade 5: Ariana Boyd, Sophia Pearse, Caitlin Pon, Elena Rovelli, Melokuhle Zungu, Andza Mbelengwa
Grade 6: Morgan Bunkell, Sumayya Forssman
Grade 7: Nomaswazi Mdluli
ABRSM
Suhani Dullabh Grade 2 Piano and Sarah Florence Grade 6 Violin.
TRINITY
Samantha Greyling-Nassi Grade 8 Violin
📆 Week ahead
Last week all our students from Grade 1-11 were lucky enough to enjoy a professional orchestra performance. The purpose was both to introduce them to the instruments of the orchestra and remind everyone that all of these instruments are offered at Kingsmead. We are so lucky to have access to the top musicians in our country to teach a wide range of instruments at our school. If you have any questions about Music at Kingsmead, consult the App or contact me.
‘Making music with others is one of the closest things we have to be a superpower. It fills us with a unique energy. It heals us of pain. It fills us with confidence. It helps us create beauty. It connects us with others who can enhance these things further. Making music is special.’ ~ Vaughan Fleischfresser
Acknowledgement and Recognition form
If your daughter has participated in an examination, festival, eisteddfod, or any other event in the Arts (Visual Art, Drama, Dance) & Music sphere, we would love to hear about it. Please complete the Acknowledgement and Recognition form on the Kingsmead App in the Arts & Music folder. The purpose of this form is to ensure that we can celebrate your daughter in awards, assemblies, newsletters and on our social media.
🎶Meet your Music Teachers Week: 5 – 9 February🎶
In our experience as music teachers, teachers and parents partnering to support students in their music studies, ensure success. We want to get to get to know our music parents.
Throughout the week of 5 – 9 February parents are invited to visit their daughter’s individual music lesson or a group rehearsal to see what we do. We are eager to connect with all our Kingsmead music families!🎶
If you have any more questions about Arts & Music at Kingsmead, please get in touch.
Elsabé Fourie
Director of Arts & Music
efourie@kingsmead.co.za
Sport
Congratulations to the following students who represented Central Gauteng and Eastern Gauteng at the Inter-provincial water polo tournament held in Gqeberha in December 2023. All our students performed well and achieved great results with their respective age group teams.
U14B – Chloe Chapman, Jenna Askew (Reserve) & Hannah Cooke (Reserve)
U15B – Clea Ellens, Charlie Davis, Robyn Herold & Lola-Rose Jooste (Reserve)
U16B – Morgan Bands & Holly Franks
U16A – Lucy Davis
Eastern Gauteng
u16 – Kirsten Lamb
u18 – Emma Spronk
Front L-R: Jenna Askew, Zoe Kennedy, Georgie Dalling, Lucy Berry
Middle L-R: Lola-Rose Jooste, Hannah Cooke, Chloe Chapman, Olivia Piccolo, Alexandra Miller, Emma Clowes, Charlie Davis
Back L-R: Robyn Herold, Morgan Bands, Holly Franks, Lucy Davis, Clea Ellens, Erin Boyd Megan Tyler Wilkins(Coach)
Diving
Maya Rono competed at the recent SA National Age group Championships in Durban and achieved amazing results.
1m – 1st place
3m – 1st place
3m Synchro – 1st place
Squash Courts
We are very proud that both squash courts have been repaired, painted and floors resurfaced in the December holidays.
Summer Splash
We are very proud of our students who were on camp and returned to compete in this big event.
As a combined Junior and Senior School event, our students showed some good early form and achieve the following results.
Swimming – 5th overall
Water Polo – 5th overall
Robert Pullen
Director of Sports
Service
Service is an integral part of the extra-curricular programme at Kingsmead College and at the core of our ethos. Our main focus is to encourage students to be actively involved in community engagement and to be active citizens.
We are delighted to have launched our Service App. The App has been developed by MyAppZone – the developers of the Kingsmead App. The Service App is part of the Kingsmead App and can be found by clicking on the Service widget. The App has been designed to be user friendly and easy to navigate. The App includes service opportunities from various non-profit organisations, information on the opportunities that we offer at Kingsmead, and Service dates to diarise. Students are able to log their hours, all hours will be verified by us, and students can easily track their volunteering history, and progress to meeting the required number of service hours. For our Grade 9 – 12 students, their volunteering history from Community Hours will be uploaded to their Service profiles on the App.
On 23 January our Grade 8s enjoyed an experiential introduction to Service with a visit to The Children’s Memorial Institute. The Children’s Memorial Institute is home to 30 non-profit organisations, all providing services to children, adolescents and families. This 100 year old building bordering Parktown, Braamfontein and Hillbrow was originally The Transvaal Memorial Hospital. The Grade 8s were given a brief history of the space and the essential services provided. Grouped according to their houses – Timlin, Baker and Kruger, each group spent an hour at the three organisations we selected for our visit. Lefika la Phodiso offers commmunity art counselling and training, and a variety of arts based programmes for children. Lefika is a therapeutic, creative counselling environment offering healing and support. The Grades 8s participated in an Arts Chase – creating a pattern on a blank canvas. Once the canvas was created, each person had to identify something that they could see in the pattern and bring that to life. Using pastels and wax crayons new artwork was created. One student commented – “I rediscovered my 4 year old self”. It was all action and activity at Fight with Insight. Led by coaches Ayanda, Joel and Advocate the students enjoyed a high impact boxing class. They loved it and there were lots of smiles. Ayanda took the students on a tour of Fight with Insight, explaining the services offered – these include psycho social support, homework support and tuition, nutrition and daily balanced meals. The Grade 8s had the best time reconnecting with their sensory systems at The Sensory Space – an interactive sensory adventure. There are themed rooms that are designed to help visitors explore various sensory systems in a fun and engaging way. During the debrief the rooms that featured as hot favourites were the Boulder room, Big Bird room, Forest Kelp Maze, Jungle Swing room, and Sand room.
For our very first Service @ School for 2024 we hosted an afternoon of knitting. The afternoon was open to all that were interested – those who couldn’t knit at all, beginners, and experienced knitters. We adopted an each one teach one approach – with the experienced knitters teaching the beginners. We were joined by Thandi from our House Keeping Team and Priscilla from our Medical Centre who also assisted teaching new knitters. What a fabulous afternoon! We had a huge turnout of enthusiastic knitters – teaching and learning stitch by stitch. Students from different grades had the opportunity to meet and engage, got to meet new people and make friends. The afternoon was so popular that we will be starting a Knitting Club once a week – dates will be published on the App.
On Saturday we hosted our special VIPs from Rays of Hope for Buddy Reading. Our volunteers arrived an hour early to make sandwiches for the children and to pack their snack packs. Two wonderful hours were spent reading, on an art activity, creating a delicious treat, and having fun playing. Buddy Reading is held twice termly and is an absolute favourite for our students.
February is all about the love of Volunteering and we have a busy month.
Our first Blood Drive of the year was on 7 February. It was well supported, we thank all those students and teachers who gave of their time to donate.
Footloose Friday is on 16 February, please donate your gently worn shoes – all sizes and styles and for all ages. We are collecting for men, women, girls and boys. We will also be celebrating Flip Flop Friday, students are able to wear civvies, the R10 donation is paid to CHOC.
Karen Landi
klandi@kingsmead.co.za
Director of Service
Ashleigh Phiri
aphiri@kingsmead.co.za
Service Coordinator
Transformation, Diversity and Inclusion
The start of 2024 has been about welcoming new staff and students and reminding everyone in the Kingsmead Community about our heritage. Last year was a celebration of our 90th birthday. Already we can look forward to the hundredth birthday celebration as this is such a significant milestone. With ten years to go, it is critical for each of us to think about our contribution towards this legacy. It is also important to consider how the Kingsmead heritage has enriched our lives.
Onke Mazibuko
Director, TDI
omazibuko@kingsmead.co.za
Camp Discovery 2024
Camp Discovery 2024, was one of the most memorable camps we’ve ever been to! From mud obstacles to swimming in the pool, all we can say is that Camp Discovery never disappointed. Our Grade 9 year can all agree that Camp Discovery exceeded all our expectations! On our first day we were greeted by 2 of the best facilitators, Dino and Maverick. They introduced us to a few Boer-games and enjoyable activities! They showed us their awesome pool and tuckshop area where we could have some down time and chill. On day 2 we went on an amazing game drive through their wonderful bush, where we spotted birds, giraffes and many other animals. We then went to a mud course, at first we were disgusted but at the end of it, I think we can all agree that it was one of our best moments of camp. Later that night we went on an ‘amazing race’ where our grade was split into 2 groups to find words hidden around the facilities. Once all words were found we were instructed to make a war-cry, we created two of the best war cries to ever exist. The Grade 9s then showed the school spirit by performing our school war cries, I can say that every single school that was also staying at the campsite, came to watch the Kingsmead spirit. The vibe was unmatched and our energy was out of this world, for us that was something we will never forget. We thank Camp Discovery for giving us the time of our lives. We hope to go back someday and make more memories!
Hanna Seedat and Ameera Nosarka (Grade 9 Students)
Inter-House Activities
Inter-House – T-Shirt Printing
Imagine having the opportunity to print your own House T-shirt? Imagine having the opportunity to choose your own design along with the name of your House and wear it with pride? Inter-House activities are not only an opportunity to compete against the other Houses, but also an opportunity to bond across grades within our Houses. It gave me immense pleasure to see our Matrics of 2024 guiding our younger students and assisting them with their creative ideas. In addition to this, our Staff are never afraid of getting their hands dirty and were quick to lean into the printmaking extravaganza. It was a high energy, thrilling activity with a rewarding outcome – I know I’ll be wearing my latest Kingsmead Couture with (HOUSE) pride!!
Danielle Wepener
Head of Baker
Inter-House Water Polo
The Water Polo during Inter-House Aquatics was an exhilarating event. Most players in their House teams were playing against people with whom they play team Water Polo. It was interesting to watch each player trying to use their opponent’s weaknesses to their advantage. Each player’s performance in the pool made their House exceptionally proud. Even though there were high levels of competition, the sportsmanship of each House was more prevalent throughout the events of the day. The supporters of the Water Polo were a force to be reckoned with: making sure to cheer their respective teams on energetically!
Sange Sibiya
Head of Timlin
Inter-House Diving
The Wednesday of Inter-House Aquatics was predicted to be cloudy and gloom; however, nothing could stop our phenomenal and talented swimmers from “diving” into the competition. These capable swimmers showed us that, come rain or shine, they are always ready to represent their Houses. The divers were elegant and precise, showing off their masterful movements into the pool. We thank the divers for their contribution and congratulate them for their immense House pride.
Nthuthuko Masetlwa
Head of Kruger
Inter-House Swimming
The Inter-House Aquatics is one of the most looked forward to House events that happen throughout the year. The 2024 Inter-House Swimming Gala lived up to that expectation and it was an epic start to the year. Everybody was involved, whether it was swimming or cheering for their friends in the pool. Since it took place on the first day of school this year, it gave the Grade 8s the opportunity meet new people from other grades and make friends in their House which is a crucial part of the Senior School here at Kingsmead. All in all, the gala caused quite the splash, and everybody had a lovely time!
Kaylee Ritchie
Head of Baker
Inter-House Public Speaking
We were given the opportunity to participate in an Inter-House Public Speaking event! Hopefully the first of many to come. There were two categories from which to choose. The oratory showcase included: poetry, dramatic monologues or speeches, and an impromptu section. As a student who did not participate, it was an absolute pleasure and inspiration to witness the talent and courage of my fellow peers. This was an exciting event that allowed speakers from Grade 8 to 11 to display their passion through their words. I have no doubt this is a life skill that will stand anyone in good stead in their adult working career. I’m sure there will be many more students joining the Public Speaking club next year! To all the contestants: you make me proud to be a Kingsmead student.
Emily Stoutjesdyk
Grade 12 Student