Dear Kingsmead Community,
I do hope that you are enjoying a restful half-term break. It could not have come at a better time for us. By now you will all be aware that we had a teacher test positive for Covid-19 in the Junior School and a day later, one in the Senior School. Although we have been advised not to close the school every time there is a positive case, these teachers had had contact with many of our students and they had also interacted with many of the staff too. We will evaluate each case individually before making the call as to whether to close the school or not. We will also be in contact with the NICD and with the Department of Education, before making our final call.
We have spent many hours over the past two weeks meeting with our past students who have contacted us to discuss their racist experiences at the school. Some of the past students matriculated as long ago as 2005 and 2006 and we have also had interactions with some who matriculated in 2018 and from 2015 to 2019.
These interactions have been most enlightening and the school has pledged to ensure that any form of racism or exclusion will be eradicated from the school. We have also been able to discuss the changes that have occurred at the school over the past years – the last 3 in particular – and we are hoping that as we engage further with the alumni that we will be able to work together to fight against racism, racist behaviour and any other exclusionary practises like sexism and homophobia. Ms Sharekha Banwa as the school’s Head of the Transformation, Diversity and Inclusion Committee and Ms Rizwana Bawa – the Head of the TDI which is a sub-committee on Council – have committed to working closely with the school and all stakeholders to lead honest conversations and to keep working together to lead change in our Kingsmead community.
There is also a process underway for our current students to discuss exclusionary practises. Ms Lwando Xaso has been engaging the Grade 11s and 12s in discussions on a Friday afternoon and this will be rolled out to the rest of the Senior School. Together we will put a strategy in place going forward and this will be communicated to all our stakeholders.
I wish our Grade 8 and 9 students a wonderful reintegration into the school and I wish all the Grade 10 – 12 students well as they start their exams next week.
Take care,
Fond regards
Lisa Kaplan
Head: Kingsmead College
Arts News
MUSIC
The Associate Board of the Royal Schools of Music will be hosting a virtual Global High Scorer’s Concert in August this year. We are thrilled that two of our students have been selected to participate in this prestigious event! Andie Stewart, a past pupil, and Rachael Fifield, currently in Grade 7, will be included in the virtual concert series aimed to unite all ABRSM candidates and the rest of the world through the power of music. Prospective candidates have been selected based on the ABRSM Practical examination results awarded in 2019. Congratulations Andie and Rachael, we are proud of you! Thank you to Ruth Reinecke, who teaches them both, for her guidance and encouragement of these two musicians.
Concerts in the Lounge
Over the last month we launched Concerts in the Lounge – an opportunity for our music students to share what they have learned with the community. It has been so wonderful to see the confident performances of our young musicians.
If you haven’t seen our concerts yet, click on the links below. The concerts are posted on YouTube as unlisted videos, so not open to the public:
11 June: Junior School ; 11 June Senior School
18 June: Junior School ; 18 June: Senior School
Our Grade 4-7 wind band recorded a beautiful video. They are performing a traditional Sotho song called Kyrie. Click on the link to watch the video on YouTube: Grade 4-7 Wind Band on YouTube
Senior School Choir
The Choral Celebration Network Foundation, an organisation that launched a series of National Choir events in 2019, with the intention to host these festivals annually all over the country, took their festivals online this year. Kingsmead Senior School Choir was featured in the 6th installment of the online festivals.
Watch our choir perform alongside some of the top choirs in the country (Kingsmead is on at 17:00).
VIRTUAL CHORAL CELEBRATION FESTIVAL SERIES 2020- FESTIVAL 6
PUBLIC SPEAKING
Although the lockdown has kept us indoors, the one constant it could not change was the students’ eagerness to continue with their favourite extra-curricular activities, including Public Speaking.
The over-arching theme of this term in Public Speaking Club has been information: to distinguish what is credible and what is false as we are, as a generation, constantly bombarded with information. We explored polemics, rhetoric and the benefits and harms of these type of speeches and the inverse: anti-polemic. The focus has been on establishing criteria that make sources credible and how deceptive misinformation can be.
Although the weekly Zoom sessions are quite different from our usual meetings, the students have adapted well to this new format and have eagerly improved their skills as speakers and speech writers. We have worked towards each student finding her own voice by using the participants’ interests as inspiration to enable robust debate and giving everyone a space to share their opinion. Over the past month we have discussed ‘Cancel Culture’, ‘The Nature of Protests’ and ‘Youth Day’. The students have shown immense growth and steady improvement in their skills. I commend the Public Speaking Club members for their continued enthusiasm and valued contributions.
Tumelo Bore (TIC Public Speaking Club)
DEBATING
Deb-on-lock, (Debating on lockdown) was an inter-schools Debating Tournament hosted on Microsoft Teams at the end of May and beginning of June. It was an opportunity for students to compete and share ideas about the world while safely at home.
The senior rounds took place over the weekend of 29-31 May. The debaters took part in 5 preliminary rounds after which the seniors ranked 2nd out of 6 teams. This meant Kingsmead progressed to the semi-finals where the senior team lost 2-1. Ammaarah Wadee ranked 5th and Adiya Pillay 9th in the category of Best Speakers of the tournament. Congratulations to Adiya Pillay, Ammaarah Wadee and Juwairiyya Arain for a successful tournament.
The Junior rounds took place from 5-6 June. In the 3 preliminary rounds, our juniors won 1 out of 3 debates. They were unable to break due to technical difficulties but they debated well, growing more confident with each round. Congratulations to Elizabeth Hakizimana, Onthatile Sennelo, Mwamini Bukanga and Sumayya Forssman for working so hard and persevering despite the challenges.
We are SO proud of our debaters, well done!
Thank you to our community for your continued support of the Kingsmead Arts & Music Department. We hope to see you back at school soon.
All the best from the Arts & Music Department.
Elsabé Fourie
Director of Arts & Music
Sports News
SPORT VIDEO
Please follow the link below to have a look at a video that the Sports’ Captains have made.
KINGSMEAD FITNESS
During lockdown and the many hours spent at home, it has been so important to get moving. Not only does it benefit the body physically, but there are many positive benefits that affect our mental health. The Senior Sports’ Captains made an ebook per month, and an Instagram page, with creative and enjoyable exercises to aid in keeping healthy.
As we go into July we wish all the Seniors good luck for their exams, but a reminder to also take vital exercise breaks, or even go for a walk.
Sarah Benning
Grade 12 Student and Head of Sport
Academic News
FRENCH
To revise the vocabulary from the set work La vengeance du Pardon and to practice the skill of ‘exprimer clairement avec ses propres mots’, the Grade 12s designed their very own crosswords. http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/
MOTS CROISÉS – LA VENGEANCE DU PARDON
HORIZONTALEMENT
- C’est un adjectif qui signifie qu’une personne ou un animal est amical.
- C’est un adjectif qui est utilisé pour parler d’une personne honorable.
- C’est un verbe qui signifie changer des mots d’une langue à une autre langue.
- C’est un verbe réflexif synonyme de se promener.
- C’est un nom qui décrit un grand chat sauvage orange avec des rayures noires.
- C’est un nom qui signifie une pièce où une personne peut parler avec un prisonnier dans une prison.
- C’est un métal dur et gris.
- C’est un synonyme pour le mot stupide.
- C’est un adverbe qui signifie quelque chose que personne ne doit savoir.
- C’est un verbe qui signifie penser longuement, considérer.
- C’est un nom qui décrit quelqu’un qui est le meilleur dans son travail.
- C’est un nom qui décrit le sentiment quand on déteste fortement quelqu’un ou quelque chose.
- C’est un adjectif qui décrit quelqu’un qui est fou ou qui fait des choses bizarres.
- C’est un nom qui décrit une personne qui finit la vie d’une autre personne.
VERTICALEMENT
- C’est un nom qui décrit l’état d’esprit quand une personne ne se sent plus stressée
- C’est un nom qui veut dire qu’on ne dit pas la vérité.
- C’est une expression qui veut dire ressentir une émotion négative comme la colère, la frustration
- C’est un nom qui signifie qu’on ne parle pas, qu’il n’y a pas de bruit, qu’on n’entend rien.
- C’est un nom qui décrit le processus quand un juge décide si un criminel devrait aller en prison, s’ il est coupable ou innocent
- C’est un adjectif qui signifie quelqu’un qui n’est pas gentil et aimant.
- C’est un adjectif qui décrit une situation ou une action horrible.
- C’est un nom qui décrit le processus pour se sentir mieux.
- C’est un nom qui signifie un enfant qui n’a plus de parents.
- C’est un adjectif qui signifie quand une personne est très en colère, très fâchée
- C’est un verbe qui signifie quand quelqu’un excuse une autre personne pour ses mauvaises actions, ses erreurs.
- C’est ce qui va se passer dans le futur.
Mots: FURIEUX, PARDONNER, TRADUIRE, MENSONGE, RESPECTABLE, SEBALADER (2 mots), TIGRE, CRÉTIN, RÉFLÉCHIR, AVENIR, ACIER, ORPHELIN, HAINE, SILENCE, GUÉRISON, FROIDEUR, SOCIABLE, PROCÈS, SOMMITÉ, PARLOIR, SOULAGEMENT, DE/MAUVAISE/HUMEUR (3 mots), INDIFFÉRENT, ATROCE, SECRÈTEMENT
The Grade 9s have made remarkable progress and have already grasped how to form the future tense and how to build long, complex sentences. They were tasked with creating a Nuage de Mots to revise the new vocabulary.
The Grade 9s and 10s had to show their creative and humoristic flair by creating a short comic strip to consolidate their understanding of the sections taught in their online lessons.
Grade 9s – Futur proche / vacances
Sabrina
Sofi
Grade 10s – Actes de parole: parler de ses symptômes et donner des conseils.
Tayyeba
Joelle Harding
Senior School French Teacher
CONSUMER STUDIES
Grade 12 Stage 4 practical exam
The Grade 12s had their stage 4 practical exam. The students were well spaced to ensure that social distancing was practiced. The trial exam went well, the students had fun being in the kitchen again doing what they do best. There was lots of humour and delicious dishes were produced. The final exam will be in July and the same rules of social distancing will be applied. We wish our Consumer Studies students all the best.
Phumi Masetlwa
Senior School Consumer Studies Teacher
Service News
DANCE MARATHON
The Senior School raised R85 052 for different causes during Dance Marathon last term. Thank you to the entire community for their generosity and contributions.
- Grade 12s raised R16 580 towards a Kingsmead Legacy Project;
- Grades 11 and 8 raised R35 107 for Dignity Dreams and this enabled us to donate 160 Dignity Dreams sanitary packs to Isipho Primary School in Soweto;
- Grade 10s raised R16 210 towards their own Matric Dance in 2022 to assist the MDC with their fundraising;
- Grade 9s raised R17 155 for the HerVenture community project phase.
ISIPHO PRIMARY SCHOOL PARTNERSHIP
Fielding Dreams, in partnership with DPA Chem, donated hand sanitiser to each student at Isipho, hand sanitiser for each Isipho classroom and a 20 litre hand sanitiser jerry can for use by the entire Isipho.
The Kingsmead community would like to thank both Fielding Dreams and DPA Chem for this generous donation valued at over R8000. You can support DPA Chem by purchasing sanitising products from them at www.dpachem.com.
RAYS OF HOPE: THE HEART OF ALEXANDRA
Many of you are familiar with the children who are part of the Buddy Reading programme at Kingsmead College. The buddies are children from Alexandra who are assisted in various ways by an organisation called Rays of Hope. Rays of Hope is currently running a campaign called #WarmupAlex. You can help #WarmupAlex by donating blankets, scarves, gloves, socks and non-perishable food items. Donation boxes are placed outside the Music Reception in which items can be placed. Please make sure that your items are in a sealed plastic bag before dropping them into the donation boxes.
Alternatively, if you would like to make a donation towards a food parcel for the children from our Buddy Reading programme, the following items are purchased to help assist these families during these difficult times. You can either purchase the items listed below or make a donation via EFT. The food parcel consists of the following:
3x tinned fish
3x baked beans
2x mixed vegetables
2x soup packets
5kg maize meal
2kg rice
500g pasta
2lt cooking oil
2 bath soap
1 pack dried beans
1x box facial tissues
2kg sugar
750ml dish washing liquid
Banking details are as follows:
Rays of Hope
Nedbank, Hyde Park
1972 126 903
Branch Code: 197205
Swift Code: NEDS ZA JJ
Ref: #Hope4Alex
All cash donations are eligible for Section 18A certificates and can be requested with a proof of payment from Sandy@RaysOfHope.co.za. Please reference Buddy Reading food parcels for EFT payments.
Thank you in advance for your generous donations and support of those in need.
Jenny Venter Lauren Myburgh
Director of Service Junior School Head of Service
IPAD Offer
Shamila Chiman
Head of Organisational Systems