Kingsmead Newsletter January 2018

Dear Kingsmead Community

Welcome to the start of a wonderful new year, filled with possibilities and exciting opportunities.

Welcome to the new girls – particularly our Grade 8 class and their parents, and to the new staff members. We wish you a long and happy association with the Kingsmead family.

Staff Changes:

Mrs Estie Fenske – joins the Afrikaans Department from Brescia House.
Miss Bianca Meyer – joins the LO Department from Northcliff.
Miss Carissa Pillay – joins the Science and History Departments. She was an intern at Kingsmead last year.
Miss Danielle Wepener – joins the Art and English Departments. She was an intern at Kingsmead last year.
Miss Roxanne Prout – joins the Mathematics Department and continues with Jnr Diving. She was an intern last year.
Mrs Candice Minnaar – joins the Mathematics and Geography department.

Welcome back to Ms Apel Kunene – who has returned from maternity leave this year. Khanya is just the most beautiful and delightful baby.

Ms Cynthia Monyeki (Sciences Lab Assistant) has resigned and we welcome Ms Agnes Moshidi as her replacement.

Ms Pranusha Ramchander has resigned as the Director of Marketing and Events and we will be advertising shortly for this position.

The year started on a most positive note with the celebration of our outstanding Matric results. We commend each Matric girl on her efforts in the final examinations – the hard work and commitment certainly paid off. Please see the poster below with the highlights from the results.

The staff enjoyed two days of development on Monday and Tuesday this week, before the girls arrived on Wednesday. Some of the highlights of the development were an address by Bev Bouwer (Chair of Council) and breakfast with the Kingsmead Council and an inspirational talk by behaviourist Joni Peddie – who challenged us to sleep more and gave the staff helpful hints as to how to reduce our stress levels and increase our energy levels.

A few extracts from Bev Bouwer’s address to staff.

“This time last year, I stood in front of you all and admitted ‘I don’t know how you do it.’

I could say that again. With another set of fabulous results, another group of amazing young ladies launched into the world to pursue their dreams. All because we have this dedicated team – starting at the Foundation phase in the junior school, with a single-minded passion, energy and commitment – to see each individual fulfil her destiny and achieve the purpose she was made for.

It remains for Council to thank you, the staff, the backbone of this community. You are the unsung heroes who inspire our girls to greatness. Who, when the world sinks deeper into the mire, call out bigger dreams, higher goals and impossible targets from those young and ambitious enough to achieve them.

Thank you for keeping the faith, we salute you.”

At the combined assembly on the first Wednesday (Grade 2 – Grade 12), the girls were challenged by Mrs Lowman and myself to find the courage that is within each of them this year to make a difference in their lives. The fact is that struggles and challenges are part of growth and making mistakes results in further achievements. Mrs Lowman told the story of the caterpillar who must struggle to emerge from its cocoon as the struggle is part of the butterfly’s development. Any help given to the butterfly could limit its later potential and growth.

The girls were then shown a video clip of an advert entitled “The courage is within” and were again challenged to break stereotypes and to conquer their fears.

This was a wonderful way to start the new year and the energy and enthusiasm of the girls was palpable in the hall.

I look forward to a fantastic year ahead!

Fond regards

Lisa Kaplan
Head: Kingsmead College

TRANSFORMATION COMMITTEE AND PARENTS’ MEETING:

Thank you to all the parents who have so willingly and enthusiastically responded to my letter in November last year requesting volunteers for the Transformation Committee. I have been overwhelmed by the positive messages and the response.

In terms of this, the parents, staff and pupils who have volunteered for the Transformation Committee, met on Monday 29 January to establish the role of this committee.

On Monday 5 February there will be an information evening for any interested parent who would like to know more about transformation and the process we are following. This will take place in the Mackenzie venue from 17:30 – 18:30 and will be run by Nene Molefi of Mandate Molefi, who is running the school’s process. We look forward to seeing many parents at this important meeting as Nene will take parents through the 10 step journey we have embarked upon and she will also explain to parents how they can be involved in the process.

 SAM MAKWELA:

It is with great sadness that we tell you of the passing of our Head Gardener – Sam Makwela over the weekend. Sam will be sorely missed and we hold his family and loved ones in our thoughts and prayers at this time.

THE TUCKSHOP HAS A NAME!

With the opening of our beautiful new tuck shop came the need to find it a name.  We enlisted the help of our Kingsmead Family to find the most suitable name.

Having received a wonderful response from parents, staff and girls, the following names were shortlisted by the Executive team and presented to the Kingsmead community for a final vote.

1. Jabula

2. Simunye

3. Greens

We are delighted to announce that Jabula Café was a resounding winner.

“Jabula” is an isiZulu word meaning to be joyful or happy.

Happiness is one of the values of our school and we pride ourselves in creating a happy environment for our girls, parents and staff. We believe this name suits us perfectly.

The design of the logo is approachable, friendly and simply happy.

The smiley face in the middle of the word was incorporated to make the logo a bit more fun, welcoming and personal – emphasising student’s individuality and the tuckshop space, which is modern and bright. It is a space for our girls to relax at lunchtime, for parents to take a breather and enjoy a cup of coffee or a casual meeting place for staff.

Thank you for your enthusiasm and involvement in choosing the name.

Fond regards

Lisa Kaplan                                                          Kim Lowman
Head: Kingsmead College                              Head: Kingsmead Junior School

Arts News

MAJOR PRODUCTION

This year’s Major Production will be a performance of Mbongeni Ngema’s Sarafina!. The Senior School girls have started rehearsals for what promises to be an exciting production. This year we are collaborating with King Edward VII School, and look forward to showcasing both the talents of our girls, as well as the boys at KES. As the show is a musical, all the Arts forces will combine on stage – Mrs Frances Wilmot is heading up and directing the show, Mrs Elsabé Fourie is our Musical Director, with assistance from Mrs Ashlea Martin and Mrs Jenny Venter, Mrs Janine Lovatt our Producer, Ms Danielle Wepener is in charge of creating the set with the Visual Arts girls, and our Drama intern, Ms Rangoato Phogole, will be assisting with direction and traditional dance for the shows. Our student directors are Amukelani Mnisi and Amonge Sinxoto, and their directorial vision to make this show relevant to a 21^st Century audience – along with monologues written by our Head of Drama, Rachel Maruatona – is inspiring.

Performance dates are 14-16 March – watch this space for ticket sales and more details.

DANCE

Congratulations to Sara Feldman (Grade 11) who has been cast in a production for this year’s Dance Umbrella. Sylvaine Strike and Owen Lonzar’s Doll, “explores the life of an online order: ownership; desire, disappointment; objectification and Harvey Weinstein.”

We congratulate Sara on this wonderful achievement and wish her well for her performances in this professional production, in March.

MUSIC

At Kingsmead our girls are fortunate enough to have the opportunity to learn any of a wide range of instruments. Learning an instrument, is a lifelong joy and hugely beneficial for the development of various disciplines and habits. Ideally, every child should at least at some point have the chance to make music.

To make this possible, we offer the following:

• Email Elsabé Fourie on efourie@kingsmead.co.za for an application form for individual tuition. There is no need to reapply if your daughter was taking lessons at Kingsmead in 2017. Music lessons will be charged at R205/half hour in 2018.
• Instrument Projects: All the Grade 2s will learn to play the violin during their Music classes in the first six months of the year. The Grade 4s will learn some woodwind and brass instruments on a rotational basis. More information about these projects will be communicated to the relevant parents during the next week.
• Music Theory classes are offered on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday mornings 6:30 – 7:30 in the Beatles classroom (upstairs in the Music department). Please discuss this with your daughter’s individual instrumental/vocal lessons teacher.
• Group Music making: All our instrumental players should be involved in an Ensemble or Orchestra. Voice pupils should participate in one of the Choirs. Please consult the extracurricular schedule for rehearsal times.
• Please do not contact the teachers directly, we first place existing pupils from last year and then place waiting list pupils.

EXTRA-CURRICULAR PROGRAMME

Details regarding the Extra-curricular programme have been published in the past two Junior School Newsletter and the same details will be communicate to the Senior School girls and on the APP.

For more information, you can also contact the service providers whose details are enclosed with the Extra-curricular schedule.

Please note the minor changes:

• Additional Marimba sessions in the Junior and Senior Schools
• Additional Art Club session for Grade 4-7
• Chess added on Tuesdays and Fridays for Grade 1-7
• New additions to follow in February:
  • Baby Beat: Music Classes for babes ages 1-3 – see the APP for details
  • Dance Mouse Tots for ages 15 – 35 months – details on the APP

Our Choirs, Orchestras and Ensembles have a busy term ahead with the biggest highlight of the term a showcase of all our groups on stage on the 5^th of April. Save the date!

Please consult the APP for a detailed dates list, schedules and more information. The Arts & Music folder on the app will be updated this week.

Elsabé Fourie
Director of Arts & Music

Sports News

On the 25th January, the Senior School girls had a fun afternoon filled with various sports activities like Tennis Champs, Swimming Gala and Diving.

Academic News

CREATIVE ARTS

The Creative Arts subjects of Art, Music & Drama, and Enrichment have combined their efforts to create an integrated course for the Grade 9s in the first term of 2018 with a focus on the art of children’s theatre.

On Friday, 19 January the girls spent the whole day attending performances and workshops, and holding interviews and brainstorming sessions as an introduction to the course.

Theatre production professionals from ZikkaZimba Productions facilitated the process for the girls including performing a children’s theatre production for the Grade 9s, as well as hosting workshops to create the basis of each group’s work for the term. This day served as the ultimate platform to create a children’s theatre production in groups, combining the elements of Art, Music, Drama & Enrichment found in each as the basis for academic assessment. The Grade 9s will have an authentic audience for their pieces, in the form of the Grade 1 to 3 Junior School girls.

It was a wonderful day full of creativity, and the girls – as well as the teachers – are excited about what they will create to perform for the Junior School in March.

The Grade 9s assist the ZikkaZimba cast with making props for the show they are about to watch.

The Grade 9s watch the warm-up process as the ZikkaZimba cast prepares for their performance.

ZikkaZimba performs their production, Taking Flight, for the Grade 1-3s and Grade 9s.

The ZikkaZimba team takes the Grade 9s through various excercises and games to get their creative juices flowing.

The Grade 9s interview the Grade 3s in order to gain insight into their interests. This will help to tailor their performances to the girls specifically in the Junior School.

The Grade 3s in Mrs Thomson’s class made a circle map to unpack their understanding of Taking Flight.

Frances Wilmot
Dramatic Arts Teacher

GERMAN 

Kingsmead College is now hosting jugendofgoethe, a programme which provides the opportunity to write German SAL (Second Additional Language) as a matric subject.

VENUES, DATES, TIMES
Grades 10, 11, 12 classes are held at Kingsmead College
Grades 8 and 9 classes are held at St John’s College

Grade 12 Kingsmead Tuesday 15h15 – 17h15
Grade 11 Kingsmead Thursday 15h00 – 16h30
Grade 10 Kingsmead Tuesday 15h00 – 16h30
Grade 9 St John’s Tuesday  16h00 – 17h15
Grade 8 St John’s Monday 15h00 – 16h15

Mary Rose Schudel
External German Teacher

Service News

COMMUNITY HOURS

Our very successful partnership with Community Hours continue and every Grade 8-11 student is using this platform to find volunteering opportunities and log community service hours.

Kingsmead College has a dedicated link on the website and every student has a personal username to login. This website verifies all community hours completed and provides students and parents with a weekly newsletter containing information on volunteering opportunities.

Parents with charity or non-profit organisations can also benefit from this and are encouraged to contact us to register on Community Hours to advertise volunteering needs.

GRADE 8 HOP-ON HOP-OFF

The Grade 8s were introduced to some of the organisations we support during the Orientation programme. The Hop-on Hop-Off Service tour included:

Guide Dogs Association South Africa
Park Care
Dlala Nje
Fight with Insight

GREEN COMMITTEE

The Green Committee’s first project this year is to support the Owl Rescue Centre in Hartbeespoort. We are collecting plastic that will be recycled and converted into owl shelters, bat houses and bee hives.

Any of the following/similar plastic containers can be placed in the drawers in the Senior School Reception.

SERVICE EXCURSIONS

The Senior School already had two Service Excursions to Impilo and Guild Cottage. We donated 48 blankets to Impilo from all the knitted squares that we collected in 2017. Please keep on knitting or crocheting squares and submit it to Mrs Jenny Venter.

Squares: 20cmx20cm
Large/Adult blankets: 140cmx180cm
Medium/Child blankets: 120cmx160cm
Small/Baby blankets: 100cmx102cm

Upcoming Service Excursions:
Saturday              10 February        Kitty and Puppy Haven
Wednesday        28 February        Park Care
Thursday             8 March                Fight with Insight
Thursday             22 March             Dlala Nje
Tuesday               27 March             June’s Haven
Wednesday        4 April                   Fight with Insight

Valentine’s CHOC drive

We are supporting CHOC for Valentine’s this year. Blue heart chocolates and pins can be purchased from the Senior School reception and can also be ordered as a gift to be delivered to that special person on Valentine’s Day. Blue heart pins may be worn on the school blazers until the end of February in support of International Childhood Cancer Day on 15 February.

FOOTLOOSE FRIDAY

Friday 16 February is Footloose Friday and Civvies Day for the Junior and Senior School. Please wear blue in support of International Childhood Cancer Day and bring a donation of gently worn shoes to school. Kindly tie all donated shoes together with the shoe laces or an elastic band to make delivery easier and to ensure that pairs stay together.

Other important dates:
SANBS Blood Drive                           22 February
Aurora                                                  24 February

Jenny Venter
Head of Service

The President’s Award

Congratulations to the girls who achieved a level of The President’s Award at the end of last year:

Bronze:

59 girls of the Grade 9 class of 2017 achieved a Bronze level and most of them are already enrolled for Silver

Silver:
Rachel McKay
Leisha van Wyk
Vutomi Mageza
Tuana Guler
Emelia Jessop
Tanya Swartz
Tasmiyah Surtee
Kashvi Bandyopadhyay
Eryn La Fleur
Zahra Cassim
Charlotte Stockenstrom
Yusairah Mayet
Katlego Kgomari
Kristin Eddison
Jade Fieldgate
Naseeha Jhavary
Jessica Shepherd
Jenifer Iwuanyanwu
Tshiamo Seleki
Cayley Lovatt
Gemma Schleicher

Gold:
Husnaa Bux
Amy Viljoen

 Tsitsikamma Trail

44 Silver and Gold participants completed the challenging Tsitsikamma trail during the December holidays. Thank you to Mindscape Adventures for hosting us.

Georgina Beart (Grade 10, Silver) writes about her experience:

The last bell rang for our final school day of 2017 and the stomachs of 22 girls were filled with butterflies. Reasons being, that firstly the holidays had begun and secondly, that the time had come for our Adventurous Journey to Tsitsikamma National Park.  After a very exciting start to the holiday, we all hopped onto the Gautrain and made our way to the airport for our very last ‘luxurious’ meal.  After our flight and bus trip full of laughter, we arrived at the camp and met Graham, our guide, who had pitched our tents and couldn’t wait to embark and lead us on our journey.

Our four days of hiking included coca-cola coloured rock pools, red faces, a variety of terrain with extraordinary views, ranging from rocky and uphill to level shaded forests. The extreme temperatures ranged from intensely hot to rainy and cold, meaning that we faced obstacles such as slippery rocks and burning feet.

The hike was definitely more challenging than most of us girls expected it to be, however, this certainly provided us with a sense of achievement and a rewarding feeling that many of us will never forget. From card games, song singing, freezing cold showers, water with tadpoles and blisters, we will cherish the views, bonds and memories formed during our four days on The President’s Award Journey.

Tsitsikamma Trail December 2017

Tsitsikamma Trail January 2018

Here are a few excerpts from Katlego Kgomari (Grade 11, Gold) reflection on her adventure:

We woke up in the early hours of the morning to escape the unbearable heat for a few hours. Hiking for hours with our heavy bags mounted on our backs, our legs screamed for mercy, but we carried on singing and cheering for motivation.

We had to cook our own meals on each night and still managed to eat lavishly. From pap and boerewors to Briyani and even a make-shift dessert with Oreos, roasted marshmallows and canned peaches on the very last night. All of this, however, was belittled by Mrs. Venter’s ability to make flapjacks for herself and everyone else as well while still keeping her bag at a light weight. We were envious.

Nevertheless, all of our pain and suffering paid off during the breaks that we took near the magnificent coca-cola springs. The lush greenery and closeness of nature made this a truly wonderful experience and an astonishing achievement.

Important Dates:
1-5 March       Silver/Gold Adventurous Journey       Fanie Botha Trail
12-17 April      Silver/Gold Adventurous Journey       River Rafting (Orange River)
12-15 April      Silver/Gold Adventurous Journey       Kaapschehoop Hike
27 Apr-1 May  Silver/Gold Adventurous Journey       Fanie Botha Trail
17-22 April      Gold Residential Project                     Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre
12-16 April      Gold Residential Project                     K9 Conservation Project

Please contact Mrs Jenny Venter (jventer@kingsmead.co.za) for more information.

Mrs Jenny Venter
The President’s Award Leader

OKA Gin Tasting

Kirsten Legg
Old Kingsmeadian Association