CHESTERHOUSE INTERNATIONAL, INDEPENDENT, EDUCATION The Call of the Gryphon 10 October 2014 No: 029/2014 FROM THE HEADMASTER............. Dear Parents I had a truly memorable 60th birthday on 22 September and had a most wonderful day, made so special by your children and of course, my staff. I felt much loved and appreciated and was humbled by the many cards and gifts I received. One particular card stood out for me; a little girl who wrote how sad she was because her dog ate her hamster, but because I made her happy, it helped her to deal with this! I was so touched. I must make special mention of Ms Prins’ Grade 1 class who presented me with a beautiful birthday cake with my picture on it. This was undoubtedly the best birthday cake I have ever received in my life. A special thanks to the Grade 1 moms for this special and scrumptious cake. Justin Harvey HEADMASTER I received a wonderful gift of an Exclusive Books voucher and a wonderful bottle of red wine from the School Association on behalf of all the parents of Chesterhouse. Thank you so much to you all and to individual parents who sent cards, gifts and best wishes. I was truly spoilt rotten. A notice has gone out to our Junior School parents about a meeting this Monday 13 October where the Chairman of the Board and myself will update parents on our plans for the renovation of the Brick Building. The meeting starts at 18:30 and is in the school hall. We had a wonderful Valedictory service for our Matric Class of 2014 on the last day of term. In response to the many requests for copies of my Valedictory Address, I have attached it to this newsletter. Courage Inspires Justin Harvey HEADMASTER 2014 TERM DATES TERM PERIOD Term 1 Tuesday 14 January – Friday 28 March School holiday – 28 February Monday 7 April – Friday 27 June School and public holiday for all pupils –28 April to 2 May Monday 21 July – Tuesday 23 September School holiday for all pupils – 29 August Monday 6 October – Friday 5 December Term 2 Term 3 Term 4 Page 1 FROM THE COLLEGE……… Dear Parents and Guardians Welcome back to the last term of 2014. It is a busy, happy term; while we wrap up our academic programme for the year, we start the summer sports and cultural programmes that will continue in Term 1 of next year. There is thus a strong sense of entering the next phase, rather than merely completing this one. We were pleased to welcome Mr Richard Charlton who spent a week with us, preparatory to commencing his PGCE next year. Estelle Snyders Head of College Our Grade 10 and 12 pupils started their external examinations on Monday and by all accounts, they are doing well. We are delighted that so many pupils have already attended workshops and clinics as part of their examination preparation and encourage them to continue to do so. The examinations are written over a protracted period and some pupils find it difficult to remain focused on their studies during this time. Our own examinations will start on 10 November and the pupils will receive their timetables next week. We discussed examination preparation with the College in assembly this week and would like to give the following guidance to parents as their children face the, sometimes, challenging prospect of the end-of-year examinations. Revision must start with the work your child has always found difficult. By starting with that work early, they give themselves time to find the help they need and they have enough time to work through numerous examples, thereby developing a deep understanding of the section. The other bit of advice we can offer is that pupils keep a small notebook with them in which they record the areas they want to discuss with their teachers so that, when they attend clinics, they have a clear purpose. Our sports teams have started their summer programme and we are participating in a number of leagues. We have developed a strong reputation on the cricket field and look forward to some excellent victories this season. At the same time, we have enthusiastic softball teams, dedicated athletes, swimmers and tennis players, as well as passionate table tennis players. Please see details on all our fixtures elsewhere in this newsletter. The Inter-House Athletics meeting to be held on 28 November will prepare our athletes for the Inter-Schools meeting early next year. The Summerfest takes place in the first week of December. This is an opportunity for our pupils to build team spirit to socialise and compete out-of-doors. This communal effort will contribute to the final set of Inter-House competitions, like the ever-popular singing contest. We are looking forward to another successful Christmas market on 3 December. Every year this School Association fund raiser is well supported and we remind our families that it is an ideal opportunity to pick up gifts for friends and family. Congratulations to Lea-Ann van der Merwe (Past Pupil) – she has just been admitted to one of only 25 places in Stellenbosch’s Journalism programme. Lea-Ann is also the Sports Editor for Die Matie. We love to hear about and celebrate the successes of our Alumni. Please remind family and friends whose children have attended Chesterhouse to let us know their career paths and successes. We wish all our families a productive, happy week. Estelle Snyders and the College Team CHESTERHOUSE CONTACT DETAILS Phone: 021-975 6650 Fax: 021-975 6649 Email: infosenior@chesterhouse.co.za or infojunior@chesterhouse.co.za Webpage: www.chesterhouse.co.za Cnr. Mosselbank River & Falcon Streets, D’Urbanvale Estate, Durbanville 7550 Newsletter comments to: n.lagrange@chesterhouse.co.za Page 2 Bronwen Stewart Head of Academics Junior School Lieze Puren Head of Pastoral Affairs Junior School From the Junior School….. October has arrived We trust you all had all restful and good break with your children. The teachers have certainly returned with a spring in their step. We missed your children and it was wonderful to see them again on Monday. Many of them seemed to have grown a head taller in the holidays, it must be the time of year for growth. During the holidays, many of our children participated in Karate, Judo and equestrian competitions, to name but a few. We are so proud of them and it was wonderful to award them their medals in Assembly this morning. We were also notified, in the holidays of some winners of the Tygerberg Art competition, well done to all these children, your creativity is just inspiring. We will make the official announcement in next week’s newsletter. On Thursday morning, we had our termly new parents coffee morning. These have become a tradition at Chesterhouse. It was a wonderful relaxed time to meet our new parents and to network with our class reps. Thank you all for coming and welcome to Chesterhouse family once again. This afternoon, the staff will be doing training on the latest innovative methodology of teaching, to enable us to learn new ways to be outstanding Cambridge practitioners. We will also be planning for 2015. We have almost completed our first year of fully Cambridge delivery and there are things we have learnt. One of the most important lessons is, that we have all delivered Cambridge content, but we need to keep working on delivering the curriculum in the Cambridge way. We will be doing lots of training on this this term and next year. This term is a busy one, we have our Athletics day, prizegivings, Christmas market and a Carol service. Please watch the calendar for updates too. The teachers’ class calendars are now available on their websites. PROPERTY LOST PROPERTY Finally, on Friday, 31 October 2014, weLOST are hosting a Sensory Intelligence workshop for parents. Please look out for more information from your class reps and as always, please feel free to come and chat to us about this. Have a wonderful weekend. Thank you for all your support and feedback enabling us to stay firmly on the road of becoming an outstanding school. Kind regards Bronwen and Lieze 2015 TERM DATES TERM PERIOD Term 1 Wednesday 14 January – Friday 27 March School holiday – 27 February Monday 13 April – Friday 26 June School and public holiday for all pupils -27 April to 1 May and 16 June Tuesday 21 July – Wednesday 23 September public holiday – 10 August Monday 12 October – Friday 4 December Term 2 Term 3 Term 4 Page 3 Entrepreneur week Entrepreneur week was a great success; we have had many budding entrepreneurs selling there baked goods, tattoos, loombands, stress balls, condensedmilk syringes, hamburgers, stationery, a smoothie bar and lots of other creative ideas. Our bench under the tree has never been so busy with all the selling going on. This was all rounded off with our Market day on Friday where our children all had a place to set up shop advertise and welcome all children and parents to come and support them. What fun they all had. Great profits were made and like in all businesses not everyone made a profit and some suffered a loss; but this was all part of the learning curve and hopefully they will come back next year with new and fresh ideas that are slightly tweaked to help them be successful next time round. Our Winners are: 1st place Aimee Scott and Mia D’Aguiar (Grade 5) who made profits of R1043, 2nd place Saskia Daames (Grade 4) who made R975 and 3rd place Lia Kotze and Erin Pavitt (Grade 4) who made R782. Winners of the Entrepreneur week are able to keep their profits made. Well done to all who participated; you are all great. Bridget Neal SRC Outing On 19 September, the SRC went on an outing to Grand West. Members who had been on previous outings said it was one of the best they’d ever been on. It was definitely an amazing bonding experience, and brought us closer together as an SRC. We departed from school at about 2 o’ clock, after a slight delay due to some members needing to collect their IDs. When we arrived, we had to go through a security check, in which we learnt an important lesson- staplers can be seen as a weapons, and therefore should be removed from bags. We all met up in the arcade, where we were given a choice of activities- ice-skating or bowling. The majority of us chose ice-skating, although there were still quite a few people bowling. When we bought tickets for ice-skating, some of us also needed to buy socks, having a choice of South African flag socks in black or a tasteful grey. As soon as we got our skates on, we hit the ice with some of us demonstrating a bit more skill and prowess than the others. Our skating was punctuated with our lovely (self-proclaimed) waitress; Mrs Munro, coming to take our orders for food. When she announced that there were no budget limitations, it was met with shouts of glee and it definitely made our time all the more enjoyable. After an hour and a bit on the ice, it was time to go and eat, with many of us nursing bruised egos after falling spectacularly. We met up with the bowling people, whom I assume had a slightly less cold time. We ate at La Bella Gina’s, where a few of us learnt new things, such as what halloumi is, and how to properly eat spaghetti. The food was delicious, especially the dessert, and our time together was over much too quickly. Thank you to Ms Collier and Mrs Redelinghuys for accompanying us, and we hope they also had a great time. Thank you to Mr Harvey, Mrs Snyders and Mrs Dunk for giving us the opportunity- we really are very grateful. Thank you Herman for driving us there, and putting up with our bus ride antics. A massive thanks to Mrs Christina Lin for our dinner, and also thank you to the SRC members for making the experience so wonderful. Finally, thank you Mrs Munro for supervising us, pre-ordering our food, and generally being an amazing SRC teacher-in-charge. Without you all, this outing would not have happened, and we are all so thankful that it did. Tara Hall Grade 8 Page 4 NATIONAL ARBOR WEEK Towards the end of last term, the new prefect body for 2015 started their term office by commemorating National Arbor week. National Arbor Week is celebrated annually in South Africa during the first week of September, and is a time to encourage all South Africans to plant and care for indigenous trees to promote a more sustainable and green environment. The College prefects chose to plant an indigenous White Stinkwood (Celtis Africana) which we hope will flourish and start a new tradition here at Chesterhouse in the years to come, a tradition that not only promotes sustainable living but will also in the future provide natural shade during the hot months experienced by all pupils when out during break. We encourage everyone to do their bit, whether it’s planting a tree of your own or tending to the plants in the garden, no matter how big or small it is, in order to turn our surroundings into a greener and more sustainable one. Thank you to Stanford and his team for assistance in getting our tree in the ground. Prefects 2015 Kristin du Plessis Head Prefect for 2015 Dear Parents On Thursday 16 October 2014 both the Junior and Senior Primary choirs will show-case their talent. They will perform the songs they have learnt in Term 3. The event will be very informal – the idea of the event is to have FUN!! Chairs will be packed out on the one side of the hall, but please feel free to bring a cushion along if you would prefer to sit on the floor. During the concert the tuck shop will be closed and will re-open after the last item. Dress-code for choir: Jeans and plain, colourful t-shirt......no shoes required. Who is invited? All parents, siblings, grandparents and friends. Fee: Entry is FREE! Page 5 CMS APPLICATIONS FOR 2015 Do you want to learn to play an instrument? Do you want to have the tuition on campus? Then join the Chesterhouse Music School – CMS. We offer tuition in a variety of instruments: piano, keyboard, voice, violin, drum kit, recorder, flute, clarinet and guitar. Please complete the attached Application Form and return it to any of the two school secretaries (Mrs Cronje and Mrs Norton). As we do have waiting lists in some of the instruments, we ask of you to submit your application form as soon as possible. Pupils who are currently part of the CMS, should please also complete the application form. Director of Music Sujana van der Merwe (“Miss Music”) CHESTERHOUSE ARTIST OF THE WEEK Mihlali Ralarala Grade 9 Page 6 FIGURE SKATING Mila Sobolewski (Grade 4) represented Western Province in the recent Gauteng Interprovincial Figure skating championships held in Pretoria from the 5th to the 7th of September. She came 1st in the National Juvenile solo section. On the 23rd of August Mila also represented the Academy of Acrobats in the Theatre Dance association Eisteddfod. Her group acrobatic performance was awarded 1st place as well. We are truly proud of all Mila's achievements. Claudia Sobolewski Mum HORSE RIDING SHOW On the 24 September Rebekah Lumsden (Grade 4) competed in the horse jumping show at Klein Hazendal. Rebekah came 2nd in both her 50 and 60 cm classes. We were so proud of her. Cindy Lumsden Mum U15 INDOOR NETBALL During the holidays, Sian Moore (Grade 9) attended South African trials for the U15 Indoor Netball team. We would like to congratulate Sian Moore in making the non-travelling reserve side for the South African team. It is a wonderful achievement to be selected for trials and she made it one step closer by being a reserve. We are proud of you Sian and we know you'll grow from strength to strength. Candice Van Zyl Head of Netball Page 7 SOUTH ZONE GYMNASTICS CHALLENGE It gives me great pleasure to inform you that Jorja Roberts (Grade 4) and Sienna Musikanth (Grade 3) represented the Cape Town District at the annual SOUTH ZONE GYMNASTICS CHALLENGE hosted by the South African Gymnastics Federation. I’m sure you will join me in congratulating them on their excellent achievement. Elizabeth Hauptfleisch Owner & Head Coach Excel Gymnastics Club Jorja Roberts Sienna Musikanth UNICITY ALL STYLES KARATE CHAMPIONSHIP Five of our Goju Kai karateka brought home medals last weekend from the Unicity All Styles Karate Championship and have been selected for the Unicity Team to compete at the Western Cape Championships in Oudtshoorn this weekend. All styles means they do not only compete against their Goju Kai team mates but those from other styles as well. Xander Fisher (Grade 3) and Adrian Kingsley (Grade 3) received a Gold medal for their unison kata team. Xander also won a bronze medal for individual kata out of the largest field of 36 contestants. Zach Fisher (Grade 1) won a gold medal for kumite (fighting) Caitlin Doyle (Grade 6) won a silver medal for kumite Lauryn Giles (Grade 6) received a silver medal for her unison kata team. Debbie Giles Mum Xander and Zach Fisher Caitlin Doyle Lauryn Giles (third from left) Page 8 SOUTH AFRICAN SCHOOLS JUDO CHAMPIONSHIPS Last weekend Jack Watermeyer (Grade 4) participated in the South African Schools Judo Championships held in Johannesburg. He came 4th in the 9 year old boys under 42kg category. We are very proud of him. Karen Watermeyer Mum The 2nd hand store The 2nd Hand Store is finally open! The 2nd Hand Store will be open on Fridays from 12 till 2.30pm. All stock can be viewed on the website at http://www.chesterhouse.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2nd-hand-stock-list.xls We would appreciate any donations of school clothing which are no longer needed. Your donations can benefit other parents as they will pay a fraction of the cost for the clothing. Please leave your donations with either of the secretaries. With your assistance we can make the 2nd Hand Store a great success. Michele Heinrich 2nd Hand Store/Lost property Email: secondhandshop@chesterhouse.co.za Page 9 Page 10 SH’ZEN It's our 25th birthday and we're celebrating! Twenty-five years ago Sh'Zen was launched and this weekend we are delighted to celebrate our 25th birthday with a BRAND new launch - available at a never to be repeated price for our birthday weekend only, Thursday 9th - Monday 13th October 2014. Introducing... the Sh'Zen Day & Night Collagen Boosting duo for face Put your best face forward with the NEW Collagen Boosting Overnight Serum (30ml) and Daytime Lift & Firm Cream (15ml). This powerful double-acting duo works in synergy to rebuild and repair your skin overnight and give it the lift it needs during the day. Suitable for all skin types. ALL FOR ONLY R169 SAVE R349 Orders to reach me by Tuesday morning, 14th October 2014 | FOR ALL YOUR SH'ZEN REQUIREMENTS, OR FOR ANY FURTHER INFO REGARDING OUR WIDE RANGE OF PRODUCTS, PLEASE CONTACT JOAN NORTON On 0837270005 OR VIA jnorton@xsinet.co.za PLEASE CHECK THE WEBSITE FOR ALL OUR OCTOBER SPECIALS www.shzen.co.za Page 11 Chesterhouse Detailed Calendar Term 4 2014 Date Junior School College Page 12 Chesterhouse Detailed Calendar Term 4 2014 Date Junior School College Page 13