NEWSLETTER 4 – TERM 2 2019

Letter from the Campus Head

13 June 2019

Dear St George’s Family

Wow, as we fast approach the shortest day of the year, it really is evident how times does fly when we are having fun. 

I certainly do believe all our boys and girls have had a most productive and fun Term taking part in a variety of activities. It has been a disruptive Term with many short weeks and the Influenza A epidemic that really has affected many schools in Port Elizabeth.

Term 2 certainly has been busy and I would like to thank all our staff for their dedication and service and our parent body for your magnificient support! As these short days run by and our Term comes to an end, it is always a good time to reflect and to observe and appreciate all we have achieved.

Pre-Prep this Term

Outreach: This Term Pre-Prep moms and children were invited to wear their slippers to school for our Mother’s Day tea. The money raised was given towards the Reach for a Dream project.  We are truly grateful to our moms for making such generous donations towards this worthy cause.  

Outings and Events: Grade 000 visited Windsor Castle and Grade R went to SANCCOB Seabird Rehabilitation Centre at Cape Recife.  Both groups had amazing experiences out and about.  The Grade R’s came away from the sanctuary being made very aware of the dangers of pollution and how the animals are suffering from it.  The Grade 00’s had a Pirate Day at school where they had great fun creating pirate food, walking the plank, digging for treasure and having lunch on-board an imaginative pirate ship.  Awesome memories are being made in and around the Pre-Prep.

Junior Prep this Term

Our Junior Prep outdoor classroom day was once again a huge success and the highlight of many “preppies” Term. Seven different activities were prepared: Nature Walk, Elastics & Skipping, Musical Cup Drumming, Car Bazaar, Four Square Game, Charcoal Sketching and Movement with Ribbon. The children participated in all seven activities and had a wonderful day of outdoor learning.

The Junior Prep have also enjoyed various outings this Term.  Grade 1’s visited Animal Welfare and parents very kindly donated animal food.   The Grade 2’s had a guided tour around Port Elizabeth visiting the Feather Market Hall, St Mary’s and much more.  Grade 3’s will have their annual Pirate Dress-up day to finish their theme ‘Pirates in the Sea’. 

Senior Prep this Term

A new benchmarking that we took part in this Term was the Quintathlon. This benchmarking assessment assesses pupils across a range of subjects and encourages them to think critically. We look forward to the feedback from this assessment.

Our Grade 4 pupils and staff have now begun using their iPads on a more regular basis. The pupils have set up their Google classrooms and are gaining confidence in the functionality of it.  This is another step in our blended learning approach as pupils get to experience a variety of approaches to teaching and learning using a balanced approach to pen and paper and technology which we believe will give them the best foundation possible for their futures.

U.K. Grade 7 Exchange Programme:

We hosted a very successful incoming Exchange with our friends from Holmewood House from 14 April-28 April. We have 7 pupils travelling to the U.K. in September with Miss Lauren Seaman, the teacher accompanying them. The programme continues to add benefit to our school and exposes our pupils and staff to other cultures and experiences.

Ensembles and Performances:

It has been a busy semester for the Strings Studio.  The Senior String Orchestra performed beautifully at the Collegiate High School String Celebration and our annual Strings Studio Concert took place on 22 May.  Their final performance this Term was a collaboration with the Grey Junior String Ensemble which was hosted by Grey Junior on 24 May.

The Junior Band has commenced rehearsals this Term and it is a large and well-balanced group in terms of instrumentation.  The Junior Choir and all our Grade 2 recorder pupils performed for our mothers at the Mother’s Day Assembly. The Senior Choir and Senior Band are hard at work preparing for performances in Term 3. 

Trinity College Drama Examinations:  9 pupils from Grade 4 – 7 participated in the first session of practical exams this Term.  The second session takes place during Term 3 and this will be for pupils from Grades 2 – 4, or anybody who was not able to do it in the first session.

Art:
The Greeting Card project will take place at the beginning of next Term. Ordering information will be communicated to parents next Term. St George’s Prep has become well known as a great supporter of the Arts, and to this end, our VIP Artist for our October ‘Celebrating the Arts Exhibition’ has been secured.  He is Banele Njadayi, who is a well-known PE artist working alongside Duncan Stewart. He is an art teacher and will chat to all our children during the run of the Art Exhibition.

Green Guardians

Our Green Guardians Veggie garden and Herb Boxes have been growing well despite going into the grip of winter. The ‘Companion Planting Methodology’ is still being employed in all plantings. We have a very keen group of children who attend both of the early and late time slots on Thursday afternoons. Our purple podded peas are quite unusual to look at and tasty to eat. We are planting winter veggies and topping up the herb boxes in the quad with fresh rich soil this week.

Outreach

Our “One Day without Shoes” initiative was an amazing success and it was so humbling to be able to join the Grade 5 pupils in taking a generous number of shoes to Walmer Junior Primary School in the Walmer Township. Again, our pupils were exposed to the conditions that millions of children in our country face on a daily basis and that by doing something so small we can help so many families. The Grade 5’s enjoyed playing games and reading books with the children from the school. We also donated R3600 to the Walmer Angel Project. This donation will be spent on clothing children in need of new school uniforms. Thank you again. We really appreciate all the generous donations. 

Physical Education and Sport

Physical Education and Sport play a vital part of a child’s education. At St George’s Prep, we pride ourselves on giving the children a lifelong love of physical activity and a large proportion of our children partake in our extra-curricular activities after school. The children learn the values of working hard to beat your own best, of teamwork, of healthy competitiveness, of following rules. The children are given opportunities, where they want to, to represent the school.

This helps to build their self-esteem and confidence. Being a small school means more individual attention can be given to pupils and they all have the opportunity to be taught by specialists. There is a culture of all children striving to reach their best.

Children learn individual skills and improve their movement ability when in Grade 1 and 2. The aim is that they are confident movers and comfortable with a ball by Grade 3. In the Senior Phase, the focus shifts to more teamwork and specialised skills. However, the children still work on their athletic ability. Over the last two years, the children’s rate of development has been extraordinary thanks to the programme that has been put in place.

Term 3 Sports Programme and Extra Murals for all Grades (000 – 7) will commence from the first day back to school, on Tuesday, 9 July.  We will continue with the winter sports curricular programme until the Friday 31 August.  On Monday 2 September we will switch over to a summer sports programme.  This programme will be shared with parents in July.

Provincial and National Events

Congratulations to the following pupils that have been selected to represent the following teams.

EP U13A Girls Hockey

Clireez Brugh

EP U13A Boys Hockey

Lulutho Dyakala

Ethan Madatt

EP U13B Girls Hockey

Michaela Schwind

EP U13B Boys Hockey

Ben Ristow

Thandolwethu Wopula

EP U12A Girls Hockey

Kholosa Nzo

Ayomide Ogunniyi

Siphesihle Mgogoshe

EP Golf

Erin Brinkman

Taekwondo Cade Hummel has been selected to attend the World Championships to be held in Brazil in August 2019

We look forward to our inaugural Inter-house Triathlon tomorrow and wish all our pupils the very best! May all our families and staff have a well-deserved break and we look forward to welcoming all the children back on Tuesday 9 July!

Kind regards

Alex Hall – Campus Head

Twitter- @AlexHallZA   

Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/AlexHallZA

Linkedin- za.linkedin.com/in/alexhallza

School News

School Matters – Term 3, 2018

School will reopen on Tuesday 9 July at 07h45.

Term 3 Sports Programme and Extra Murals for all Grades (000 – 7) will commence from the first day back to school, on Tuesday, 9 July.  We will continue with the winter sports curricular programme until the Friday 31 August.  On Monday 2 September we will switch over to a summer sports programme.  This programme will be shared with parents in July.

The Learning Hub for Grades 4-7 and Aftercare will also commence on Tuesday, 9 July.

School Office

The Prep Offices will re-open on Tuesday, 9 July from 07h30 for the Secretary and 08h00 for Accounts.

The Pre-Prep Office will re-open on Tuesday, 9 July at 07h45.

School Shop Opening Hours – 3^rd Term

The School Shop will open on Tuesday 9 July from 07h30 – 08h30.

Opening hours of School Shop:

Mondays 12h30 – 14h30

Tuesdays/Thursdays 07h30 – 09h00

Wednesdays 12h30 – 15h30

Fridays CLOSED

2^nd Hand Clothing Shop

The St George’s 2^nd Hand Shop sells gently worn, good quality school uniform items, perfect for replacing frequently lost items and items which are quickly outgrown.

Opening hours for the shop are Wednesdays from 12h30 to 14h00 and Thursday from 07h30 to 08h30.

The Shop purchases stock from the School parents and resells it.  Purchases are made based on the condition of the item and whether or not the shop needs additional stock of an item.  Items for consideration can be dropped off with the school secretary or brought directly to the shop.  The volunteers in the shop will then sort through the items and let the owner know which items the shop needs and will be purchasing.  For the items which the shop does not need the owner has the choice of having the items returned to them or donating them to the two charities supported by the shop – Walmer Angel Project and Sunshine Coast Charity.

Additionally, unnamed items brought to Lost Property and not claimed within a week are donated to the 2^nd Hand Clothing Shop for resale.

The Shop is run by parent volunteers and we are always looking for helpers.  If you would like to get involved please  leave your name and telephone number with the School Secretary. 

What’s happening in first few weeks of Term 3 : 2019

The d6 Communicator Calendar is kept up to date with the daily events and matches. The Yearly Planner for Term 3 will be emailed to parent by the end of Term 2.

Term Dates for rest of 2019

Term 3

Commences:                  Tuesday 9 July

Ends:                               Thursday 19 September

Public Holiday:                Friday 9 August (Woman’s Day – School Holiday)

Term 4

Commences:             Wednesday 2 October

Ends:                          Tuesday 3 December (Pre-Prep)

Wednesday 4 December

St George’s PROVISIONAL Term Dates 2020

Term 1

Commences:                  Wednesday 15 January

Ends:                               Wednesday 25 March

Public Holidays during Term:  Saturday 21 March (Human Rights Day)

Easter – during School Holidays:  Friday 10 April (Good Friday)

Monday 13 April (Easter Monday)

Term 2

Commences:                  Wednesday 15 April

Ends:                                Friday 12 June

Public Holidays during Term: Monday 27 April (Freedom Day)

Friday 1 May (Workers Day)

Term 3

Commences:                  Wednesday 8 July

Ends:                               Friday 18 September

Public Holiday during Term:  Sunday 9 August (National Women’s Day)

Monday 10 August (National Women’s Day Holiday)

Term 4

Commences:                Tuesday 29 September

Ends:                             Thursday 3 December    (Pre-Preparatory – Grade 000-R)

Friday 4 December (Prep – Grades 1-7)

Upcoming Events

SAVE THE DATES:

National Arts Festival, Port Elizabeth Fringe Exhibition : 27 June – 9 July 2019

Visit the St George’s Prep Hall, 8 Park Drive, to experience one of the Port Elizabeth Fringe Festival art exhibitions featuring a number of well-known local artists. Open daily 9am to 5pm from Thursday 27th June to Sunday 7th July – please pop in!

All our St George’s parents are invited to the Opening Function at 5:30pm for 6pm on Wednesday 26th June 2019.  All the exhibiting Artists will be there to meet and greet you over a cup of hearty soup!

The variety of rich textures, vibrant colours and diverse subject matter make this an exhibition NOT to be missed!

Grade 7, Class of 2014 Reunion – Friday 19 July 2019

MySchool Card

Give back to your school whilst you shop! 

Calling on all our supporters to get swiping your MySchool cards at partner stores 

Don’t have a free MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet Card?
Get one here: https://bit.ly/2Wm0T7D or pop into the school office to fill in an application form.

A peek at the Prep

We post photographs, events, announcements etc. on our Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram Accounts regularly – keep up to date with all that the Prep and Pre-Prep get up to – click on the links below and like, follow and share!

https://web.facebook.com/stgeorgesprep/

https://www.instagram.com/stgeorgesprepschool/

The Grade 5 classes delivered the shoes collected for “One Day Without Shoes” to the Walmer Junior Primary School in Walmer Township and the children had loads of fun playing games & reading books together

Happy Happy Band Campers!

Mr Hall enjoyed reading “whale stories” written by the Grade 3’s.

Our Grade 4 classes saying thank you to our catering staff for the delicious lunches they cook for us everyday.

Well done to all the Grade 3-7 athletes who participated in the Inter-House Athletics Day & congratulations to the winning house, Brawn.

Our Grade 2 boys and girls had lots of fun at ball skills this week.

Our Grade 1’s are currently learning about pets & recently visited Animal Welfare Society  to learn about caring for pets and how to adopt a pet. A BIG thank you to all our Grade 1 families who generously donated animal food!

We wished Good luck to all our Trinity College London drama exam students on Monday.

The Drama studio has been a busy place with the Grade 2’s hard at work designing their time machines & the Grade 3’s making shakers from recycled materials.

Grade 6’s displaying the masks they designed & made in Art and presented with a story in Drama.

Our Grade 5’s voting for their Mayor as part of our Real Life 4 Kids programme which will also see them opening bank accounts, earn a salary & interest, purchase land, build a home, own a business, build various city contracts & get a snapshot of what awaits them in real life!

Some of our more advanced beginner musicians made us proud at the recent Mini Maestros Competition.

Junior Prep Outdoors Day – Activities included musical cup games, car bazaar, charcoal sketching, four square, nature walk, elastics & skipping & movement.

A Peek at the Pre-Prep

Learning all about transport in Grade 00 .

Miss Martin shared special moments with the Pre-Prep children “Think carefully before you speak.”

Grade R’s keeping warm with a hot chocolate treat.