Newsletter 3 – Term 3 2019

Letter from the Campus Head

16 August 2019

Dear St George’s Family

I recently attended the Proudly Primary Conference held at Highbury Preparatory in Hillcrest along with over a thousand other delegates from Independent Schools all over the country. I was approached by the organising Committee quite some time ago to present a talk during two of the breakaway sessions, on the topic, “Passion and Purpose, why we do what we do?” This was obviously in the context of Primary School education.

I think this is a question we all ask ourselves at some point in our careers because as we all know, not every day is full of rainbows and unicorns! Dan Pink’s work on what motivates people was very much part of my starting point whilst preparing for this presentation. In his book, ‘Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us’, Dan proposes a revised approach to motivation which focuses on the innate human needs to direct our own lives (autonomy), to learn and create new things (mastery), and to do better by ourselves and our world (purpose).

Tony Wagner’s thoughts echo a similar sentiment, “New research suggests that the traditional ‘carrot-and-stick approach’ which focuses on rewarding sought after behaviours and punishing the behaviours you wish to discourage, may actually inhibit creativity, diminish performance and result in short-term, narrow thinking.” 

He has further written that we need to “embrace the principles of play, passion, and purpose.” So what is it that really motivates people in general, even our little people here at the Prep?  

Simon Sinek, a British-American author, motivational speaker and organisational consultant, my third and final influence for this particular presentation, speaks about, “starting with why”. He explains that we all know what we do, we know how we do it, but do we know why we do it? That “why” is really what speaks to our passion or purpose! I have no doubt all parents remember that 2 to 3 year old stage when, “why?” was the most used word by your toddler. I think us adults have forgotten to ask it now. 

We live in a world of frenetic pace, busy lifestyles and demanding jobs and perhaps sometimes we need to just breathe and think a little bit about, why do we do what we do? I often get a sense that this is often forgotten and we enter a place where so many people have lost or can’t remember their purpose. 

Today I had the good fortune to spend some time with my SMILE group and a few pupils who joined from another group and we decided, well I decided, that we were going to go for a walk in the Park and just breathe. As we got to the play section of the Park, it was amazing to see nearly all the children irrespective of their age gravitate towards the swings and just play! It was at that point, I was beautifully reminded about why I do what I do – to witness the joy on children’s faces on a daily basis! And I have no doubt that is exactly the same for all of us who are proudly teachers!

So once again, we encourage all our parents to take time, get out there and just play with your children! Not only is it great for them, but it certainly is food also for your own soul.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Kind regards

Alex Hall – Campus Head

Twitter- @AlexHallZA   

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

Linkedin- za.linkedin.com/in/alexhallza

School News

Grade 7 Class of 2014 Reunion Evening

It was great to see so many of our past pupils from the Grade 7 Class of 2014 at our reunion evening held earlier this Term.

SECOND HAND CLOTHING SHOP VOLUNTEER NEEDED

An opportunity has arisen for parent volunteers to assist our two current parents in our 2nd Hand Clothing Shop.  This would be one day per week either on a Wednesday from 12h30 to 14h00 or on a Thursday from 07h30 to 08h30.  

As an additional service to our families at the School, we offer a gently worn clothing shop which we rely on parent volunteers to run.  Proceeds from the sale of clothing is given back to our Library to purchase books benefiting all our children.

This is a wonderful opportunity to be activity involved in our school.  If you are interested in getting involved, please contact Ms Pattison, the Prep Secretary on 041 585 4825 or by email prep@stgeorges.co.za as soon as possible.

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

The d6 Communicator Calendar is kept up to date with the daily events and matches. 

PLEASE NOTE SOME CHANGES OF DATES BELOW.

SAVE THE DATE: Spring Concert and Pupils Art Exhibition – Wednesday 4 September 2019

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/

End of a chapter.  Last prep netball match, Thank you Mrs van Wyk for believing in these girls and making their last season a memorable one

Our Grade 2’s are learning all about the importance of trees this term & enjoyed an outing to Settlers Park to learn more about trees

Grade 5’s take over the Art Studio to make their Real Life for Kidz creations

Potters Wheel in action in our Art Studio!

Our Grade 6s took part in the Regional Eskom Expo for Young Scientists 2019 at NMU

Well done to all our girls who played hockey and netball against Erica Girls’ Primary

Grade 7’s building 3D shapes in Maths

House Assemblies…pupils in all 3 Houses traced their hands in the colour of their House & cut them out to create a collage on the House Board showing the unity of us all belonging to the St George’s Prep family

A Peek at the Pre-Prep

Our Gr 000’s spent a beautiful winters morning at the Mini Trains. 

What a lovely experience we had, an outing we won’t forget!

A special thank you to Mrs Howe for making our Fairy Garden look so beautiful!