Dear Parents and Girls
The second term is well underway and as a part of our strategic plan, we have begun looking in earnest at the greening of the campus and how we are using energy at the school. To this end we have had two different companies conduct energy audits and they have presented us with their initial findings.
We have decided to start with the “quick-wins” and you may notice that we are replacing the shower heads in the bathrooms with ones that use much less water; light bulbs will all be replaced when they need to be with energy efficient ones and that we are looking at all our geysers, pool pumps and other areas where we use a lot of energy. We have also begun the long-term look into if and how solar power can be used on the campus. I will keep you posted as to any further developments in this regard.
If you use the main car park you may have noticed that we have a section cordoned off. We have had engineers look at this area and suggest ways to fix it. We will be embarking on this as soon as we can, dependent on the timing of the exercise and on the number of days that will be required to fix it.
The new building in the Senior School is taking shape and if you have been on The Garth lately, you will have seen the beautiful archways that now flank the side of the building. This building is going to be a multi-purpose space and it has been designed in such a way that the floor space (which is larger than the Lange Hall space), can be used as one large space or as two smaller spaces or even as three spaces. The furniture is all mobile and can be stacked away easily. We have focused on installing audio-visual equipment in this space too. This will be a wonderful exam venue or an event venue. At the moment we are on track for the completion of the building early in July.
Kingsmead hosted the workshop for new and aspiring heads last week and 50 delegates attended. The main speakers at the event were experienced or retired heads of schools and it really was wonderful to listen to their wise words.
The hype leading up to our signature event – The Kingsmead Book Fair – has been wonderful and I thank Hayley Pienaar and her team for the work they have put in to making this such a national success. Kingsmead has become synonymous with this literary festival and with the superb line-up of authors, programme and superb food. This year was no different and there was a great vibe on the campus on Saturday. I have received so many positive comments and compliments – from parents and from people who do not have any direct connection with the school. This is an enormous team effort and I cannot express my thanks adequately to those who have given so much time to this day. Please go to our Face Book page to see some wonderful photos of the day.
We are appealing, once again, to parents, au-pairs and drivers to be considerate of others in the car park. Parents and drivers have been seen to stack-park in parallel, blocking the lanes, albeit there are empty parking bays. This prohibits cars from driving through the school, leading to a complete block of entry and exit. Cars are also seen driving up lanes, which are clearly one-ways. This endangers the girls as they are not expecting cars where there should not be any. Please can I also appeal to Junior School parents NOT to park in the Tyrwhitt car park as this is a drop-off zone used mostly by the Senior School. Should you wish to park and watch sports’ matches, the grass field will be open with a guard at the gate until all the fixtures are completed.
Staff news: I am delighted to announce that Lulu Burger (who is no stranger to Kingsmead as she has facilitated much of the ICT training with our teachers and girls) will be joining Kingsmead as a full time member of the campus staff from 1 September 2016. Lulu’s official title will be“ICT CO-ORDINATOR AND INNOVATION ROLE”. We have brainstormed this role at length with Lulu and Lora Foot and Lulu has put together a comprehensive job description. Just to share with you a few of the functions she will be fulfilling:
Ongoing evaluation of the existing status of technology at Kingsmead across the whole school.
Identifying further opportunities and developing a comprehensive vision and plans for the whole school.
Constant evaluation of best practice and most effective technologies globally.
Developing a comprehensive, professional development plan for each teacher at Kingsmead.
Parent training and exposure to 21st Century learning concepts.
Continual pupil and staff training and guidance.
Facilitating and managing cross-curricular activities and projects.
Collaborating with Marketing to showcase innovation and best practice.
We are very excited to have Lulu joining us and look forward to her contribution to the school.
I wish you all a happy and fulfilling second term ahead.
Fondest regards
Lisa Kaplan
Headmistress: Kingsmead College
Book Fair
The 5th annual Kingsmead Book Fair has well and truly placed Kingsmead College on the national grid and the feedback and positive response has been extraordinary! The buzz on campus was wonderful and the conversations flowed.
Our relationship with 702 has been cemented and the social media surrounding the soundbites of the day has been awesome! It was great exposure to have interviews with John Robbie, Sam Cowen and Jenny Crwys-Williams. The 702 presenters are still talking about and tweeting about the day post-KBF!
The News24 report on “Violence in South African education a crisis”, on our Facebook page alone had over 200 shares, reached almost 35,000 people and stated, “Vice chancellor of the University of the Free State, Professor Jonathan Jansen and Wits University vice chancellor, Professor Adam Habib, appeared at the Kingsmead Book Fair in Rosebank where they discussed violence in education.”
Please view The Kingsmead College Facebook page for beautiful photos of the day. The “likes” on our Facebook page have grown exponentially ahead of The Kingsmead Book Fair to 2,753, and they climb daily! See also the gallery of images on our website – www.kingsmead.co.za/bookfair
The benefits of closing the school the day before were immeasurable, and there were numerous compliments on the Senior School girls in their uniform.
Thank you for your support of our annual day of debate, dialogue, discussion and delicious food!
Please save the date for next year’s Kingsmead Book Fair – Saturday 13 May, 2017!
For sponsorship opportunities for 2017, please contact me hpienaar@kingsmead.co.za
Photo credits: Gillian Gouws
Photo credits: Chloe Durr
Hayley Schonborn Pienaar
Director of The Kingsmead Book Fair
Arts
MUSIC DEPARTMENT
On 16 May, our Grade 3 Choir sang at St John’s in the ‘Let the Children Sing’ Choir Festival where the girls had loads of fun singing with the choirs from St Stithians Boys’ Prep, Redhill Prep and St John’s Prep. It was an absolute joy to see their smiling faces, enjoying every minute of their enthusiastic performance!
On Wednesday 18 and Thursday 19 May, Kingsmead, Lovemore & Yamaha hosted the 12th Annual Orchestra & Ensemble Festival at the Linder Auditorium. This event has become a highlight on the Inter-Schools’ Music calendar, and this year involved 12 schools from as far as Rustenburg, Meyerton and Pretoria. The styles of music ranged from marimba ensembles, jazz bands, rock bands, classical ensembles and big orchestras. The Kingsmead girls made us proud playing brilliantly and confidently. The Mass Orchestra that played together in February, came together again, and performed as the final item of the first evening to a standing ovation. Well done to all our musicians and an enormous thank you to our parents for their support.
The Marimba Ensembles performed successfully at the Book Fair on Saturday 21 May and delighted passersby with their enthusiasm. Well done to all of our committed musicians.
On Thursday 26 May, the Glee Group performed successfully at the Saheti ‘Music and Mezedes’ evening. The Glee Group always impresses with their secure performances, and this group of talented vocalists made us proud with yet another fantastic performance. Look for an extract of their performance on our Facebook page!
Please take note of our upcoming events:
Thurs, 2 June
18h30 – 20h30
Senior School Music Evening with St John’s (All Senior School Instrumental Music groups involved)
Wed, 8 June
13h00 – 17h30
ABRSM Theory Examinations (Select Jnr & Snr Music individuals)
Tues, 14 June
All day
TRINITY Practical Examinations
Wed, 15 June
All Day
ABRSM Practical Examinations
Mon, 20 June
14h00 –
Senior School Music Evening with St David’s (All Senior School Music groups involved: Instrumental & Choir)
Wed, 22 June
17h30 – 18h30
Grade 4-7 Music Concert (Select Music individuals: Joel Hall)
Sat, 25 June
9h00 – 12h00
Grade 4-7 Choir Rehearsal (Rehearsal Space/Joel Hall)
Tues, 28 June
19h00 – 20h30
Jan Celliers JUNIOR School Music Evening @Jan Celliers
Thurs, 30 June
19h30 – 21h00
St Stithians College Choir Festival (Senior School Choir & Glee) @St Stithians College
DEBATING
The Grade 9 Debating Team has progressed to the provincial rounds of the SACEE Championships. This will take place on Sunday 15 and 29 May at King David High School, Linksfield. We have a strong team and the girls hope to achieve positive results.
ART
The Grade 11 Art pupils are starting their site-specific Artworks, which will take shape in the next few weeks. Be on the lookout around the school grounds for the interesting and thought-provoking artworks.
GRADE 7 PRODUCTION
Our Grade 7 girls are preparing for their annual production that will be on stage on 20 & 21 July. The play is called Rescue Remedies and is a collection of three fairytale comedies. It involves a huge cast, with almost 70 girls featured in some way or another. Watch this space for more information about this exciting event.
DRAMA (FEDA)
This has been our third year entering the Festival of Excellence in Dramatic Arts (FEDA) – the annual inter-schools’ play festival. Held at the Joburg Theatre, this is a wonderful opportunity for our students to be exposed to the thrill of performing on a professional stage. This year Kingsmead entered into both sections of the Festival: Original Works (our first time) and Published Works. On 6 May, an all Grade 12 cast performed their original piece entitled The SPCA – a play that deals with the injustices of human rights abuses in society, and how rape and abuse victims are pushed to the side. Adjudicators and professional theatre makers Sylvaine Strike and Nat Ramabulana praised the girls for discovering a mode of storytelling that transposed brutal South African Stories into a mesmerising theatrical experience. Then on 19 May, a Grade 11 & 12 FEDA team performed a play entitled The Fugue. The girls performed beautifully and Adjudicators Nat Ramabulana and Stephen Kotze commended the girls for creating mature and harrowing work. ‘The Fugue’ was nominated for three awards: Best Stage Crew, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Special Effects/Audio Visual. We have yet to receive other achievement certificates, but these will be handed out in Assembly once they arrive. We are very proud of the girls’ talent and bravery in creating a work of socially responsible theatre that impacted on audience members of varied ages, and their commitment and performances in the Festival were outstanding.
A scene from ‘The SPCA’
Cast and crew from ‘The SPCA’: Back (L2R) – Nkateko Makelane, Arianna Cottino, Mia Vorster, Emily Wilmot. Front (L2R) – Jessica Blunden, Lufuno Neluheni, Palesa Thulo.
Scenes from ‘The Fugue’
Cast and crew from ‘The Fugue’: Back (L2R) – Jessica Blunden, Emily Wilmot, Mia Vorster, Sarah-Leigh Burnett. Front (L2R) – Brittany Peddie, Christie du Plessis, Basetsana Letsholo
Elsabé Fourie
Director of Arts & Music
efourie@kingsmead.co.za
Sport
NETBALL
The 1st netball team had a very good St Andrew’s festival and narrowingly lost out on a top 8 place, finishing 11th out of 32 schools. There are 3 players that are into the final rounds of District trials. The Junior school teams won all their games against St Katherines and APPS.
Congratulations to Carina Afonso ,Palesa Malebane who made it through to the second round of district trials – Nusaiba made it through to the final found which is an excellent achievement. Only 9 girls from our whole district have made it into the final team – we are extremely proud of all these players .
HOCKEY
The 1st team won 4 and drew 4 matches out of 13 at the St Marys festival, which was a remarkable improvement. Although the team still finished 32 out of 36 teams, they managed to be more competitive.
We had 1 girl selected for the South Gauteng u18A team, 1 in u16A, 1 in u16B and 2 in the C team.
In the Junior school, we had mixed results against St Mary’s DSG, winning 4 matches, drawing 4 and losing 3 games.
On behalf of Kingsmead Junior Hockey, we would like to congratulate Olivia Davidson on being made Vice-Captain of the Southern Gauteng U13A Team and to Kate Galloway and Nomathemba Magwegwe for being selected for the D9 hockey teams. We are proud of you!
The following girls made the provincial hockey teams:
Mohini Rayment – u18 A
Margarete Amoes – u16A
Husnaa Bux – u16B
Jaimee Clogg – u16C
Naledi Modiselle – u16C
EQUESTRIAN
The Equestrian team have been competing in all the qualifiers and have been obtaining excellent results. The team is placed 1st in their category at present and 5th overall out of 30 schools . They will be competing in the next qualifier which will take place on the 11th and 12th June and we wish them all the best for this event.
DIVING
In the April school holidays Olivia Van Vollenhoven and Sarah Benning and old Kingsmead girl Julia Vincent took part in the SA National Championships and Olympic Games Trial and the South African Youth Championships and World Junior Trials, held in Durban.
Their results in the Youth Championships were as follows:
1m Event
3rd Olivia Van Vollenhoven
5th Sarah Benning
3m event
2nd Olivia Van Vollenhoven
3rd Sarah Benning
Platform
1st Sarah Benning
3rd Olivia Van Vollenhoven
3m Synchronised Event
2nd Sarah Benning and Olivia Van Vollenhoven
Their Results in the Senior National Competition were as follows:
1m Event
6th Olivia Van Vollenhoven
3m Event
1st Julia Vincent – wining the 3m Olympic Spot that she achieved at World Champs being one of the top 32 in the World
8th Olivia Van Vollenhoven
10th Sarah Benning
Women’s 3m Synchronised
2nd Olivia Van Vollenhoven and Cydney Liebenberg
3rd Sarah Benning and Debbie Cummins
Julia Vincent also won the highest scoring dive throughout the senior National competition.
Triathlon
One of our past pupils, Jessica Dignon, has won the South African championships and has now qualified for the World Triathlon championships in Mexico later this year.
Sarah Benning and Olivia Van Vollenhoven
Julia Vincent
WINTER LEAGUE WATERPOLO
Kingsmead will be participating for the second year in the Winter league Waterpolo season.
Matches are played every Friday evening at the Wahoo pool, St Peter’s College. Our 1st team squad will be competing against other Johannesburg schools over the course of second term. Winter league is a great opportunity for growth and development of the younger players in our team.
Robert Pullen
Director of Sport
Academic News
GEOGRAPHY
Grade 12 Annual Geography Dinner
The annual Matric Geography Dinner that took place last week Monday at St John’s was thoroughly enjoyed by the Grade 12 girls. The dinner was a chance to socialize with other school’s Geography students and to gain a better understanding about the Iron Ore industry. We enjoyed dinner while two guest speakers: Michele Kilbourn Louw (an environmental project manager) and Angus Auchterlonie (the head of the Mineral Economics Section in the Mineral Economics & Strategy Unit (MESU) at Mintek in Randburg) shared their knowledge and experience about Iron ore. As this section has not yet been covered, it was the perfect way to introduce us to the work we will be covering later on in the year. Overall it was a very pleasant experience, and we feel it was very useful as we gained a better understanding about the Iron Ore industry.
Geography Baking
The latest creative creations from the Geography Department’s Baker-Bakers. From a volcano, to rainbows, to tropical storms, to the refugee crisis …
Bianca Rademacher
Head of Geography, History and Accounting
The President’s Award
The World Challenge had a successful yet challenging expedition to Borneo during the April holidays. The expedition includes project work, a hike and the team is responsible for all the budgeting, planning and arrangements of the expedition.
PROJECT PHASE
The team worked at the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre for the project phase. They rehabilitated a bear enclosure and rebuilt a walkway.
TREKKING PHASE
The expedition included a five-day hike in the Crocker Mountain Range. The team had to buy, carry and prepare their meals and spent their nights in hammocks. Hiking in the dense jungle and relentless heat without the luxury of a shower or toilet whilst dealing with fire ants, scorpions and a host of creepy crawlies, proved to be demanding yet rewarding.
R&R PHASE
Some additional relaxing (yet adventurous) activities included river rafting, zip lining, high rope challenges and snorkelling in the turquoise ocean in Kota Kinabalu.
World Challenge expeditions are unlike any other school trips and challengers’ eyes are opened to politics, cultures, religions and events around the world. The level of responsibility given to the team developed each individual into a mature, conscious and self-sufficient young adult with new life skills. Challengers were encouraged to think outside the box, to push their limits and to experience the unknown. This is education on a level that cannot be experienced in the classroom or through a textbook.
The next World Challenge expedition will be to India in August 2017. All parents are invited to the Parent Information Evening on Wednesday 1 June at 18h00 in the Learning Centre.
OTHER ADVENTUROUS JOURNEYS
Congratulations to the girls who completed the Silver and Gold Adventurous Journeys of The President’s Award hiking in Magoebaskloof and river rafting in the Mkomazi River:
Bianca Kendall
Alexia Papageorgiou
Husnaa Jhavary
Humnaaz Jhavary
Kinary Chiman
Cayley Fitzgerald
Monica Carvalheiro
Sarah-Lee Burnett
Nicola Corado
Jessica Winn
Zeenat Salojee
Christie du Plessis
RESIDENTIAL PROJECTS
Congratulations to the Gold participants who completed their residential projects at the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre:
Peta Myburgh
Stefanie Dunnington
Paula Duggan
Jessica Winn
THE PRESIDENT’S AWARD ACHIEVEMENTS
Congratulations to the following girls who achieved a level of The President’s Award:
Bronze awards:
Ciara Foot
Courtnay Douwes
Marilena Boutselis
Silver awards:
Raeesah Wadee
Bianca Kendall
Alexandra Hoad
Alexia Papageorgiou
Sherry Johnstone
Jenny Venter
The President’s Award Leader
Service
67 BLANKETS FOR NELSON MANDELA DAY
We have knitted and crocheted more than 50 blankets for 67 Blankets for Mandela Day. Parents and grandparents are invited to join our cause and submit completed squares to Mrs Jenny Venter. We also need parents and grandparents to assist with sewing the squares together. Please contact Mrs Jenny Venter (jventer@kingsmead.co.za) if you are willing to assist.
What size should my finished blanket be?
Large/Adult blankets to measure 140 x 180 cm
Medium/Child blankets to measure 120 x 160 cm
Small/Baby blankets to measure 100 x 120 cm
You can also submit squares which are 20 x20 cm in size:
44/45 stitches on 4mm needles
40/42 stitches on 4.5mm needles
35/36 stitches on 5 mm needles
What materials should I use?
Double Knit yarn and 4.0 – 5.0 mm hooks or needles. The tension that you work at will determine the size of the hooks/needles.
EXCURSIONS
We are continuing providing opportunities for the girls to get involved in community service by arranging various excursions every term.
SANDWICHES FOR SERVICE
Sandwiches for Service is a new Service initiative this term. The Senior School girls make sandwiches every week and these sandwiches are for the boys from Fight with Insight.
CAN COLLECTION
Please support out Can Drive that runs until 3 June. This is an initiative of the Phoenix committee (Head Girls and Head Boys of Johannesburg).
Important Service Dates for Term 2
Aurora Saturday 4 June
SANBS Blood drive Tuesday 19 July
Jenny Venter
Head of Service
Medical
FAREWELL TO 2015 PEER PROMOTERS
On the 6th of May, the peer promoters of last year and new peer promoters appointed this year had a farewell party where they bid farewell to us. The farewell was heart warming because it was a surprise and so unexpected. We had hot chocolate, little bits of food, and we were given mugs with sweets and coffee as well. Not to mention how fun interacting with the new peer promoters and seeing what kind of fresh and new ideas they have for this year. Although we will still be assisting where we can and when we have time, the new peer promoters have been given the wheel to steer this ship wherever they want and I personally think they are going to do a great job. They have so many exciting ideas for the blood drives and for ways to raise awareness about the drives for more and more students to donate blood. We will all be looking forward to what they have in store for the school and the old peer promoters good luck.
By Chemi Matse
BREAD TAGS AND BOTTLE TOPS
There was a hive of activity and lots of anticipation when most First aid girls, some of the service girls and the Jr. school service girls- under guidance of Mrs Sandy Sharp and Sr. Loubser gathered during lunch break to weigh Bread tags and Bottle tops . Everyone was invited to join the activity through the DNA and bystanders were looking on with interest.
Bags were numbered, hooked onto the scale hanging from the garden lantern post by the strongest girls- the average weight per bag was 13 kg with the heaviest bag 21kg! – and read by the tallest girls to prevent parallax errors( science applied!)
One bag tore open with bottle tops spilling everywhere! Bottle tops had to be gathered in haste before the bell rang for the end of break.
In total 20 bags of tags and tops were weighed. The data was captured and calculated very efficiently.
Bottle tops weighed in at 164,5 kg – Worth a wheelchair!
Bread tags weighed in at 12kg – we are 3kg short for a wheelchair
The Sweethearts organisation has been notified and we will soon receive a wheelchair .
They replied to the mail :
Thank you for your lovely communication.
I would like to arrange to collect your collection of bottle tops and bread tags asap, as we need to hand it in before the end of March.
Interwaste have increased the bottle top weight requirement to 450 kilos per chair, however anything we hand in before the end of March will still get us chairs at 150 Kilos.
Bread tags are now 50 kilos.
I think we were doing so well that they moved the goal posts.
Thank you for your involvement and caring. You and your school are amazing.
Love and best wishes, from the Sweethearts and Deanna.
Sister Monica Loubser
Kingsmead Medical Centre
PTA News
Dear Parents
We hope that you have settled into the second term routine. The parent body, class representatives and PTA Exco are continuing with their dedication to the school, for which we are grateful.
Fundraisers:
Events have included the following:
The Franc Ha Leal rose is being sold throughout the year.
The KCC Draw and Car Park Raffle were drawn on 4 April in the Junior School assembly. The parking bay raffle was won by Sandy Muller, a Grade 7 parent, and Grade 1L was the winner of the class who raised the most funds for this raffle and so each child received a donut. Thank you for your participation.
The KCC winners for this term are:
1st prize: Layya Choonara, Grade 3T
2nd prize: Jessica Black, Grade 4T
3rd prize: Jemma Bennet, Grade 8C2
Kingsmead Book Fair: PTA members and parents assisted with this event and we value your input which contributed to the success of the day.
Car Raffle: The Kingsmead College Society Lottery No. 00218/1 has been registered with the National Lottery Commission. As part of the PTA’s ongoing efforts to raise funds for the benefit of our school and pupils, we decided that, instead of a Golf Day this year, we would raffle a car. The raffle tickets are being sold at R 250.00 each and the winner will become the proud owner of a brand new Titanium Silver Kia Picanto 1.0 LS Man, featuring an MP3 radio, safety film, central locking and an electric sun-roof which would retail for just over R 158 000.00. The proceeds of this raffle will go towards financing the purchase of a large school bus, costing in the region of R1 500 000.00. Ticket sales commenced at the Kingsmead Book Fair on 21 May where the Kia was on display. Entries close on 08 October and the draw will take place at the Kingsmead College Goodwill Day. We are grateful for the initial support received and hope to sell many more tickets! Please support this initiative and purchase your tickets!
Ticket sales are open to all entrants over the age of 16 years excluding the directors of Kingsmead College, the members of the PTA Car Raffle Committee, employees of Kia Motors Weltevreden and their respective spouses and children. Lottery terms and conditions are available. Parents who do not agree with gambling are encouraged to make a donation.
Events planned for the remainder of the year include:
Second Term:
KCC Draw and Car Park Raffle: These will be drawn in the Senior School assembly on 27 June.
Mother and Daughter Breakfast: Saturday 30 July for Grades 6-12
Greeting cards: This fundraiser is for the Junior School
Rose sales
Third Term:
Goodwill Day/Fun Walk and Car Raffle Draw: Saturday 08 October
947 Ride for Bara: Sunday 20 November
School Shop:
The School Shop continues to sell a selection of both second hand and new uniform items, various school requirements and merchandise articles. Thank you for your support.
Outreach:
Outreach has focused on Book Fair Outreach and we thank you for the second hand books which you have donated.
May this be a happy term for you all.
Warm regards
Kingsmead PTA
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