MORE TAL K │ EDITIO N 12 │ 26 APRIL 2019 MORE TALK │ EDITION 1 2 │ 26 APRIL 20 19 WEEKLY SCRIPTURE SWEPT AWAY I t ’ s the early hours of Easter Monday morning (01:36 to be precise) and I am awakened from my much - needed beauty sleep by an unusual sound! Has the dog jumped into the pool? Alarmed by this confusing thought I groggily sprint all of four meters, tear back th e curtains and stare at the body of still water. No dog. But…the sound continues. It is an unusual sound to be sure. Ears now awake, I make my w ay t o the opposite window and stare out. There in the dark, broom in hand is my dear wife! She’s ankle deep in wat er chasing the rain’s downpour towards the now unblocked drain. Satisfied, I returned to bed …ha, ha – just kidding. Whilst supporting my wife’s endeavours (at that very hour) I got to thinking how Noah’s generation must have felt struggling to hold bac k the unstoppable rising waters of God’s radical purging. No number of brooms would succeed as the sovereign God metered out Hi s e nd t o an evil world. Social media pinged relentlessly regarding this weekend’s devastation; highlighting again and again all t hat was being swept away. Despite mankind’s natural tendencies God is merciful, and He makes a promise when the waters receded that man and anima l w o uld never endure a flood of that magnitude again. With the recent reminder of our heavy rainfalls, may we a l l hu mb ly acknowledge and recognise His divinity and authority over all. Genesis 9 vs 15 “...and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy al l f le sh. ” We hope that you and your loved ones enjoyed a memorable holiday, and trust for a good start to the new term. Gary Balarin g b al ar in @ t ho m asmo r e . c o . z a Mums Who Pray W e w ould like to encourage our TMC Mums to join the ‘Mums Who Pray’ every Thursday at 7.30am in the Great House Indaba Room ~ All are welcome. Tea/Coffee provided. The mums ar e diverse , approachable , and an always willing to help group of ladies. J oin them as they pray for our children, parents, teachers, school and country. Contact L aura O ’Loughlin on 079 3317672 for more info . GENERAL INFORMATION Go lf Day - 4 -Balls SOLD OUT Thank you to the community who have booked 4 -Balls for next week’s Gol f Day (3 M ay) . I f you were unable to secure a spot to play, but would like to support this fundraiser by sponsoring a tee or green or donating prizes please go to the entry form and see how you can help us make this a successful and wonderful day. Priz es may be handed in at the Great House Reception Att: Rae Griesel. Please enclose a business card and clearly mark the prizes “Golf Day”. For any queries please contact Rae Griesel: [email protected] or on 0317648640/ 083 309 8907 1 Thomas More College │ [email protected] │ www.thomasmore.co.za MORE TAL K │ EDITIO N 12 │ 26 APRIL 2019 Parent & Student Portal Please note the links to the above mentioned portals have changed, please refer to the quicklinks at the end of the newslette r for updated links. 2020 Term Dates Please follow the link to our 2020 Term Dates HERE Primary School Assessments (new applicants for 2020) If friends/family were unable to attend the Open Days l ast term , please encourage them to contact Mrs Hartley who will gladly schedule a tour of the school and o f fer time to answer any questions they may have. Grade 00 (21, 22 & 23 May) and Grade 1 - 7 (25 May). Please contact Juliet Hartley should you have any queries on 031 764 8640 or [email protected] . MESSAGE FROM THE HIGH SCHOOL HEADMASTER fferen I wish all of our Thomas More College families a warm welcome back to school (albeit a slightly delayed one). Term 2 promises to be a densely packed, highly productive term. We welcome back Mrs Elisma Wolmarans and Mrs Berné Edwards from maternity leave. I know you join me in wishing God’s richest blessings on their families. We are also delighted to have Mr Richard Potgieter, a highly e xperienced Physical Science teacher, standing in for Mrs Erin Ballard who is currently on maternity leave. Unfortunately, we will be bidding farewell to Mr Wesley Maurice, our Head of History, at the end of August as he and his family make a move to Thail a nd to teach over there. Whilst Mr Maurice has only been here for a few years, his impact on Thomas More College and its staff and pupils has been deep and lasting. Nevertheless, we will bid Mr Maurice adieu more appropriately closer to his departure. Mr G rant Benson and his facilities team have been hard at work this holiday across multiple projects. In the high school, we are b usy building the outdoor concourses which will ultimately house lockers for our children. Once the entire project has been comple ted and the locker units have been purchased and installed later this year, all high school pupils will have an outdoor locker. This means that books and valuables can be locked away safely whilst children are at practices and rehearsals in the afternoons an d evenings, as well as children having access to their locker over weekends if they have left an important bit of work at school by mistake. It a lso means that the big, cumbersome locker units in our classrooms will be removed, thus allowing us to capture that space for teaching and learning, thereby rendering our classrooms more spacious and flexible. This term will be full: we run our winter sport codes programmes; our Major Production takes place; and we have mid -year examinations and tests for Grades 8 - 11, whilst the matrics have their special academic programme at that time. There are also a few public holidays thrown in for good measure. Thus, academic time at school is, once again, at a premium this term. I encourage our children to stay abreast of al l of their work daily as this is a strong guarantee for success at the end of the term. As always, the new term affords all of our children varied opportunities to explore their passions, to grow their unique pers onal leadership skills and to embrace the p rivilege of belonging to a thriving, dynamic community of learning at Thomas More College. I ask you to join me in encouraging them to do exactly that. D ave Wiggett HS Headmaster [email protected] NEWS FROM THE PRIMARY SCHOOL HEADMISTRESS Welcome back to all our Thomas More families after the Easter holidays and a warm welcome to those families, and children, who are new this term. We believe that all those new to TMC will soon feel at home in our warm, nurturing environment. I trust you all had a blessed Easter and quality family time as well. We also trust that your children are rested and refreshed, ready for the challenges of a new school term. This Easter we were home so managed to attend many of our church services and were richly blessed by the messages we heard and feeling God’s strength and love for us in the sacrifice of His son for us many years ago that we may have etern a l li fe. 2 Thomas More College │ [email protected] │ www.thomasmore.co.za MORE TAL K │ EDITIO N 12 │ 26 APRIL 2019 We apologise for any inconvenience caused through closing school on Tuesday but there were too many families and staff trappe d by flooding nor was it safe to negotiate the roads. We were facing having many staff absent - and many pupils - so const ructive teaching and learning would not have been possible. We trust and pray that you were not too drastically affected although I have already h eard stories of hardships and struggles. I am glad that our Grade 7 cultural tourists had a terrific time and learnt much while enjoying themselves in Cape Town. Thank you to the teachers who gave up holiday time to accompany them. Thank you too to Mrs Steyn and Ms Goosen for a very successful and e n joyable netball tour. I have only heard good reports about it de spite the trailer wheels, which needed changing! Good reports have also been heard about our hockey and rugby training clinics in the holidays, which were open to all SP children. Thanks again to those who gave up time to run them. Our I nter -house Cross co untry, as you have been informed has been postponed to 9 May due to the conditions in the conservancy being too wet a nd slippery - and thus dangerous for our children. Sport and culture has already begun in earnest. All the best to you all for a busy and ha ppy second term. B arbara Taljard PS Headmistress [email protected] ACADEMIC, SPORT & CULTURE ACHIEVEMENTS Please remember to submit your achievements to the cultural or sports HOD in your phase for inclusion in the weekly newsletter.