2019 LENT TERM Newsletter

CONDITUR IN PETRA ‘Founded on Rock’

CONTENTS

Cambridge Exams Results 1 Mission Week 2 NEWSLETTER Kidzcan Charity Walk/Run 2 World Book Day 2 Careers Fair 2 D Block Base Camp 3 Welcome to our Group of Schools Newsletter. Learner Guides to Kavinga 4 This Newsletter only contains ‘snippets’ of some Cyclone Idai Donations 4 Rugby Season Fixture 4 selected articles. For the full stories, and more news, Rowers Win at RSA Champs 5 visit our websites at www.peterhousegroup.com Alpha Centres 5 Rector’s Dog Escapes Python 5 Eisteddfod 5 CAMBRIDGE PUBLIC EXAMINATION RESULTS Peterhouse Wins 7s Rugby 6 Equestrian Centre News 6 FOR 2018 Model United Nations 6 Rector Reads ’The Gruffalo’ 7 Our A level results were pleasing particularly at the top end. The overall Junior Champs 7 pass rate was 99.7% with 38.7% of all papers graded A* to B, the sec- A Level Art 7 ond highest on record. The average UCAS point score was 243, which Petrean Developments 8 is the equivalent of CCC.

13 pupils achieved the equivalent of 3 A grades or better; our star per- formers were Susan Li (A*A*A*), Rindai Machokoto (A*AA), Michelle Mwenje (A*A*A*A), Shumirai Njaravaza (A*A*A), Deeyana Patel (A*AA), Kenneth Raynor (A*AA) and Chayce Ross (A*A*A*). A further 9 pupils achieved the equivalent of 2 A grades across their 3 SPRINGVALE HOUSE subjects. Tel: +263 (0)65-2323598 Mobile: +263 (0)771-2651748 The overall pass rate was at AS level was 86.3% and 12 candidates [email protected] achieved at least 2 A grades or better (14 in 2017). Our outstanding PETERHOUSE GIRLS candidates were Angus Fergusson (AAAB), Praise Jaravani (AAAB), Tel: +263 (0)65-2323599 Natalie Moores (AAAC) and Tinashe Timba (AAAA). Mobile: +263 (0)772-133480 [email protected]

IGCSE level: PETERHOUSE BOYS At Peterhouse Girls the overall pass rate was 91.1% with 60.6% of all Tel: +263 (0)65-2322200/4, 2324951/3 Mobile: +263 (0)772-136470/1/2 papers graded A* to B; this is the fourth year in succession that Peter- [email protected] house Girls has achieved a 90%+ pass rate – another excellent set of results. Academic colours for 8 A grades or better have been awarded to Shirea Brits. Academic half colours have been awarded to Courtney SOCIAL MEDIA Brown, Dhalika Goven and Tsitsi Nyatsuro.

At Peterhouse Boys the overall pass rate was 83.3% with an A* to B grade rate of 52.4% – very much in line with as expected. Academic www.peterhousegroup.co.zw colours for 8 A grades or better have been awarded to 4 boys – Nigel www.peterhouse.co.zw Chiwara, Simbarashe Govore, Tapiwa Muranda and Kudzaishe www.phg.co.zw Nyengerai. Academic half colours have been awarded to Takura www.springvalehouse.co.zw Nyatsuro and Kudzaiishe Wazara. www.petreans.co.zw

MISSION WEEK

The 2019 Mission Week took place from the 12th – 19th of February, when nine Zambezi Holidays leaders devoted their time to building relationships, answering questions and promoting a deeper relation- ship-based Christian faith within the Peterhouse senior schools. The mission team took classes daily and focused on the different components of the armour previously men- tioned, as well as answering questions. The team made themselves available in the afternoons and evenings. WORLD BOOK DAY AND EXTREME READING

The Peterhouse Group of Schools celebrated World Book Day in a number of ways. Peterhouse Girls dressed up as their favourite story book characters while staff members imagined themselves as Little Miss and Mister Men characters. Peterhouse Boys decided to introduce an Extreme Reading Challenge. Members of staff encouraged their students to read in unorthodox places, let the characters in their books come to life in front of them, be adventurous as possible, and then submit a photo of themselves and their antics. This caused great amusement when the photos were submitted and staff had a chance to see what they had got up to. Even The Rector, Mr Howard Blackett, was surprised to see that a group of readers had invaded his office at some point. Springvale House decided to dress up and have an extreme reading challenge – not surprisingly many children decided that their Natural History Museum was a great place to be as hyenas and giraffes made nice props.

CAREERS FAIR We hosted a Careers' Fair this term with the event supported by a large number of universities/agents from various corners of the globe (including Exeter University, UK) and was attended by pupils in the 5th and 6th forms from PHB, PHG and other local schools. It was organised by Jenny Kirkman, our Careers' Officer, who deliv- ers careers' advice (from the first floor of the Megahey Centre) helping pupils to gain access to universities in the UK, USA,. Canada, Europe, South Africa, Australia, new Zealand etc.

...Our hope is that the fun lled days managed to reignite the spirit of reading amongst our learners... D BLOCK BASE CAMP

Indeed, you can get to see how strong, creative, resilient, humorous and gutsy boys really are when they are outside – doing what young boys can do best – making rafts, making fires, shooting targets with pellet guns, abseiling off rock faces and scrambling up kopjes to observe the views below.

Even the boys surprised themselves on this Basecamp and were ‘better ships that they ever imagined’ – some enjoyed camping for the first time, walked further than they thought they could, cooked their own supper on an open fire, ate no Finally the day had come and everyone was excited, My tuck for a few days (and survived), learnt knots and how to friends and I were tremendously delighted. make shelters! We got out bags packed and put away. As we got ready to say goodbye to school for a few days. Some new friendships were established, new opinions and perspectives were aired and these were peppered with’ boy- We sat on the bus as it skidded along the road, ish’ arguments on just about anything - just for the sake of it! And at this point we were all in game mode! Wandering down a pathway in the middle of the miombo We arrived at the camp and everyone thought “wow!” woodland, with a rucksack on their back and the afternoon Some other girls are screaming, “Take me home right sun on their faces lead to many special conversations happen- now!” ing, where they talked about family, future dreams, their old schools, girls, cars, gaming and most importantly – food! We start our activities and at first they are all fun, These ‘ships’ were now ‘out of the harbor’ and exploring the But the problems started when they made us all run! world around them in the fresh air. Waking up early is already a bore, And it didn’t help either that the bush toilet didn’t have a door! Outward Bound successfully orchestrated many of the activities that these boys did in and around Calderwood The next day we go out hiking, Park. Their Instructors are trained to keep the boys as safe as and to make matters worse the weather wasn’t to my possible during these activities and then to tease out the liking. We walked and walked and walked away. learning points and relevance of what they are doing as they Only to spend one night and walk back the next day! work in various magical outdoor ‘classrooms’. With red rugged rucksacks on our backs, Basecamp is a really special way of introducing the Peter- our feet were surely bound to crack. house Outdoor Education Program which gets more and more After 10 kilometres on the go challenging as the boys get older each year. We thank the Surely enough I needed to “go”! Peterhouse Tutors and Outward Bound Zimbabwe Instructors for every moment they spent with the D Block – helping With 12Kilometres behind us them become more self-aware and ‘ready’ for the open seas We finally get back on the Calderwood campus. of life around them. People are tired out of their mind, It’s very hard to remain kind. Sarah Shoesmith Director of Extra Curricular Activities At the end I was quite sad, I was going to miss Camp bad, I learnt many a valuable lesson Looking forward to my progression!

By Makanaka Makuni (D Block) LEARNER GUIDES TRIP TO KAVINGA SAFARIS LODGE

Our Learner Guides recently spent five nights at Kavinga Safari Lodge situated in the Mana Pools National Park near the bank of the Ruckomechi river. Although it is early season, there is a great biodiversity in the area and we had amazing birding with particularly good sightings of raptors which pupils learned to identify – our bird list came to over 100. We spent time catching specimens in the river bed and pans and had some interesting new discoveries – every- one with reference books out and identifying invertebrates. One day was spent walking up the Ruckomechi River where it leaves the escarpment – a rugged and very in- teresting adventure. The night sky was perfect for stars with no light pollution and we had a special evening sit- ting in the river bed with our binoculars identifying the constellations. The cherry on the top was a leopard sighting on the last evening – although we heard lions they were in the distance but we certainly got our fill with the elephants – large bulls who were eating a fallen baobab and also Springvale House Visit to Twala several herds with very small calves. Animal Sanctuary

CYCLONE IDAI DISASTER

After generous donations from our parents and pupils, collection of supplies for the victims of Cyclone Idai were packed into individual packets by our pupils and loaded onto our Peterhouse three ton truck late last week. We purposely waited for the roads into Chimanimani to become passable because we weren’t simply going to send up supplies – staff and a number of our pupils volunteered to help take supplies to those affected, in person, thus completely the cycle of support.

Springvale House Experimenting with Water Clocks and Sand-Timers

Springvale House Junior Play ‘Oink’

ROWERS WIN FIVE MEDALS AT THE RSA CHAMPS

Our Rowers competed in the South Africa Championships held at Roodeplaat Dam. Pretoria. We flew in, drove to the accommodation, rigged our boats and spent the next few days familiarizing ourselves with the course and practicing for the racing ahead. The races themselves took place over the following weekend. All in all we returned with five medals.

We are excited to introduce three new dedicated facilities, The Alpha Centres, one based at each of our schools and each equipped with the staff and materials required for individual and small group Curriculum Support.

RECTOR’S DOG ESCAPES PYTHON

The Peterhouse Boys Snake Club were involved in the dramatic rescue of the Rector’s dog this term.

Mr and Mrs Blackett were in the park together with their eldest daughter Alice, who was over from the UK, and their three year old cocker spaniel Ruby. Ruby had just gone to the water’s edge at Dombo Dam in anticipation of a stick being thrown into the water when a giant 3.6 metre long python grabbed her rear leg and began to coil around her. Mr Blackett immediately grabbed the python by its tail and dragged the snake (and Ruby) out of the EISTEDDFOD shallows. Alice, too, began to wrestle with the coiling snake while Mrs Blackett took charge of Ruby who was panicking.

Mr Scott Walraven and five Snake Club boys ran to help as the snake was refusing to let go. With eight pairs of hands on the snake preventing it from coiling, a stick was used to force the snake to release its mouth from Ruby’s back leg. Thankfully Ruby was not badly injured sustaining only puncture We had some great entries made in the annual wounds and bruising to her back leg. She has recovered well from National Institute of Allied Arts Eisteddfod, with the trauma of the incident, happily barking at and chasing the a number of our choirs, singers and musicians monkeys. gaining excellent Grades.

PETERHOUSE WINS 14 OUT OF 14 A fantastic victory for Peterhouse as boys won 14 out of 14 games across all age AT THE SEVEN-A-SIDE TOURNAMENT groups at the Seven-a-Side Tournament this term.

Played 14 Won 14 U14A vs BMC Won 27 – 5 U14A vs Hellenic Won 20 – 7 U14A vs St John’s Won 24 – 12 U15A vs BMC Won 24 – 7 U15A vs Hellenic Won 38 – 5 U15A vs St Johns Won 33 - 0 U16A vs BMC Won 34 – 14 U16A vs Hellenic Won 53 - 0 U16A vs St John’s Won 46 - 14 U17A vs BMC Won 36 – 12 U17A vs St John’s Won 34 – 7 U18A vs BMC Won 39 - 19 U18A vs Hellenic Won 33 - 14 U18A vs St John’s Won 19 – 15

PETERHOUSE EQUESTRIAN CENTRE NEWS

Congratulations to the following girls who have been selected by the Zimbabwe Equine Federation National Selection Committee to ride for Zimbabwe at the 1* Probrands Arlington International Event in April: Kylie Loubser with Viola, Erin Elliott with Texarkana and Katie Loubser with Detective Casey Meanwhile, a very enthusiastic group of young riders, gearing up for the Blue Cross event in August, made the journey on horseback to Imire Safaris Park roughly 50kms away. The route took them through some beautiful fields of cosmos, across rivers and dams and flowing Rhodes grass ready for bailing. They arrived at camp in high spirits, watered the horses and put them out to graze. The next morning they rose at 04.45am and set off for a training run to castle kopje. The riders had their first orient- eering and getting lost experience, but ended up safely on the top – some later than others. The run was then extended back to the horses where we they had breakfast and tacked up, spent time in the park looking for rhino and elephant before setting back to Peterhouse.

MODEL UNITED NATIONS CONFERENCE The first Peterhouse MUN conference was held in February with 78 delegates in attendance from Arundel, St Georges, The French School and International School. The theme of the conference was ‘Are we really at peace’. The event was productive as well as fun. The Secretary General, Rufaro Hoto, in his address spoke about legacy and how the conference adds on to the legacy that he and his team have been working on. The guest speaker, Ms. Tsitsi Mutasa spoke of the importance of being humble and not feeling entitled because of your position, and of the importance of defining who you are and the role you should play in society.

RECTOR READS ‘THE GRUFFALO’ TO GRADE 2s

The Rector took time out of his busy morning schedule to read the popular children's’ book ‘The Gruffalo’ to the Springvale House Grade 2s in the Megahey Centre earlier this term. The eager children gathered in the Junior Reading room and settled down, momentarily, to listen to the engaging story but it wasn’t long before they were on their feet eager to get closer to the story and and get a better view of The Gruffalo.

TRIATHLON JUNIOR AFRICA CUP 2019

This term Triathlon Zimbabwe sent a small team to Durban to take part in the King Price S.A. Triathlon Championships and Junior African Cup. Two girls and three boys in the team were representatives of Peterhouse at various levels including Petrean, and Junior Master, Gideon Benade. The sea swim was extremely rough, with strong currents, which was a new and unwelcome experience for our athletes! However, not one of them gave up, although many from other parts of S.A. did in fact resign.

A LEVEL ART Each year we look forward to paging through the AS and A Level Art Portfolio submissions to Cambridge and we must say that not only are they artistically impressive, but also in the sheer amount of work that goes into each. Our pupils spend a year exploring their subject of choice and finding way of converting images, experiences, feelings and emotions on to paper and in to sketch pads. Many pupils use themselves as a frame of reference

Conditur in petra