COLLEGE NEWS No 2 www.bridgehouse.org.za 22 January 2016

Traditional Ringing-In In 2005, the Matric Class of that year presented the school with an antique scramble bell which had been used in World War 2. Later a bell tower was built and this was when the tradition of electing a Scramble Bell Ringer to ring the bell on auspicious occasions began. The first bell ringing occasion for this year took place last week when the Grade 8s and the new pupils in Grades 9 – 11 were rung in. Konrad Blümers, the Bell Ringer for 2016, “gave it stick” on the bell, accompanied by loud applause from the students lined up in the walkway. Welcome to the College, boys and girls!

Grade 8 and 12 Fun Afternoon

"It's ok, relax, they're probably just as nervous as you are." These were my thoughts as the Grade 8 orientation day began. Most of the Matrics of 2016 probably had the same thought, as we pondered spending the day with some younger, apprehensive strangers in Grade 8. I will admit, I never considered myself "old and wise" enough to be anyone's mentor, but I soon realised that the mentee-mentor relationship is just as much about forming a bond and leaving a legacy as it is about guidance. It was amazing to see the age gap between these two seemingly vastly different groups disappear. In place of this invisible barrier appeared a memory of an afternoon spent apple-bobbing, three-legged- racing, games, swimming and dancing, all of which will hopefully unite these groups further. On behalf of the Matrics, we look forward to establishing an even better relationship with our mentees and look forward to the rest 2016 with you all. Special thanks goes to everyone who was involved in day such a success. Carmen Millar - Grade 12

Konrad Blümers (Grade 12) and his mentee, Matthew Johnson (Grade 8) Fun and games at the Grade 8 and 12 fun afternoon withe mentors getting to know their mentees

Grade 12s get to know the Grade 8s in a “speed dating” game.

Athletics Season

There will be more about Sports Day in next week’s newsletter but here are a few photos from the field events which took place on Tuesday morning. The U19 High Jump was a fiercely contested event. Results will follow.

Cricket Results

U/15 A On Thursday, the U15A cricket team played against Paul Roos at Bridge House. Paul Roos batted first and scored 80 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in their 20 overs. Well done to Justin Barron, Eddie Holloway and Sa’Eed Moerat for some outstanding bowling. We then went in to bat and managed to reach the score in the 18th over for the loss of just 1 wicket. Batsmen who stood out were: Eddie Holloway and Taine Pool. Well done for winning their first match of the season by 9 wickets, boys!

1st XI vs (Tasmania) On Saturday, the 1st XI cricket team played Scotch Oakburn College, a school from Tasmania, Australia. We won the toss and chose to bat first. After shaking off the holiday cobwebs, we reached 185/10 in 38 overs. Well done, John Rowett - 94 runs and Conna Niemand - 45 runs. The pair also put on a 115-5th wicket partnership. We then took to the field to defend our score. However, we were rusty and there were some slippery hands and this, and some class batting by the tourists, meant we were not successful in doing so. The end result was that we lost the match by 10 wickets. Thank you to the parents who hosted the boys, to Origin Food Services for some great catering and Lestun Williams and Servest for an outstanding pitch.

FIXTURES FOR THE WEEK AHEAD

Friday 22 January Water Polo Boys 1st team & U15 vs Groote Schuur (away). Bus leaves at 13:30 Saturday 23 January Swimming – Mountain Mill Mile (Worcester). Bus leaves at 08:30 Tuesday 26 January Cricket U18B (Warthogs) vs (home) Thursday 28 January Cricket U15A vs Groendal (home) Friday 29 January Water Polo Boys vs Boys High (away) Water Polo Girls vs St Cyprian’s (home) Tennis Girls 1st team vs Paarl Girls High (home) Tennis Girls U15 vs Paarl Girls High (away) Saturday 30 January Cricket 1st team vs Paarl Gymnasium (away) Lions Cycle Race (Bridge House) Monday 1 February Tennis Boys 1st team vs Boland Landbou (away)

Upcoming Events

NEXT WEEK - College Awards Ceremony All College Parents should have received an invitation to this Ceremony which takes place on Thursday 28 January at 19h00 in the Theatre.

Please keep abreast of the Term’s events on the Term 1 Calendar which was emailed to you and enclosed in the pack with reports or you can have a look at it on the website here: http://www.bridgehouse.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Term-1-2016-Final.pdf

REMINDER - Bridge House Holiday Friday 12 February is a Bridge House Holiday and a compulsory Boarders’ Out Weekend.

Bridge House introduces the D6 Communicator During the course of the next few weeks you will be emailed by the D6 Company to inform you about the process for downloading the Bridge House D6 communication app to your computers/laptops and mobile devices. Some of you may be familiar with D6 which is used by many schools and businesses to communicate with their constituents.

Over the next few weeks we will be adding further resource information to our app. For the time- being we will continue to email and sms you but over time we will begin communicating more and more via D6 and eventually phase out bulk emails and smses to groups and replace them with alerts and uploads to D6. You will find this a convenient way to search for information rather than trawling through emails. Personal and individual emails and sms communication to parents from staff will, of course, continue to be used.

Please make sure you download the app and encourage your children and family members to do so too.

Please note that the app (right) looks like this on your PC or laptop. On a mobile device it looks completely different but the information is the same.

Parent WhatsApp and Facebook Grade/Class Groups Earlier this week, the PA very kindly sent a very informative mail to all parents. Among a number of things, the mail touched on the formation of WhatsApp and Facebook groups for communication among parents in a Grade. We are fully supportive of this initiative, because we see the very positive spin-offs that are possible. We also fully endorse the guidelines on etiquette and purpose outlined in that e-mail.

It is probably wise at this stage just to clarify that the views and comments made on any of the parent WhatsApp and Facebook groups remain the opinion of the individual member of that group who posted the comment. The WhatsApp and Facebook groups are not an official school communications channel, and anything posted in these groups does not necessarily reflect the opinions or stance of the school on any matter. Any official communication from the school will always be via sms or e-mail, or throught the newsletter or the school’s official Facebook page, and soon, through the D6 Communicator. (See the accompanying article.)

Almost as a PS to the above, there is a reference to collections for teacher gifts in the same PA mail. Please note that there is absolutely no compulsion to make any contribution, monetary or otherwise to any collection for teacher gifts. Mike Russell (Head)

The recent bushfires The school expresses its support to all families affected by the recent spate of runaway fires in the district and beyond. It is to be hoped that we have now seen an end to these. Thanks to the firefighters and all who get behind the frontline efforts in numerous ways. As always, Bridge House is more than willing to assist in any way it can. The current collection point at the time of writing is Pick’n’Pay, so thank you to the management there for providing this service. (This information was also posted on our Facebook page yesterday.) Mike Russell (Head)

School Safety At this time of the year fires are an awful part of living in the Boland. Our thanks go to the professionals and volunteers who risk their lives fighting these fires to make our lives safer. For obvious reasons we do not share all of our security plans and procedures in the public domain, but rest assured there are protocols in place. We have appointed James Jones as our school Security and Safety Officer. Occupational Health and Safety is on a weekly agenda where senior staff from the Prep, College and Facilities go through the events of the week. James is a Volunteer Fire Fighter and a qualified emergency paramedic. We also have a full-time nursing sister, Sr Hayley Woodley, on our staff. Each classroom has an emergency blood kit and there are first aid kits at strategic points throughout the school. Many of our staff have First Aid certificates, as do a number of our pupils. For example, all the Grade 10s do a First Aid course as part of their Life Orientation qualification.

With regard to fire protection, our campus was designed so that we have a perimeter sprinkler system that uses irrigation water. We also have fire hoses that are fed from a separate feed from our potable water reservoir. There are extinguishers throughout the school. We store a fire water trailer on our property, for local fire authority use and for our use. All of this equipment is checked on a regular basis and there are detailed registers kept. Every new building design has to be approved by the Fire Chief and all are inspected after completion. James Jones ran a fire training workshop for our grounds and cleaning staff last year.

The campus has been designed to be as ‘open’ as possible. This allows for rapid evacuation if needed. There are evacuation plans that are explained to the older pupils in assemblies and to all staff and we have practice evacuation drills during the course of the year. These plans include having different assembly points depending on the type of risk.

Every time we run a practice drill we fine-tune the procedures. The campus has expanded significantly, our numbers have increased and we continually look to improve our safety procedures. We are fortunate to have neighbouring property owners who are very willing to share their resources for our collective safety. The local sharing of fire information and response has made a huge difference to response times. One of our parents, Ashley Bauer, deserves huge credit for the work he is doing with the Franschhoek section of the Wineland Fire Protection Authority in this area. Last week many will have seen that there was a fire in the wetlands below the Berg river dam. From the time of the first notification of the fire, to the arrival of the first response vehicles took eight minutes. Another parent, Patrick Shone, from CapeNature is based in Jonkershoek. He too is very willing to share information for our benefit.

Our gate guards are trained by their company, Thorburn Security. They are able to call in support if required. There is a Thorburn control room on the neighbouring farm.

One area of concern is the single access and exit route for our property. Although there is an emergency route through our neighbour’s property, this doesn’t really alleviate the pressure on our intersection on the R45. In emergency situations we have had to direct traffic at this intersection and the local traffic authorities have taken control of this point when needed. We all need to be very cautious at this intersection. We continue our contact with the Local and Provincial traffic authorities to try to make the whole of the R45 safer for all who use this road.

Finally, once the current fire situation calms down, we will be speaking to the local fire authorities about a better way of co-ordinating collections for the firefighters on the ground. As a school we can make a significant difference in this regard, but we have to know what is actually needed, that the donated materials are correctly managed and that the collection is co-ordinated and not done on an ad-hoc basis that could well impact on, for example, traffic access to the site of the fire itself. Rory Malcolm (Deputy Head)

You will find the School’s Official Facebook Page here:

https://www.facebook.com/BridgeHouseSchool

and we are on Twitter here:

https://twitter.com/bridgehouseschl

The Bridge House Mile postponed to 3 December 2016

A new date for the Bridge House Mile has been announced after the event was postponed because of the extremely low levels in the Berg River Dam at present.

The 2016 Bridge House Mile, sponsored by Standard Bank, will now take place on Saturday 3 December when we are confident the dam will look more like the photo above than the dusty, dry condition it is in at the moment.

Please follow The Bridge House Mile on Facebook and check the website www.bridgehousemile.co.za for entry details and updates.

Bridge House Recipe Book – For the Love of Food

Last year, a wonderful group of parents, with the help of professionals, produced a magnificent recipe book called, “For the Love of Food”. For those of you who have not seen it, if you missed ordering it last year or if you would like additional copies, you may still order.

You can order online by clicking on this link here

Apart from all the delicious recipes provided by Bridge House Families, For the Love of Food includes recipes from these famous chefs: Margot (The Tasting Room), Reuben (Reuben's), Chris Erasmus (Foliage), Ryan (Ryan's Kitchen), Matthew Gordon (French Connection & Harvest), Neil Jewell (Bread & Wine) and Jean Pierre Smith (Vrede en Lust), as well as from our own past pupil and Master Chef finalist who has his own TV programme in the USA, Guy Clark.

This recipe book is the only recipe book in the world which has recipes from this combination of chefs and cooks.

For the Love of Food costs R275.00 per copy and makes a beautiful gift. To view a copy, pop into the Prep or College Reception.

iPad Marking

Engrave your child’s name and number onto their iPads, it is permanent and non- damaging.

Contact Alison 082 468 7558 [email protected]

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