St Mary's Matters

If she believes in herself… she will fly.

Volume 12, Issue 6 29 June 2012

From the Head’s desk

The extent of activities which have taken place On Monday 25 June at the Senior School this term, in every part of the campus, from the Assembly we heard the Chen sisters, one an old bottom to the top of this school, from the girl and one in Grade 11, play the first movement youngest to the oldest, from early mornings to of Mozart’s piano concerto for two pianos late at night has been astonishing. (K448). They played the first movement “Allegro con spirito” - a “spirited brisk pace”, surely a As I started to write this article it was cloudy and possible analogy to the past period at school. dark outside, cold and rather oppressive. We The second movement “Andante” is at a very had just experienced the “longest night”. Those relaxed pace; my wish for all our girls over the who passed my study would have seen me short break. The final movement is marked huddled over my computer, clad in an extra “molto allegro”, a very fast pace. Just two weeks coat. They would have seen a tired man who is after the break the Senior School girls start their looking forward, very much, to half-term. Pass exams, and perhaps they will feel a bit like this. any classroom in the school, and you will see (They should take heart from the theory that this teachers who feel exactly as I do. piece of music is a prime piece in the research of the “Mozart effect” which suggests an And I can see from the faces of the girls that increase in intellectual ability after exposure to they have also given their all. this music!) I wish them all a good exam period. And yet they continue, making those of us who And so as my beloved girls pass me in my study, feel inclined to give into the frailty of advancing what they will also see is a man who in 32 years years realise that we have a generation to deal in education has never… NEVER… experienced with here which is almost invincible. Just this an eight week stretch quite like this half-term. I weekend I thoroughly enjoyed the ambience think I can quite confidently say that St Mary’s and tastes of the Debs’ Wine and Cheese DSG has never had a period like it. Festival with the most scrumptious lunch, and saw once again our faithful Debs busy keeping Cold and dark it may be early in the morning, the Inter Provincial Hockey festival fed and but the warmth and vibrancy of our community watered. I attended a wonderful chamber has shone out in the very brightest way. concert arranged by another Debs Group on Sunday. Some girls were out on a President’s Thank you, one and all. Enjoy half-term Award Hike, and many matrics attended a maths workshop at school. All this on a Fr Paterson weekend in which we should have been slowing Head of School down.

Junior School Happenings

Think Safety First!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank -light up a cigarette even though we know the Parents’ Association for the outstanding that this habit not only affects our health but family enrichment talks that took place this also that of our children past weekend. The content was - race through a red light to get to an enlightening and in some instances gut- appointment on time and in so doing drive wrenchingly frightening. faster than we ourselves know is safe -litter when we think no one is looking, or just To continue on with the theme that ran because we aren’t bothered and know through the talks on the weekend, I thought that someone else will pick it up it would be appropriate to share with you a snippet from an article that I came across earlier this year on the ‘TOP 10 Terrible Issues Facing Children Worldwide’ (http://listverse.com/2009/07/06/top-10- terrible-issues-facing-children-worldwide). With this information at hand, I urge all adults I was astounded to read that children in our St Mary’s community to ‘THINK SAFETY continue to be victims of the politically FIRST!’ (especially as we go into half term). motivated actions of adults. Our DSG girls Don’t let it be that we are the people that may well escape the atrocities that so many the safety lessons are warning our girls helpless children face throughout the world, against. however, they are in their own way bombarded with many things that put them Help us to help you! in the way of harm. Throughout the school curriculum, we teach Mrs Johnstone our girls about stranger danger, road safety, Junior School Principal internet safety and how to keep their bodies safe from drugs or physical abuse. It interests and fascinates me to see how much time and effort parents and teachers,both in our community and around the world, put into ensuring children’s safety yet we are the same people that when under pressure, unthinkingly fail to consider our children’s safety. Consider for a moment how often we:

- talk on our cell phones whist driving with our children in the car

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The Counselling Centre

Building Resilience Resilience enables victims to become survivors, and survivors to thrive

Resilience can be defined as the ability to 2. INTERNAL:Controlling and choosing remain focused and productive whilst thoughts, feelings and attitude experiencing tough times and emerging • She must be aware of persistent negative strengthened and more resourceful (Warner, thoughts, feelings and attitude. Rod, 2007). Resilience is needed to cope • She must be able to stop these thoughts, successfully during stressful times and it enables the person to “bounce back” afterwards. feelings and attitude and redirect them to Coping with adversity enhances resilience, more positive thinking, feelings and which in turn enables the person to cope better attitude. in future. It is therefore of utmost importance to • She must recognize and avoid negative teach and be an example of resilience to our triggers, and choose to be positive rather children. than negative. The resilient person is more positive, has more hope, and is better able to learn effectively. She • She must choose to persevere. has a better chance of being successful in a • She must engage in enjoyable, relaxing competitive environment, as she is better able to and recharging activities. turn adversity into a growth experience. She has • She must persist in seeking solutions. a higher level of emotional control, is more goal • She must use flexible approaches to orientated, is solution focused, has better self problem solving, and listen to people with knowledge and insight, accepts responsibility different views. more easily, connects better with other people and her reactions are more purposeful than somebody with less resilience. 3. EXTERNAL: Action focus According to research by Warner, there needs • She must be willing to share her feelings to be focus on three areas in order to improve with trusted people. resilience: • She must be willing to accept assistance 1. CORE: Grounding and connecting and support

• She must be sensitive to the feelings, • She must feel her life has meaning, needs and motivations of other people, purpose and direction. and be willing to support and assist them. • She must be connected to significant people, causes and must have faith. Let us work together in building resilient individuals, communities and a resilient Understanding and accepting herself South Africa. • She must know her own strengths, capabilities and limits. Mrs Pienaar • She must understand her own Counselling Centre vulnerabilities. • She must draw strength from having overcome previous adversities. • She must accept herself.

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From the Library

Paired Reading “I like reading because in winter I can snuggle together. This helps the child to become a more up and have hot chocolate and read” confident reader and the parent-child (Victoria Grade 4)……..and that’s exactly what relationship also benefits from it. Paired reading we have been doing in the Library this winter. must be practised at home on a regular basis. A Each Junior School class gets a turn to visit the variety of texts and books are suitable for paired Library with their parents early in the morning reading as long as they are age-appropriate and sit down with something to drink and a book and the girls find them enjoyable. Contact the to read. Paired reading involves the parent (who Library for a list of recommended books by is a skilled reader) and the child to read a book Grade. Suggested books for Grade 1 & 2:

I can Read Series Dr Suess Books

Blue/Red/Yellow Bananas Series Happy Ever After series

Suggested books for Grade 3 & 4:

Books by Atinuke Books by Dick King-Smith

Books by Roald Dahl Books by Sally Gardner

More information on Paired Reading: http://egfl.net/ASL/Documents/Resources/Generic%20Leaflet.pdf Images from: Kalahari.com [online]. 2012. Available from: http://www.kalahari.com/. [Accessed: 21 June 2012] Compiled by Mrs K. Snyman (Assistant Librarian)

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St Mary's DSG Community

Old Girls’ Association

D The DSG Old Girls Committee would like to thank all the invited learners for their participation in the recent Old Girls’ Essay Competition, as well as the English Department for its support of this function.

D Good luck and best wishes to the Junior School for the Old Girls’ Big Walk Challenge on the 29th June.

D A final reminder for any recipes to be submitted immediately to [email protected] to ensure that your favourite recipe will be printed in the Old Girls’ Recipe Book. jx ã|á{ tÄÄ Éy çÉâ t ÑÄxtátÇà tÇw ÜxÄtå|Çz [tÄy gxÜÅ uÜxt~A

Bursery Applications Second Hand Bookshop

If any parent/guardian wishes to apply for The Grade 9’s and Old Girls are once again financial assistance for school fees in 2013 running the second-hand book shop for the Foundation Bursary Applications Forms are International Day in October. Any number or available from the office of the Head’s PA, Mrs. type of book that you wish to donate will be Pippa Marais. These forms must be returned by greatly appreciated. 10 July. The books can be dropped at the South Wing or Junior School offices.

Parents’ Association

I will be giving the talk that I did not give at the PA Family Enrichment Day entitled:

“Girls and Boys: Different! Understanding the differences and helping our daughters achieve at school.”

on Wednesday 25 July at 17:30 in the Auditorium.

All parents are welcome.

Fr Angus Paterson

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Sport & Recreation Centre

INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS SPORTS FESTIVAL

The St Mary's DSG Independent Schools Sports Festival 2012 was certainly the highlight for sport this year! Sixteen Independent Schools from KZN and , 530 participants competed over a two day period in hockey, , squash and and meeting new friends. Wonderful sportsmanship was shown by all teams and a very high standard of play maintained in all the matches. The Debutantes of 2012 created a very festive atmosphere with their lively music and sold yummy eats to the delight of everyone present.

We received wonderful compliments from the visiting schools and the Sports Office would like to thank all the different departments for their wonderful cooperation and hard work that made this event such a big success.

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Sport & Recreation Centre

SENIOR INTER-HOUSE HOCKEY AND NETBALL

The highlight of the Hockey and Netball season is definitely the Inter- House Competition. As always, the Inter-House Hockey and Netball was great fun with great games, sportsmanship, and wonderful support shown by the different houses and their supporters. The Netball match between the staff and matric girls was played with great spirit between the teams and showed the girls that there is nothing like experience to outwit and outplay your opponents.

A very big thank you to all the players, coaches, sports organizers, other St Mary’s DSG staff and parents, for their commitment, hard work and support throughout the year. You are STARS!

The final results were:

Hockey Netball

1st St George 14 points 1st St Andrew 11 points 2nd St Patrick 12 points 2nd St George 6 points 2nd St Andrew 12 points 3rd St David 4 points 4th St David 2 points 4th St Patrick 3 points

SENIOR SQUASH

Makgosi Peloakgosi represented the SA U16 Team in Malaysia in May.

Team Played Won Lost DSG A 3 2 1 DSG B 3 3 0 DSG C 4 2 2 DSG D 3 1 2 DSG E 4 4 0 DSG F 4 3 1 DSG G 5 0 5

The league will only finish in August before the holidays.

We hosted the annual Independent Schools Festival and this was another huge success. There were 12 teams entered from KZN, Eastern Gauteng, Gauteng Central and Gauteng North. We had an action two days of squash and saw the girls play six matches in two days. There were no official positions taken and recorded at the end of the tournament. The tournament focus is participation and not competition. Our Captain, Amy Farrell and Vice-Captain, Cyann Camera did a splendid job and made sure they crushed all of their opponents.

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Sport & Recreation Centre

BASKETBALL

St Mary's DSG hosted the very successful and exciting Pretoria Schools League semi-finals and finals on Friday 8 and Saturday 9 June. Twelve schools participated in this event. Twenty Eight matches took place and some outstanding basketball was played by the teams.

Congratulations to Liza Foot the St Mary's DSG Basketball Captain who was selected as one of the five Northern Gauteng All Star players in the U18 girls section. She has also been selected for the SA U20 Basketball Training Squad that will participate at the Supreme Council of Sports Africa Zone Six games 2012 that are scheduled for Zambia in December 2012.

The St Mary's DSG Cheerleaders did a splendid job of entertaining the spectators with their dances before the final match. The Debutantes sold delicious food to keep the players and spectators filled and happy on a very windy and cold day. All in all a day to be proud off all our St Mary's DSG players, coaches, girls and everyone involved in organizing the day.

SENIOR NETBALL

The season has officially ended for the Netball girls. It has been a relatively successful season. All our teams except U15 made it into playoffs, which is an achievement on its own. At the playoffs all the teams acquitted themselves very well, losing by narrow margins. DSG netball has certainly proved to the other schools that we are here to stay. The U17 team made it through to the second round of playoffs and ended 3rd in the league.

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Sport & Recreation Centre

SENIOR HOCKEY

A very busy season it was indeed! Compared with last year we had pretty much the same results. 14A : 2nd in League. Lost to PHSG in 1st round of Stadsbeker play-offs 0-1. 15A: 3rd in League. 16A: 1st in League. Lost to Cornwall Hill in 1st round of Stadsbeker play-offs 0-3. 18A: 1st in League. Lost to Cornwall Hill in 1st round of Stadsbeker play-offs 0-2.

Overall St Mary’s DSG came 4th in the A2 Big School Northerns League. u/14B: 6th position u/15B: 4th position u/16B: 6th position 2nd: 6th position.

SENIOR TENNIS

After winning the U/15 A2 league in 2011, our U15 team has been promoted to the U15 A-league this year. We are playing against the U15A-teams of the big schools such as Waterkloof and Menlopark where they are holding their own. The league finishes in July.

St Mary’s DSG 37 vs Cornwall Hill 30 St Mary’s DSG 27 vs Menlo Park 40 St Mary’s DSG 23 vs Waterkloof 44 St Mary’s DSG 11 vs AHMP 56

FIRST AID

The First Aiders under the leadership of Sr du Plessis and Sr Fourie did us proud by the way they took care of all the injuries during a very busy season. Thank you for always being there when we really needed you!

SA PROTEA NETBALL TEAM

BIG NEWS… the South African Protea Netball team has just beaten Jamaica in the last Netball test. This is a phenomenal achievement as the Jamaican team is ranked 3rd in the world and also has a professional netball setup, which we do not have. In other words we are punching way above our weight limit here!

And what an amazing opportunity for 60 of our own St Mary’s DSG netball players who welcomed the team back at Oliver Tambo Airport. It was freezing cold when we left the school at 05:30 by bus but the girls were so excited to welcome the team back to SA that it did not matter. Hundreds of photos were taken, autographs signed on shirts and balls and to top it all, our girls made it on to the National News and TV with the team. This was another first for our girls, who were again congratulated on their wonderful spirit and behavior.

THANK YOU!

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Sport & Recreation Centre

DUATHLON

Hannah Newman and Smilla Schoeman participated in the Gauteng Duathlon championships. Hannah came 2nd in the 12-13 age group and Smilla 6th. Both girls will represent Gauteng North at the SA Duathlon championships on 17 June in Worcester.

JUNIOR HOCKEY

The hockey results improved as the season progressed:

The U11A team beat Woodhill College 2-0, Glenstantia Primary 6-0 and Tyger Valley 3-0 The U11B team won 1-0 against the Chinese School, 1-0 against Cornwall Hill, against drew 0-0 against Doringkloof and Constantiapark. The U12A team beat Hatfield Christian School 2-0 and drew 1-1 with Cornwall Hill. The U12B team beat Pretoria Junior 2-0 and lost 1-0 to Irene Primary. The U13A team won their last 2 league matches 3-0 against both Die Poort and Hennopspark. The U13A’s also played against Usuthu Forest School from Swaziland, and won 3-0. The U13B team lost 2-0 to the Chinese School A and 1-0 to Wonderboom A. The u8-u10 girls competed in a festival at St Paulus on 26 May and the Cornwall Hill festival on 2 June.

JUNIOR INTER-HOUSE HOCKEY AND NETBALL

The Junior Inter-House hockey and netball took place on Wednesday 20 June and Thursday 21 June. The results were as follows:

Hockey Netball 4th St Patrick 21 points 4th St Patrick 8 points 2nd St David and St George 23 points 2nd St Andrew and St David 23 points 1st St Andrew 24 points 1st St George 33 points

JUNIOR NETBALL

The last 2 netball league matches took place on 22 and 24 May against Springvale and Woodhill College. Unfortunately only our U13A team went through to the play-offs. They played against a very strong Elarduspark team, and lost in the first round. Two friendly matches were arranged in June against Southdowns College and .

This has been extremely busy term that placed enormous pressure on the Sports Office Staff, as well as other staff members, parents and our girls, and I would like to make use of the opportunity to thank each and everyone for their hard work, dedication and support of sport at St Mary’s DSG during this time. What an amazing place to work and play.

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