St Mary's Matters

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 Pg 2 of 10 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. Pg 3 of 10 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) Pg 4 of 10 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.

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