FAIRBAIRN COLLEGE NEWSLETTER – 3/2015 2 October 2015 From the Headmaster At the end of Term 3 2015, I pay tribute to the different role players at the College: The Governing Body: Under the leadership of Mrs Prinsloo, the new Governing Body is looking after the interests of the parents, the learners and the staff. The Parents: It is enjoyable to interact with parents at all levels: next to the sport fields, at cultural functions, at the parent\teacher meetings and during one to one interviews. Please continue to support your children in all aspects of schooling. The Staff: I could not wish for better! The academic staff are dedicated workers who leave no stone unturned in pursuit of the College ethos of academic excellence and discipline. Also in all the other spheres of school life: pastoral, sport and culture – the staff put the interests of the learners first. The Support Staff: The receptionists, secretarial staff, school bursar, estate manager and the general workers are hard workers who always give their best. Time and time again I receive compliments of the efficiency of the front office. Our estate and sport facilities are the envy of many visiting schools. The Learners: The majority of learners are at one with the ethos of Fairbairn College. There will always be a small group of learners who have not taken ownership of “their” school. These learners are monitored closely. They will not be allowed to infringe on the rights of the learners who want to learn, or be allowed to tarnish the name of this fine institution. Enrolment 2016: 554 learners have applied for enrolment at Fairbairn College for Grade 8 in 2016. Only 210 will be successful. Congratulations to all parents, staff and learners who ensure that Fairbairn College is an excellent and sought after secondary educational institution. Term 3 has been a successful term in all spheres of school life: culture, sport and academics – details are supplied in this newsletter. Well done to all. I wish the Grade 12 learners well in their final preparation for the end of year examinations. You have been extensively prepared. Good luck! Yours sincerely B MARCHAND HEADMASTER ACADEMICS AND EXAMINATIONS The Roll of Honour is included elsewhere in this Newsletter. Ms H van Rooyen HEAD OF ACADEMICS Academic Dinner The prestigious annual Academic Dinner held on 5 August 2015, was once again a huge success. We celebrated the academic ethos of Fairbairn College by awarding the Top 10 Academic Badges to the top ten learners in each grade, as well as bursaries to the top three learners in each grade. We were honoured to have Deon van Wulven (a past pupil of Fairbairn College) as our guest speaker. The audience left, feeling inspired by his message: “…and if something extremely bad/wrong goes on then keep your chin up, look ahead and carry on.” Our scholarships of R1400, R1200 and R950 are allocated to the first three places in each grade, respectively. The scholarships were as follows: Grade 8 - The L Rothman Scholarship to Keana Young, McCene Jacob and Selena Pather. Grade 9 - The L Rothman Scholarship to Sebrina Ornelas, Shazeea Dhansay and Tamsin Paulse. Grade 10 - The C Cook Scholarship to Joshua Heyns, Rushda Adam and Himil Parshotam. Grade 11 - The A Hadjidakis Scholarship to Hanaan Cassiem, Aarti Ranchod and Yaseen Mowzer. Grade 12 - The E Hadjidakis Scholarship to Sean Weber, Meera Ranchod and Adam Pandit. PASTORAL AND DISCIPLINE Grade 11 Seminar On Friday, 24 July, we held our annual Grade 11 evening. The evening was very well attended and enjoyed by all. It started with a fun ice-breaker by Mrs Jacobz that got the mood of the Grade 11’s ready for the rest of the evening. Mr Marchand presented his part of the evening with his “The Road Ahead” address in which he presents the College’s expectations of the future Grade 12’s. This was followed by Mr Koffeman, who presented his address on the duties and responsibilities of the RCL Executive and the handing out of the application forms for this role. An enjoyable supper followed and then the highlight of the evening: the creation of the Matric Top. With many spirited debates and good ideas, a design and top was eventually agreed upon. Mrs C Jacobz GRADE HEAD Job Shadowing Programme We congratulate our Grade 11 learners who participated in the Job Shadowing Programme during the last week of Term 3. Our Grade 11 learners were away on Tuesday 29 September, Wednesday 30 September and Thursday 1 October and shadowed possible career choices. The learners represented Fairbairn College wherever they chose to go, and therefore they were ambassadors for our school in dress as well as manners and courtesy. This is always an exciting venture! Miss G Correia JOB SHADOW CO-ORDINATOR Community Service Programme The Grade 10’s embarked on their Community Service Project with great enthusiasm and determination - they were eager to be of service to the various communities. They visited various institutions over the course of the three days: retirement homes, day-care facilities, fire stations etc. Hopefully this was a rich and rewarding experience. Well done to the Grade 10’s for embracing this Community Service project – continue to be of service to your community in the future. Mrs F Dublin COMMUNITY SERVICE CO-ORDINATOR Grade 9 Excursions From 29 September to 1 October our learners paid a visit to the Aquarium, Seal Island and Monkey Town in Somerset West. The learners enjoyed the Aquarium and it goes without saying also the visit to the Waterfront. The boat trip to Seal Island reminded us of our “Rainbow Nation” as our Grade 9’s faces were all different shades of blue and green. The learners were extremely at home at Monkey Town and strangely enough, some of the monkeys looked extremely familiar. Thank you to the Headmaster and the Governing Body for subsidising a large portion of the transport costs to these venues. Mrs E Le Grange GRADE 9 GRADE HEAD RCL Executive – 2015 A big thank you to the RCL Executive of 2015. They have worked together and remained focused on maintaining school discipline. A special thank you to Aasha Parshotam and Sean Weber (our head prefects), for their tireless efforts and leadership of this RCL Executive group. Being a leader of leaders is always a difficult task, but you both rose to the challenge very well. Thank you. Mr M Koffeman MASTER IN CHARGE - RCL EXECUTIVE RCL Executive – 2016 The following Grade 11’s and their parents are to be congratulated on their selection to the office of RCL Executive for 2016: Girls Boys Cailin Bailey Mohammad Ilyaas Abbas Dominique Blight Dylan Best Hanaan Cassiem Chesray Daniels Jeanré Conradie Darian Hector Kirsten Cornelissen Lenny Johnson Kayleen Esau Stefan Kalp Andrea Goncalves Ulrich Kalp Razaan Kamaldien Danian Koen Erin Lameyer Carl Lakay Zukiswa Lobola Caleb Marthinus Nazeera Mahomed Moegamad Dawood Miller Nontlahla Ntlahla Reece Nagdee Jamie-Lee Pearson Ricardo Rebelo Aneeqah Petersen Daniel Scheidegger Aarti Ranchod Reese Samuels Chelsey Scholtz Leandra Walker They attended a camp, held at the College on 25 and 26 September 2015, where they received training in leadership and participated in team-building exercises. A good time was had by all. We wish them well for the arduous task that lies ahead. I have no doubt that they will make a success of it. Mr M Koffeman MASTER IN CHARGE - RCL EXECUTIVE We are proud of: Angelique Doyle: who has been awarded a Bursary by the Yvonne Parfitt Trust for her studies next year. Congratulations Angelique - we know you will make us proud! Lenny Johnson and Tyler September: who were selected as members of the U/18 Western Province Ice Hockey team that took part in the 2015 Inter Provincial Tournament held in Cape Town during the July school holidays. Yaseen Mowzer: who achieved a Bronze Medal at the International Mathematics Olympiad in Thailand. Well done, Yaseen! Yaseen also brought home a Bronze Medal from the International Programming Olympiad in Kazakhstan as part of a team of four who took part. The team came 32nd out of the 83 participating countries. An excellent achievement. Congratulations! At the Computer Programming Olympiad’s 1st round, Yaseen came 1st in the province! A total of 4 120 learners were registered for this round. To be 1st in the province is a remarkable accomplishment. Meera Ranchod: who took part in the SAICA Accounting Olympiad and came 3rd in the Western Province with 91%. Congratulations! Lillian Simonhoff: who competed in the Western Cape Gymnastic Provincial trials on Saturday, 5 September 2015 and qualified to go through to the National Gymnastic Games in Pretoria in October 2015. Lillian was awarded full Provincial Colours. Well done! Jenny-Lee Williams: was selected to represent the Western Cape U/19 SA Football Association team who took part in the National playoffs in Gauteng from 26 to 30 August 2015. Adam Pandit and Meera Ranchod : who attended the NRF SAASTA Youth Science Week in Pretoria from 28 June to 3 July. Adam finished second in South Africa and 3rd in the SADC Region (including South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Lesotho) for the Life Sciences Olympiad, winning a laptop and gift voucher at the Awards Ceremony on 2 July 2015 at Emperors Palace. A remarkable achievement! Positions of Fairbairn College learners (SADC Region): Milan Chavda (85th, Life Sciences). Yaseen Mowzer (36th, Physical Sciences). Meera Ranchod (18th, Life Sciences) Staff Miss Rochelle Lawson (Teacher Assistant at Fairbairn College), was selected as a member of the SPAR Protea’s Netball Team that represented our country at the Netball World Cup hosted by Australia in Sydney in August 2015.