ST MARY’S MATTERS

St Mary’s Diocesan School for Girls Volume 12, Issue 5

23 May 2008 From the Head’s Desk

Dear Parents, Welcome to the second term of 2008. We have enjoyed a new look to the term with the roll-out of the new winter uniform, and, I must admit, it has added a brightness to the campus. This is a reminder that this year, girls may wear either the old or the new uni- form, but from next year only the new uniform will be accepted. The Academic, Sports and Music Scholarships for Grade 8 in 2009 have been awarded and we look forward to welcoming a full house in Grade 8 next year. Many of the later applicants have had to be put on a waiting list. I would like to welcome the new girls and their families to our DSG community. I hope that you will find your stay at DSG a happy and fulfilling one. As always, the more you put into any activity the more you get out, and I hope that the girls and their parents will make the most of the many opportunities we have to offer. Staff matters Welcome to the new members of staff who have joined us. Academic Staff who have started include: Miss Isabel Botha Physical Science Mrs Lizel Pollard Accounting and EMS Mrs Elly Long is the new Bookkeeper and Mr André Marx has joined the Estate Department. Mrs Sheila Edwards is assisting in the Senior School admissions office until the end of July, after which Mrs Una Hancock will take over as the Admissions Secretary. We wish them success in their careers at DSG.

In the Junior School it is good to see Mrs Pienaar and Mrs Hussein back from their maternity leave. Mrs van Os is away on a term’s sabbatical leave where she will be doing further investigation on the use of THRASS (the literacy programme we are using) both in and later in the UK, where she has been awarded a study grant by ISASA. Her classes are being taken by Mrs van der Spuy. School Shop The tenders for the school shop are being processed. It is unsure when the new tenants will start and it is thus possible that the School Shop will be closed in June. Parents are asked to ensure that they keep this in mind, particularly regarding sport and boarder items. Constantia Outfitters will be able to supply the main items of the school uniform. Academic and other matters The Cultural Tour to Europe, organised every second year, was extremely successful. Feedback from girls and staff who accompanied them has been very positive. This year the girls visited Spain, Italy, Switzerland, France and England. I am most grateful to Mrs Shields and Mrs Knight who coordinated the tour, and Mrs Sujee and Mrs Crane for accompanying the girls. This week, the first of the House Mass and Dinners will have been held. This is a time of celebration for the houses. IT The roll-out of laptops to the Grade 8 girls seems to have gone smoothly, and I thank Mr Stevens, Mrs Govender and the IT staff. Over the holidays an additional 8 SMARTboards and 17 data projectors were installed in both the Junior and Senior Schools. Page 2 St Mary’s Matters

Still on the Head’s desk

Sport Reports of the Junior School tour to Pietermaritzburg in the holidays have been excellent and I thank Mrs de Bruyn, Miss Kriel and the other staff who accompanied the girls. It is just over 2 weeks since we have been back and already the term has been busy. The sports teams are already in full swing with the netball, hockey, tennis, squash and basketball league seasons in both Junior and Senior Schools having started. Early results are most promising and it is a real pleasure to congratulate the girls in assembly each week. My thanks go to all the parents who so willingly support their daughters. It makes a huge difference to the girls. Music The St Mary’s Singers, resplendent in their new outfits, have already had one performance where they joined several choirs at the Musaion at Tuks. This coming weekend is a busy one for them as they sing in the ATKV competition, and we wish them well. This is followed on Sunday with a Choir Festival at Affies. With so much happening in the first weeks of term, we can really look forward to a bumper term. My thanks go to all the parents who so willingly fetch and carry their daughters from the different school functions. With kind regards

Ciska Tempest Head of School

Junior School News

Welcome back to the second term of the year, which is already proving to be a busy one. I would also like to welcome Mrs. Hussein, Grade 0H and Mrs. Pienaar Grade 1P back to school after being on maternity leave. We are very proud of our three Grade 7 girls who were awarded the following scholarships. Romy Miller Sports Scholarship Meghan Annandale DSG Closed Scholarship Jessica Slabbert DSG Open Academic Scholarship The Junior School Science Expo took place in the Exam Hall on Monday 19 and Tuesday 20 May. Well done, girls, there were some amazing displays. “Children Around the World” was held on Wednesday 21 May, in the Exam Hall. A total of 24 countries were represented in the form of Dress, Information, Displays and Food. My thanks to all involved for their wonderful efforts. Girls have had a very busy sporting programme so far this term. Matches have been played during the week and on Saturdays. Well done, girls, thank you for all your enthusiasm. Mrs B. Craig Principal : Junior School Volume 12, Issue 5 Page 3

Junior School News Cont ….

How to Improve Comprehension Skills.

• Take turns reading aloud and find places to stop, discuss, make comments, give opinions, and relate to personal experi- ences. When parents read aloud, they should model correct inflection and feelings. • Listen to your child read aloud for a few minutes every day. The length of time should be appropriate for the child’s age (a minute for every year of age.) • Re-read favourite books. Re-reading familiar books provides good practice for fluency and decoding. Your child should be able to read at a smooth, conversational pace. • Read aloud to your child often from a book, magazine, or newspaper article. This helps build vocabulary. Ask questions frequently about the content and details, and ask her to re-tell the story to check the level of understanding. • Talk about what your child reads to you. This helps her remember and think through the themes of the book. • Provide age-appropriate magazines! Children will read books and magazines over and over when it’s something they have an interest in. Allow your child to choose her reading material by providing several choices and allow her to make the final decision. • Find popular children’s books that are now available as screenplays on DVD. Have your child read the book version and then, watch the screenplay. Talk about the similarities or differences between the book and the screenplay. Ask your child how the screenplay compares to what she visualized while reading the book. Mrs G. Wöcke Special Needs Department

LENT KNITTING 2008

The results of the inter-house competition in the Senior School are as follows: 1st St George 2311 squares 2nd St Andrew 728 squares 3rd St David and St Patrick 607 squares each

The Lent Knitting drive garnered an impressive total of 4253 knitted squares. I would like to thank all the girls, and their relatives, and staff members who gave of their time and talents to knit squares and stitch a number of blankets. Your efforts will help to make this a warmer winter for a considerable number of needy people.

In addition to all the knitting which was done, 69 bags of clothing were donated, 48 by the girls of St Patrick House. To all who made the effort to weed their wardrobes: thank you for your donations.

Olga Nel Page 4 St Mary’s Matters

Performing Arts Centre

St Mary’s Singers The concert term started with a bang when the St Mary’s Singers participated in the an- nual Cantatuks choir festival hosted by the Tuks Camerata University choir. Only invited choirs had the chance to show their skill and repertoire. This year's prestigious school choirs included, both Affies choirs, , Menlo Park, Girls’ High, Boys’ High as well as our St Mary's Singers. Friday night was exclusively for school choirs and Saturday night ended the festival with a highlight of various youth choirs, singing their hearts out. The festival was very well organised and we greatly appreciate the efforts of the Tuks Cam- erata. They ensured a most enjoyable evening and managed to maintain a superb standard of choral singing. Forthcoming attractions include the first round of the ATKV, Saturday 24 May at the Musaion, and the Affies choir festival on Sunday 25 May. St Mary’s Singers Committee Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. ~Berthold Auerbach Volume 12, Issue 5 Page 5

PA says….

Please diarize Monday the 2nd of June 2008 for the next Parent Talk at 19:00 in the Auditorium. Debbie Langley’s topic for the evening is “They are what you feed them”.

We are also hosting a Bingo Evening on Friday the 20th June 2008 at 19:00 as part of our fundraising effort. It promises to be a lot of fun, so please join in!

There will not be a winter General Feedback Session. Any parents who are interested are invited to attend the PA meeting on 14 July 2008.

Please remember to support the My School partners:

• BSXI Hydro Spa Lifestyle Centre

• Ikon Hair & Beauty Shop 305, Brooklyn Mall

• Madam et Monsieur Shop 132A, Wonderpark Sentrum

• Salon Janika Hokaai Sentrum, Shop 1 Piever Centre

• The Hair Corner Marylone Mall, Ave

Please remember to sign up for the My School card on www.myschool.co.za, it will only take a few minutes of your time. You can also get grandparents, other family members and friends to apply for their own cards. They just need to specify St Mary’s DSG, as the school they wish to be linked to.

Thank you to those parents that have signed up for and are using the My School card. If you have applied for a card and still not received it, please call Rosemarie on 0824987577.

THE MAKRO REBATE SYSTEM

Page 6 St Mary’s Matters

PA News

How the rebate system works All parents, teachers and school cards are linked to an internal control number and the sales for the School Group will be accumulated. The school will then receive a rebate on the sales at Makro Silver Lakes.

Please note that the school will no longer receive a rebate on sales at Makro Centurion. Thank you to all those parents that have linked their cards. Forms are available at senior and junior school offices for those parents that still wish to link their cards. Cards can also be linked in store at the service counter. Remember to get friends and family involved.

REMEMBER TO SWIPE YOUR CARDS!!

COUNSELLING CENTRE “Who I am makes a difference” I am generally a rather skeptical person when it comes to the many schmaltzy e-mails that are circulated from time to time. I appreciate it as an attempt to pass the recognition and acknowledgement we all crave, on to others, with the eternal optimism that it will in turn be lavished on us. On occasion, depending on my personal stress levels or emotional state they do have a disarming effect and may induce a sniffle or two. I received one a while ago that contained the statement above and reminded me of the Film Pay it forward. A teacher somewhere in New York wanted to measure the impact of positive reinforcement. She started by calling all her pupils forward individually, pinning a ribbon with those words on their chest and telling them what they do to make a difference in her life and in that of their class. They were then each presented with three more ribbons and asked to repeat the process with someone who made a difference in their life. In this chain process, the route of one boy’s ribbons are followed and it culminates in preventing another teen- aged boy’s decision to take his own life when his father tells him what a difference he makes in his father’s life just by being there at the end of each day. As in most of these mails the father, who is also a boss in a big company then returns to work the next morning and initiates the same process there, whereby it has a huge impact on his work force.

My cynical side wants to argue that real life is rarely that dramatic and that a father who would immediately think of his son as the potential recipient of such a ribbon would generally have a far better relationship with his son. However, I also know how little time we have to give recognition to the people we love and care for. We often have even less time to consider the potential we have to make a difference in the lives of others. I do not want or expect you to start making ribbons, pinning them on and passing them on to others. I want you to think of the warm, but slightly embarrassed feeling we experience when we receive recognition from someone else, appreciate its value and develop the confidence to use the following statement regularly even to yourself.

“What you do, and who you are matters to me”

Christa de Villiers Volume 12, Issue 5 Page 7

Sports News

SENIOR TENNIS The senior tennis league started off with some very good results. The Open A-team played two matches and won both and the U15 A- team also won their first match. RESULTS: DSG OPEN A 44 VS AHMP C 23 DSG OPEN A 64 VS MIDSTREAM A 3 DSG OPEN C 19 VS OVERKRUIN A 48 DSG U15 A 38 VS MENLOPARK B 29 SENIOR NETBALL Congratulations to Fortunate Malago, Maya Wegerif and Sanelisiwe Nkosi who made it into the U16 Tshwane District teams which then participated in the trials. Fortunate and Maya then went through to the final Gauteng U16 netball trials with Fortunate being selected for the Gauteng U16 team. Well done, this is an outstanding achievement! The netball teams had mixed fortunes with their matches during the last two weeks. The results were:

Uitsig Hoërskool F H Odendaal Hoërskool

U14A 14 - 17 U14B 6-16 U14A 19 – 9 U14 B 9 - 15 U15A 7-26 U15B 11-9 U15A 27 – 11 U15B 20 - 15 U16A 14-15 U16B 12-7 U16A 32 – 12 U16B 29 - 3 Open A 6-27 Open B 5-20 Open A 17 – 13 Open B 17 - 10

Woodhill College

U14A 20-1 U15A 18-2 U15B 9-2 Open A 8-15 OpenB 2-5 SENIOR BASKETBALL We would like to congratulate Joyce Kato-Kalule on making the Tshwane U17 Regional Basketball team as well as Mr Neo Mothiba who has been elected as the new Chairperson for the Gauteng Schools Basketball Association. Well done! Our basketball teams are playing well and they are winning the majority of their matches.

Willowridge

U14A 16-17 U14B 4-6 U16A 22-15 Lyttleton Manor Hillview PHSG Open 44-1 Open 31-5 U16B 43-3

JUNIOR SCHOOL SPORTS TOUR

Seventy hockey and netball girls toured to KZN during the first week of the April holiday. The girls were involved in coaching ses- sions during the morning, and matches in the afternoon. Matches were played against Cowan House, Ladsworth, Prestbury, Pelham, Gerrit Maritz and Scottsville. One afternoon was set aside for Ushaka, where the girls, and coaches, had a ball. Both U/12 hockey and netball teams were unbeaten on tour, while the U/11 teams showed the most progress. The U/13 hockey team, with their coach Simone Barrett, was the team with the best spirit. The tour was a great success, and thoroughly enjoyed by coaches and players. Page 8 St Mary’s Matters

Still on the Sports News

JUNIOR NETBALL

Congratulations to Lebogang Mashego who has been selected for the U/12 Gauteng netball squad. The netball teams have been involved in 3 league matches during the first two weeks of the term. The first matches took place against Waterkloof Primary. The scores were: U8 A won 7-2 U11B won 19-2 U9A won 12-0 U12A drew 9-9 U9B lost 0-5 U12B drew 8-8 U10A lost 2-5 U13A won 9-8 U10B won 9-2 U13B won 2-0 U11A won 13-5 U13C won 7-4 The first home matches were played against Irene Primary. The home support helped the girls to achieve very good results. U9A won 7-4 U12B lost 8-3 U10A won 14-4 U13A drew 13-13 U11A won 16-1 U13B lost 2-1 U12A lost 6-1 The A and B teams traveled to Laerskool Simon Bekker for their league matches. Congratulations to the U9A and U11B teams who won their matches. The U10C, U11C and U13C teams played against Tyger Valley. The U10/U11C team lost 7-4. The U13C team played beautifully and won 17-1. The netball girls also participated in a festival, hosted by Cornwall Hill, during the weekend. The DSG teams played matches against Lyttleton, Midstream College, Woodhill College, , Northridge and Cornwall Hill, and all had great fun.

JUNIOR HOCKEY The U11A, U12A and U13A teams won all their league matches of the season thus far. The U11A team beat Monumentpark 1-0. The U12A team beat 4-1 and Elarduspark 8-0. The U13A team beat St Paulus 3-0 and Lynnwood 4-0. The U13B lost 2-0 against Woodhill College and 1-0 against Pretoria Junior. The U8, U10, U11B and U13C teams took part in a festival at Glen High. The U8’s played 4 matches, and won all 4. They beat Woodhill College 9-1, Cornwall Hill College 5-4, Garsfontein 3-2 and Hatfied Christian 5-0. The U10’s also won all the matches they played. They beat Irene 8-0, Hennopspark 3-0, Hatfield Christian 4-1, Woodhill College 6-1, Cornwall Hill College 3-2, and St Paulus 3-0. The U11B team played well in their 1st festival of the season, and were unlucky not to win. The U13C team finished the festival with very good hockey, beating Magalies 9-0 and Woodhill Col- lege 4-0. The U8 and U10 teams took part in a round robin at Rietondale the past weekend. The U8’s played very well; winning 2 of the 3 matches they played. The U10’s played 11 matches, won 4, drew 3 and lost 4.

Volume 12, Issue 5 Page 9

Still on the Sports News

EQUESTRIAN Results for SANEF Schools Qualifying Show 2 Gauteng North Many of our riders did not participate at this show for various reasons, leaving us with only 5 horse rider combinations for the Sen- ior School day and 4 horse rider combinations for the Junior School day. Once again our girls did extremely well! The results are as follows: Senior School (up to 5th place only shown otherwise points only indicated) Dressage Level 1 – Megan Whittington / Stunt Pilot – 4th place 180 points Dressage Level 2 – Sarah Newman / Caegwyn Showtime – 183 points Performance Level 1 – Megan Whittington / Buttercup – 4th place 97 points Performance Level 2 – Megan Whittington / Stunt Pilot – 3rd place 98 points Performance Level 3 – Sarah Newman / Caegwyn Showtime – 92 points Equitation Level 4 – Olivia Bramley / Desert Sands – 1st place 100 points - Patricia Lourens / Alchemy Story Book – 2nd place 99 points Show Jumping Level 5 – Patricia Lourens / Alchemy S. Book – 1st place 191 points - Patricia Lourens North Power – 1st and 5th places 196 points The Senior Team were placed 3rd overall in the small schools category (7-9 riders) Junior School (up to 5th place only shown – otherwise points only indicated) Dressage Lead Rein – Mila Watson / Tinkerbell – 1st and 2nd places 199 points Dressage Level 0 – Kristina Harris Brown / Blue – 175 points - Callan Laing / Nikita – 181 Dressage Level 1 – Mila Watson / Pumpkin – 4th place 97 points Performance Lead Rein – Mila Watson / Tinkerbell – 1st place 100 points Performance Level 0 – Callan Laing / Nikita – 83 points Performance Level 1 – Christy Watson / Pumpkin 2nd place 99 points Working Riding Lead Rein – Mila Watson / Tinkerbell – 1st place 100 points Working Riding Level 0 – Kristina Harris Brown / Blue – 71 points - Callan Laing / Nikita – 88 points Working Riding Level 1 – Christy Watson / Pumpkin – 93 points The Junior Team was placed 7th overall in the small schools category (4-6 riders). Well done, girls! SQUASH The squash players have had a very busy couple of weekends with excellent results. Well done to all the players who did us proud in all the tournaments! SA Nationals U16 U19

6th Bridgette Botha 6th Bronwyn Reilly 10th Helen Coetzee Sports News Cont….

NJSA Selection Tournament U14 3rd Cyanne Camera 4th Tamlin Chippindall U16 2nd Dassie Persaud-Van der Westhuizen 3rd Bridgette Botha 4th Nicola Schmidt 5th Ashleigh Ferreira U19 1st Bronwyn Reilly 2nd Helen Coetzee TUKS Open

U14 U16 U23 6th Amy Farrel 3rd Nicola Schmidt 11th Helen Coetzee

SENIOR HOCKEY Our senior hockey teams won three and lost three matches in their first league outing against Hoërskool. The Open A-team scored a bonus point when then beat their opponents 4 – 0. The other league results were: U14 DSG A won 3 – 1 DSG B lost 0 – 4 U15 DSG A lost 0 – 2 U16 DSG A won 2 – 1 Open DSG A won 4 – 0 DSG B lost 0 – 1

Congratulations to the following players who has made it through to the third round of Hockey trials. Good luck for the next round! U14

Lungile Mahlare Kay Kangwa Evadne Farmer Motlatsi Tsiane Mikayla Bader Tamryn Brown

U15 Savannah Lodge

U16 Kimberly Bailey Dassie Persaud van der Westhuizen Carla Prinsloo Lele Kganakga Claire Grobler

U18 Simone Barrett Catherine Bailey