Oakwood Spring Cycle & Grand-person Day!

Transcription

1 Volume 29 ~ 31 August 2018 Oakwood Spring Cycle & Grand-person Day! Children and their Grand Visitors filled Oakwood this morning as they had fun sharing activities inside the classroom, showing off their artwork, as well as on the playground showing their gross motor skills. The fun really began when the Oakwood Spring Cycle Tour participants took off we had to reign them in this year, as they were rearing to go, egged on by the Prep. School and the eager cheering of the visitors and Junior Primary. The Grade 7s were a wonderful help as they guided the little ones though the more treacherous parts of the track. Safely back at Oakwood, singing under the blue sky was such a treat, as the Oakwood children s voices filled the school - singing along to their favourite songs with Mrs Human accompanying them on the piano. The picnics were then spread out and enjoyed in a place chosen by the pre-schoolers themselves, and our accomplished pianist added to the beautiful ambiance by tinkling away on the ivories as the children engaged with their special Grand Persons. Many special memories were made today, which will be treasured for years to come.

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3 HEADlines Thinking about our friends at Beaumont We received the tragic news yesterday morning that a Grade 7 child at Beaumont had died. We understand from information provided by the school that it is thought that he had taken his life, however, this has not been confirmed. It is a tragic occurrence in any community, but even more so in a school. We gathered the Grade 6 and 7 children yesterday morning to talk about what had happened, in an effort to share the news in a supported environment and assist our children in processing this very sad event. Our thoughts are with the family concerned and the wider Beaumont community. Unfortunately, this event has generated a huge amount of talk on social media. Most is based on speculation and opinion and very little is of any positive value. I have absolutely no doubt that Beaumont School is doing its best to deal with this matter under extremely difficult circumstances. Our school stands with them in support of the family and the members of their community at this time. New Administration System for Somerset House Over the last week we have been engaged in installing a new digital administration system for the school. We have resisted this for a long time because systems could not deliver the service we required, especially as far as reporting was concerned. We have decided to commit to Edadmin which we feel will deliver a service which will enhance our ability to run the school effectively from an administrative point of view. Linked to this will be a process involving parents updating their personal details on our system. This will be announced when we are ready for the system to go live. The new system will allow for our reporting system to become paperless. We feel the time is right to move in this direction. We are going to make a decision based on our progress as to whether we will do the final report of 2018 on the new system. If not, we will definitely be using Ed-admin for the first reporting cycle of As with most systems, it will take us time to come to grips with the requirements and potential of this new tool and we ask for patience if we experience some errors in the beginning. We will endeavour to keep these to a minimum. Special Guild Meeting We hope to have a good discussion around the future of the Guild at Somerset House next week. It is vital that parents play a positive role in a school like ours, and you are all invited to participate and share your thoughts on the topic. Chris Storey Headmaster chrsto@somersethouse.co.za

4 Urgent Plea Please check the uniform items that your child has brought home. Some children are missing marked clothing items which have not yet found their way to Lost Property. We are sure that there are a number of marked items innocently sitting in the closets of other children at home. Many thanks. Catering News Monday's icy weather was perfect for our children to enjoy their chicken stew and rice baskets, and on Tuesday they got to taste a quinoa, butternut, lentil and spinach salad. Grade 00 Under the Sea The Dormice have thoroughly enjoyed the theme of under the sea. Here we are hiding in the sea.

5 Junior Prep Grand-Person Day What an amazing day! We have spent the last week preparing for Grand Persons Day and today the children were a real credit to themselves. They bought picnic chairs, blankets and plates of eats. Thank you very much to all the Moms that helped. There was great excitement setting up picnic spots and I loved watching the littles hosts and hostesses offer tea, coffee and cake. After the picnic the children were in charge. They took their Grand People on a tour of the school, spent time in the classroom, played games in the dining room and learnt about Ecobricks in the Knowledge Centre. The morning ended with a singing concert in the Simpson Hall. The children looked so smart and sang beautifully. Well done JP! I think there were lots of Grand People that wished they were back at school!

6 Overheard: Grand-person: I think I should ask if I could come back to school Little person: I think the school has an agerestriction, Grandpa.

7 Spring Music Concert Wow! I could not be any prouder to be part of the Music Department at Somerset House. Some of our music pupils showcased their music talent at the Spring Concert on 30 August. All of the performances and the display of technical skill were impressive, but the level of musicality conveyed by all the participants made the biggest impact on me. Every participant can be proud of their achievements last night. To the team of teachers: thank you for all the effort you put into last night's concert and making the programme run smoothly. Thank you for the amazing work you do with all the pupils you teach.

8 Important Music Notice There won t be choir, string ensemble, woodwind ensemble, marimba band or orchestra rehearsals next week and during the exam period. Theory classes are available during this time, but optional. The flute ensemble will still rehearse on Monday morning 3 September. All lessons continue as normal for all music pupils, except for Grade 5-7 where individual arrangements will be made. Morning sessions will commence again on Wednesday 12 September.

9 Celebrating 70 Years We found some photos in the archives. Unfortunately, some of them don t have specific dates. Can you identify these locations on our campus today?

10 Learning About Pollution The Grade 3s worked collaboratively on a Pollution project. They had to gather, identify, generate, decide, implement, evaluate, communicate and finally learn from the experience. What fun!

11 Helderberg Eisteddfod Results A total of 102 items were entered for the Helderberg Eisteddfod. The achievements of our pupils were outstanding well done to all who participated. It takes a huge amount of courage to get up and perform in front of an adjudicator and an audience. Thank you to all the hard work by the music teachers and parents this was a mammoth effort. Thank you to the Academic Staff and Sport Department for being patient with pupils having to leave early and not always being available for matches. The results are as follows: Achievement Level Score needed Number of Candidates who Achieved Percentage of Candidates Achieving Cum Laude 90% ,7% Gold Plus 85% ,4% Gold 80% ,3% Silver Plus 75% ,7% Silver 70% + 4 3,9% Bronze Plus 65% Bronze 60% Participation 59% % Herewith the individual results of children taking music at Somerset House as well as few individuals taking lessons outside of the school (Italics): 1. Caroline Gilfillan Piano Cum Laude 2. Caroline Gilfillan Piano Cum Laude 3. Daniel Leysens Flute Cum Laude 4. Emma Steenkamp Piano Cum Laude 5. Emma Steenkamp Piano Cum Laude 6. Helen Basson & Chiara da Costa Piano Cum Laude 7. Kate Allwood Piano Cum Laude 8. Lesley-Anne van der Linden Keyboard Cum Laude 9. Lesley-Anne van der Linden Poësie Cum Laude 10. Lesley-Anne van der Linden Onvoorbereide Lees Cum Laude 11. Lesley-Anne van der Linden Poetry Cum Laude 12. Lesley-Anne van der Linden Dramatised Prose Cum Laude 13. Lesley-Anne van der Linden Group Drama Choral Verse Cum Laude 14. Luke Steenkamp Piano Cum Laude 15. Luke Steenkamp Piano Cum Laude 16. Neil Human Piano Cum Laude 17. Neil Human Piano Cum Laude 18. Sebastian Scrace and Daniel Leysens Clarinet & Flute Cum Laude 19. Senior Marimba Band Percussion Cum Laude 20. Shay Mehta Piano Cum Laude 21. Sophia Uys Piano Cum Laude 22. Talia Abelson Piano Cum Laude 23. Talia Abelson Piano Cum Laude 24. Aidan Hughes Piano Gold Plus 25. Aidan Sanders Flute Gold Plus 26. Alessia van der Merwe Piano Gold Plus 27. Alessia van der Merwe Piano Gold Plus 28. Ben Edwards Piano Gold Plus 29. Benn Viljoen Flute Gold Plus

12 30. Caitlyn McLeod-Smith Piano Gold plus 31. Caitlyn McLeod-Smith Piano Gold plus 32. Chiara da Costa & Jemma Boettger Flute Gold Plus 33. Chiara da Costa Piano Gold Plus 34. Daniel Leysens Flute Gold Plus 35. Daniel Leysens Flute Gold Plus 36. Darrsh Govender Piano Gold Plus 37. Emilie Smit Piano Gold Plus 38. Emilie Smit Piano Gold Plus 39. Esther Benson Singing: Music Entertainment Gold Plus 40. Esther Benson Singing: Music Entertainment (Self-Accompanied) Gold Plus 41. Eva Herbertson Piano Gold Plus 42. Hanna Keet Piano Gold Plus 43. Helen Basson Piano Gold Plus 44. Helen Basson Piano Gold Plus 45. Jessica Bailey and Kashvi Reddy Violin Gold Plus 46. Kaitlin du Toit Piano Gold Plus 47. Lesley-Anne van der Linde Singing Gold Plus 48. Lesley-Anne van der Linden Singing: Music Entertainment Gold Plus 49. Lesley-Anne van der Linden Singing: Music Entertainment Gold Plus 50. Lesley-Anne van der Linden Keyboard Gold Plus 51. Lesley-Anne van der Linden Keyboard Gold Plus 52. Lesley-Anne van der Linden Monoloog Gold Plus 53. Lesley-Anne van der Linden Unprepared Reading Gold Plus 54. Lukas Ochsenbein & Milan Williams Flute Gold Plus 55. Milan Williams Flute Gold Plus 56. Nicholas Hall Flute Gold Plus 57. Somerset House Grade 6 Flute Group Flute Ensemble Gold Plus 58. Sophia Uys Piano Gold Plus 59. Talia Abelson Piano Gold Plus 60. Aidan Sanders Flute Gold 61. Aidan Sanders Flute Gold 62. Alexander Diesel Singing Gold 63. Ben Edwards Piano Gold 64. Benjamin Cox Flute Gold 65. Benn Viljoen & Daniel Stenslunde Flute Gold 66. Benn Viljoen Flute Gold 67. Chiara da Costa Piano Gold 68. Chiara da Costa Flute Gold 69. Cloé Appollis Singing Gold 70. Cloé Appollis Singing Gold 71. Cloé Appollis Singing Gold 72. Connor Roman & Nicholas Hall Flute Gold 73. Connor Roman Flute Gold 74. Daniel Stenslunde Flute Gold 75. Douw Strydom Piano Gold 76. Esther Benson Singing: Music Entertainment Gold 77. Eva Herbertson Piano Gold 78. Grade 6 Marimba Band Percussion Gold 79. Helen Basson Piano Gold

13 80. Jemma Boettger Flute Gold 81. Joani Frehse Singing: Music Entertainment Gold 82. Joani Frehse Singing: Music Entertainment Gold 83. Lesley-Anne van der Linden Singing Gold 84. Lukas Ochsenbein Flute Gold 85. Milan Williams Flute Gold 86. Milan Williams Flute Gold 87. Orchestra Orchestra Gold 88. Reece Hugo Clarinet Gold 89. Rowan Curtin Piano Gold 90. Ryleigh Caldecott Violin Gold 91. Somerset House Grade 6 Vocal Quartet Singing: Music Entertainment Gold 92. String ensemble String Ensemble Gold 93. Tishal Prag Violin Gold 94. Woodwind Ensemble Flute, Clarinet & Recorder Gold 95. Aidan Sanders & Benjamin Cox Flute Silver Plus 96. Aidan Herbertson Piano Silver plus 97. Alexander Diesel Singing Silver Plus 98. Amee de Winnaar Singing Silver Plus 99. Amee de Winnaar Singing Silver Plus 100. Bethanie George Violin Silver Plus 101. Chiara da Costa Piano Silver Plus 102. Chiara da Costa Flute Silver Plus 103. Gerrard Polo Singing Silver Plus 104. Grace Boustead Piano Silver Plus 105. Hanna Keet Piano Silver Plus 106. Isabella Herbertson Piano Silver plus 107. Isabella Herbertson Piano Silver plus 108. Jada Ward Piano Silver Plus 109. Reece Hugo Clarinet Silver Plus 110. Shae Hobson Violin Silver Plus 111. Aidan Herbertson Piano Silver 112. Gerrard Polo Singing Silver 113. Somerset House Grade 4 Vocal Quartet Singing: Music Entertainment Silver 114. Wyatt Te Boekhorst Violin Silver Trinity College of London External Music Exam Results A huge congratulations to the following children who completed their Trinity College of London External Music Exams during August. The examiners are sent from the UK and conduct examinations across the Globe: Candidate Name Examination Level Score Grading (Passed with ) Darrsh Govender Grade 2 Piano 87% Distinction Sarah Oscroft Grade 1 Recorder 91% Distinction Kate Allwood Grade 1 Piano 89% Distinction Aidan Hughes Grade 2 Piano 83% Merit Chiara da Costa Grade 1 Flute 84% Merit Neil Human Grade 3 Piano 88% Distinction Zara Hingeston Grade 2 Piano 82% Merit

14 Outstanding Achievements! We received fantastic news from the Helderberg Eisteddfod organisers! Congratulations to the Senior Marimba Band for their achievement in the HB Eisteddfod: Senior phase: Best achievement - Ensemble Somerset House Senior Marimba Band. Well done to Mrs Frehse! Congratulations on the following winners at the Helderberg Eisteddfod: Aidan Sanders is awarded the Certificate for Best Achievement 11 years in the Woodwind Section. Aidan plays the flute. Daniel Leysens and Sebastian Scrace were awarded the Certificate for Best Achievement for a Duet - (Intermediate Phase) in the Woodwind Section. Daniel plays the flute and Sebastian the clarinet. Congratulations to the boys and their teachers, Mrs de Kock and Mrs van Wyk. During the Eisteddfod' s Speech and Drama Prize Winners Concert on Sunday, Lesley-Anne van der Linden received the following awards: Special Certificate for Best Achievement Grade 4 (Poetry 98%); Medal for Single Highest % in Intermediate Phase (Poetry 98%) and the trophy for learner with highest average in intermediate phase (Poetry and Dramatised Prose 97% average). Lesley-Anne is also the category winner in her age group for Singing in the Musical Performance section. Congratulations, Lesley-Anne - you have done us proud! Water Usage?

15 Sunflower Fund Buy a Tope! Sunflower Day is all about rallying support for individuals diagnosed with life-threatening blood diseases like leukemia. Sunflower Day (21 September) is on the South African Health Awareness Calendar for The Sunflower Day campaign is about our heroes that choose to take an action: buying a TOPE or registering as blood stem cell donors to give the hope of life to our patients. TOPES areo on sale and can be bought from Pick n Pay, Zando, and the Independent Community Pharmacy Association (ICPA). A TOPE is an affordable, multipurpose article of clothing retailing at R30, and can be worn as a headband, mask, scarf, cap or armband. Being broadly versatile, it may be used in a wide variety of sports or outdoor activities and will be available in six eye-catching colours. The TOPE offers practical functionality for the entire family and also gives wearers the opportunity to show their support for this important cause. We encourage all Somerset House pupils to buy a TOPE and wear it proudly to school on 21 September! Keep filling your Eco-Bricks!

16 Creating Awareness about Plastic Well done to everyone who has brought in an EcoBrick. We currently have 36 Ecobricks in Knowledge Centre and I m aware of many that are in the process of being made. Once we finish the project we will be donating our Ecobricks to an NGO. Classrooms and houses are being built from Ecobricks so this is for a worthy cause. Please consider making a difference in this way and in doing so we are also protecting our environment. Two of our students have proactively taken up the challenge to create awareness of the dangers of plastic landing up in our oceans. Please read their stories below: Shae Hobson Floating Jellyfish I was inspired to make this floating jellyfish by my teacher, Mrs Cocks. We have been encouraged to make Eco-bricks and have been learning about plastic pollution. You probably all know that turtles eat plastic that is just floating around in the sea. I made an experiment to see exactly why this happens and it is because it is very difficult to see the difference in water between clear plastic and a jellyfish. Please don t pollute, if you want our sea friends survive. Kayla Geldenhuys Reuse your plastic When I saw this plastic placemat, I thought it was a good idea to share with everyone as I really want to save the planet from plastic. All you need is some thin wooden sticks, plastic chip packets, glue and patience. It is a helpful and useful way to reuse plastic and prevent it from ending up in the ocean.

17 Grade 4 Maths Below are some pictures showing collaboration and measuring skills. Students worked together in pairs to complete a Living Maths practise paper and had fun measuring objects in and around their classroom.

18 Congratulations! Congratulations to the Kotzé family on the birth of Dirk Kotzé - born on 26 August at 15h28. He made an early entrance at 34 weeks 4 days but is doing well, weighing 2.644, and being looked after in the NICU. Art News Over the last term and a half, the Junior Primary Art Club have been making a huge wreath made from cardboard and egg boxes. The children cut hundreds of flowers in all shapes and sizes and glued them closely together. They all walked together in clockwise circles painting the colourful wreath, making sure that they spread the colours out and did not paint each other in the process. On Wednesday they put the finishing touches on by gluing on sparkly sequins. The Children have been so excited to show it off and we finally hoisted it onto the Simpson hall pin board just in time for our Grand Persons Day! I m sure we will leave it up for a long time, so please pop in to have a look

19 Grade 1 Show and Tell There was much excitement in Grade 1 this morning as the children came to school with posters, pictures and cue cards in preparation for their first Oral presentation on a Sea Creature.

20 Collaboration, Creativity, Critical Thinking, Communication Look at our Collaboration, Creativity, Critical Thinking and Communication Skills in the Owl Class! These Grade R boys really had to use 21 st Century Learning skills to complete this incredible tower a task they undertook on their own, using PLANX in their free play time! Well done boys, you worked so well as a team and accomplished your goal!

21 Grade 5 This week the grade 5s have started with measurement and enjoyed getting outside for Maths.

22 Grade 4 Technology This term the Grade 4s have been working hard on their musical instruments. They needed to create a musical instrument using recyclable materials.

23 Sports News WESTERN CAPE CROSS COUNTRY TRIALS Congratulations to Zenade October who competed at the Western Cape Cross Country Trials in Paarl last weekend. The top athletes from Western Province, Boland and South Western Districts (George / Knysna) competed at this event. Zenade had a super race and came 3 rd overall over the 4km race. She will now represent the Western Cape Team to compete at the SA National Championships in Bloemfontein from 27 th 29 th September. Congratulations Zenade, we are so proud of you! KENRIDGE HOCKEY TOURNAMENT On the 25 th August, we travelled through to play on Kenridge s new astro-turf. It was a cold and wet morning, however we did not let the weather dampen our spirits. We played against Rhenish and won 1 0. Next, we played against Bastion and strung some excellent passes together to win 2 0. We then played against the hosts, Kenridge. The boys had decided to change our formation, which caused a little bit of confusion for some of our players and allowed Kenridge to score an early goal. We changed back to our formation and held the rest of the match to lose 1 0. Finally, we played against Bridge House. A good game to finish on as some players tried a new position this season and we won 1 0. Well done for finishing in second position boys a well-deserved silver medal! Congratulations Sebastian for being awarded the sportsmanship trophy in our team. Congratulations to Mr Angus and his team, a wonderful way to end off their hockey season.

24 NETBALL VS MOMS & DADS Thank you so much to all our moms and dads who joined us for our annual netball matches on Wednesday afternoon. We do understand that it is not always possible for parents to take time off from work to join us for this event, however, we had a great turn out so thank you. This event is always a highlight for our girls. In the junior matches, our parents were well controlled and allowed our girls to take control, however, in the more senior age groups, our parents had to bring out all their skills to match our girls, this was very entertaining. Well done and thank you for joining us.

25 WESTERN PROVINCE TOP SCHOOLS HOCKEY TOURNAMENT We would like to wish our Girls 1 st Hockey Team the very best of luck as they compete as one of the Top 10 schools in the Western Province this afternoon and evening at the WP Top Schools Tournament which takes place at Hartleyvale Stadium from 15:00 21:30. Participating schools include Kenridge, Herschel, Micklefield, Bastion, Eversdal, Wynberg, Durbanville, Beaumont, De Hoop and Somerset House. Good Luck to the following girls: Chiara da Costa, Zara Hingeston, Tara O Malley, Helen Basson, Jemma Boettger and Suzy Whall (Captains), Amber Mendes, Julia Brown, Esther Benson, Emilie Smit, Frances Downes, Anna Downing, Anna-Rose George and Zenade October (Absent). Imagine Believe Achieve!

26 INTER-HOUSE NETBALL Our Grade 6 and 7 girls had the opportunity to play their Inter-House Netball matches indoors on Monday afternoon as they start writing their exams next week. Unfortunately, due to the weather, the Grade 1 5 matches had to be postponed. Please see the Amended Sports Programme for new dates for these events. The seniors combined their teams due to numbers and matches were again closely contested. Congratulations to Peregrine for winning on 10 points, Lanner 2 nd with 5 points and Hobby 3 rd. These matches were followed by the staff vs Grade 7s. It was great having some male staff members adding some speed and excitement to the game. The Grade 7s put up a brave fight and just narrowly lost this exciting encounter. Well done to all involved.

27 INTER-HOUSE HOCKEY Our Inter-House Hockey matches took place on Tuesday afternoon. The fields were decorated in red, blue and yellow as the children represented their houses, Lanner, Peregrine and Hobby. Matches were closely contested with some being very competitive as you can imagine. Congratulations to Lanner, who won with 77 points, followed by Peregrine on 63 and Hobby on 59. These matches were followed by the Staff vs Grade 7s on the astro. Our talented Grade 7s forced our staff to bring out their best game and the matches were pretty competitive. Special thanks to the staff and students who gave up time to ensure that our Grade 7s had a fun-filled afternoon.

28 RUGBY VS SOMERSET COLLEGE: WEDNESDAY AUGUST 29 TH AUGUST On Wednesday our boys played against Somerset College. Our results as follows: Team SH Opposition Result Stand out performers U7 Stormers 5 5 Drew Tiago U8 Stormers 5 0 won Jonty Coolen U9 Stormers won Kai Thompson Warthogs lost Zac Crossley 1XV 7 38 lost Grade 7 s 7S TOURNAMENT AT FISH HOEK PRIMARY On Wednesday our U11s played in the Fish Hoek Primary 7 a side tournament. All games were very tough, but our boys played extremely well. Results were as follows: vs WPPS - lost vs Wynberg - lost vs Reddam - lost vs Masi - won SPORT FOR NEXT FEW WEEKS Please see the Amended Sports Programme for the final weeks of the term. We have come to the end of our Winter Sports Programme and we like to use this time to change things up a little bit and also to allow preparation time for our Gr 5-7s who are writing tests and exams. We wish them all the very best of luck! Think before you ink! PLEASE RETURN ALL TROPHIES We would like to start making arrangements for all our up and coming prize-givings. Please return all trophies by next Friday 7th September. This includes sport, cultural and academic trophies. Thanks very much!

29 Week 8: Week ending 8 th September 2018 DATE TIME ACTIVITY Mon 3 September Tues 4 September Wed 5 September Thurs 6 September Fri 7 September Sat 8 September Amended Sports Timetable - Please see Website / Notice Boards for Details Grade 5 - No Sport Grade 6 & 7 (See Amended Programme for Sport Sessions) Grade 5 Test Week Grade 6 and 7 Exams Oakwood Spring Outreach Guild Special General Meeting Grade 1 Outing to Aquarium Grade 5 Test Week Grade 6 and 7 Exams Board Meeting Grade 5 Test Week Grade 6 and 7 Exams Chess vs Somerset West Primary (Away)