CHESTERHOUSE The Call of the Gryphon 24 October 2014

CHESTERHOUSE
INTERNATIONAL, INDEPENDENT,
EDUCATION
The Call of the Gryphon
24 October 2014
No: 031/2014
FROM THE HEADMASTER.............
Dear Parents,
My message last week reflected on differing education approaches and I promised parents
who wrote to me that I would continue the conversation on this topic in this week’s
newsletter.
At Chesterhouse, we all firmly believe in child centred education and the many positive
consequences it has for our children emotionally, socially, academically and the fact that
they feel honoured for the individuals that they are. This is firmly entrenched in our ethos
and our vision statement and is the most important value that we must cherish as a school
community. We are a school that caters for all children and we value inclusive education,
Justin Harvey
coupled with a curriculum that wants the child to question, interrogate and have an opinion.
HEADMASTER
It is the guidance of our teaching staff that ensures that children form opinions based on
research, reading and a natural inquisitiveness. This will stand them in good stead in their futures, whatever these
may be.
We firmly stand by this and encourage our parents to remind us of this and ensure that this is delivered to all your
children always. As a school community we must reflect on this often and keep beating this drum. It is vital feedback
for us as school staff and for the children to always feel that they really do count.
In our environment we celebrate many achievements and this week in particular I celebrate the Grade 3 children
who have gone on their first ever school camp, away from their home, mom and dad and have stayed over for one
night. As they excitedly got onto their big bus yesterday, their faces were lit up, so looking forward to their adventure.
We can’t wait to see them when they return and we encourage you to let them tell you all about their first big camp. It
is vital that children learn independence in a positive manner and that our teachers can have the experience of
getting to know their children in a “non-school” environment. Getting away from the classroom and the playing field is
part of the vital connection we make with our Chesterhouse children. I thank our Grade 3 teachers and Mr Arendse
for their support and participation in this.
Likewise, our outgoing matrics must be celebrated. This week more exams took place, some of these the Science
subjects practicals, conducted in our Physics and Biology labs. They have been at this business of school for over
12 years and although their futures await them and the excitement is evident, it is a new era in their lives, one that
can bring with it a little anxiety. Please support them and if we can still play a positive role in this, please let me
know.
In this vein, I congratulate a number of matrics who have heard from the universities that they have been given
Conditional and Provisional Entrances; all that remains is their final matric score. So well deserved and we are so
proud of them. We are proud too of those pupils who are not sure as to what they would like to pursue when they
finish school and we admire their courage and wisdom at choosing to take a year to explore other activities, than
tertiary education.
Have a wonderful weekend
Courage Inspires
Justin Harvey
HEADMASTER
2014 TERM DATES
Term 4
Monday 6 October – Friday 5 December
Page 1
FROM THE COLLEGE………
Dear Parents and Guardians
We would like to wish all our Hindu and Sikh families and employees a joyous
Diwali. It is good to celebrate light at this time when so often the news is dominated
by troubling events.
With only two weeks of instruction left before the College enters the November
examinations, many of us are thinking about the end of 2014 and we are starting to
plan for 2015. Our school’s 2015 draft calendar is on the website. There are two
Estelle Snyders
things we would like to draw your attention to, however. The first is that there has
Head of College
been a change since the original draft was published, namely that the fourth term
will start on 5 October, not 12 October as originally published. The other dates to
note are that, unlike many other schools, we have a school holiday from 27 April to1 May. This has become
tradition because of regular sports tournaments that are hosted during that week. On the other hand, we
will not be making use of a school holiday on 15 June.
This coming week will be the last full week of tests for many pupils. We encourage all the pupils to view all
tests as an integral part of their examination preparation. AS pupils in particular need to realise that the
tests they are writing at the moment are an excellent indication of how well they have mastered their work
this term.
This examination all College pupils will enjoy examination privileges. This means that each family can
decide whether they would like their children to study at school or at home. Children who prefer to study at
school will be accommodated in supervised study venues where they will be able to settle down to their
studies in a quiet venue. Pupils who prefer to study at home will be at liberty to do so. The morning session
starts at 08:00 and finishes at 10:30; the second session runs from 11:00 to 13:30. The Homework Centre
operates as per usual and pupils will be supervised from 14:00 to 18:00. Each pupil has received a printed
copy of the examination timetable.
We would also like to remind our AS pupils about the importance of these examinations because these will
be the first AS results that they will be submitting to tertiary institutions.
We finish off this week by offering some more practical advice:
•
Have a quiet, ordered place where your child can do his or her homework and study – a bed is not
such a place.
•
Provide ample exercise books, exam pads and scrap paper for studying.
•
Ensure that there are physical dictionaries for the languages your child studies, as well as an atlas,
available. Electronic versions of the above invite digression into non-academic activities. Once that
cell phone or computer has been switched on, social media are just a click away.
•
Limit the use of electronic equipment. Not only does it distract your child, the brain responds
differently to viewing and game-playing than to studying.
•
The eve of the exam is not the time to search for electronic sources to explain some aspect of the
work.
•
Encourage moderate physical exercise. Three hours of soccer is as distracting as three hours of
game-paying, despite the physical benefits of exercise.
We wish all our families a fruitful week
Estelle Snyders
2015 TERM DATES
TERM
PERIOD
Term 1
Wednesday 14 January – Friday 27 March
School holiday – 27 February
Monday 13 April – Friday 26 June
School and/or public holiday for all pupils
-27 April to 1 May and 16 June
Tuesday 21 July – Wednesday 23 September
public holiday – 10 August
Monday 5 October – Friday 4 December
Term 2
Term 3
Term 4
Page 2
Bronwen Stewart
Head of
Academics
Junior School
Lieze Puren
Head of Pastoral
Affairs
Junior School
From the Junior School…..
It’s time to go exploring….
On a rather misty Thursday morning, a group of very excited children and teachers boarded a bus and began their
adventure. Grade 3, our intrepid explorers, are having a wonderful time on their camp and we look forward to
welcoming them back later today. Please look out for the article in next week’s newsletter and the photos!
This week has flown by and we have enjoyed the more summery weather tremendously at break times. Please can
we remind you that ALL children, from Nursery to Grade 7, must wear a cap when in the sun. We realise that caps go
missing very easily and we have been searching for some this week. It really helps us, if your child’s name is clearly
marked on the cap and if you could check your child has the correct cap, when they come home. We must say, our
Grade 1’s seem to have mastered this. Each time they take an item of clothing off, they put it in their bags
immediately, we encourage all our children to do this too.
Next Thursday and Friday, marks the beginning of our Prize giving season, with Grades 4 -7 on Thursday morning at
08:00 and Grades 1-3 on Friday. This means that we will not have our usual singing and Assembly (with Madibatjies
or medals) slots. We look forward to celebrating all our cultural achievements with our children next week.
We also have the first of our two Ensemble concerts next week, Thursday evening. Our musical children will all be
performing music that they have spent many long hours in mastering. We can’t wait, please come and join us.
Finally, just a few important things to note:
•
The last week of term, 1st December – 5th December, the whole school will be finishing at 1pm. We will still
provide our aftercare and homework centre services and for those children who can’t be fetched until 2pm, we
will have staff available to supervise.
•
Exams for Grade 6 and 7 start on the 10th November. We know they are already preparing for these and we
want the children to know we areLOST
thinkingPROPERTY
of them at thisLOST
busyPROPERTY
time. We have every faith in you.
•
A final reminder please, if you haven’t already signed up, please do, for the Sensory Intelligence workshop
next Friday afternoon.
A very happy Diwali to all our children and parents who are celebrating this festival. Have a wonderful and restful
weekend to you all.
Thank you, as always for your support and feedback, you are helping us to ensure that we provide the best schooling
for your children.
Lieze and Bronwen
CHESTERHOUSE CONTACT DETAILS
Phone: 021-975 6650 Fax: 021-975 6649
Email: infosenior@chesterhouse.co.za or infojunior@chesterhouse.co.za
Webpage: www.chesterhouse.co.za
Cnr. Mosselbank River & Falcon Streets, D’Urbanvale Estate,
Durbanville 7550
Newsletter comments to: n.lagrange@chesterhouse.co.za
Page 3
Grade 1 Fun Evening
On Friday 17th October the Grade 1 children returned to school at 5pm to embark upon an evening of fun and
games. Parents were requested not to accompany their children inside but rather to use the Stop and Drop facility
because, besides the fun element, the evening aimed at fostering a greater sense of independence which in turn
develops self-esteem and motivation.
The enthusiastic Grade 1s were met by their teachers and were able to play on the field while all the children arrived.
The College prefects were also busy setting up five activity stations, which included a three-legged balloon race, pass
the parcel, finding smarties in flour, the ‘Chocolate Eating Game’ and an egg and spoon race. Some of the activities
required the children to work as a cohesive group or with a partner to achieve a goal. The Grade 1s were able to
experience the benefits of teamwork and the importance of good communication. Much fun was had by all, especially
as they were also able to throw water balloons at each other on the warm Spring evening! Thank you very much to
the prefects for their excellent organisation of such engaging activities!
After expending their energy, the children devoured hot dogs and then topped the meal off with jelly and custard.
There is no denying that the evening was a great success. A huge thank you to Marisa von Wielligh for helping to
organise the food, to Wilna Fourie and Villene van Schalkwyk for taking awesome photos and to Lieze Swart for her
support on the evening. One little girl echoed these sentiments by saying, “I had so much fun. I wish that we could
rewind it back to the very beginning!”
Marjo, Kylee and Louise
Grade 1 Teachers
DELF EXAM
Nicholas Bowers (Grade 5) sat for a DELF exam during October 2014 and achieved
91%. DELF is an internationally recognised official qualification to certify competencies
of non-French native speakers in the French language. The exams evaluate skills in
listening, reading, writing and speaking. DELF exams are held twice a year at Alliance
Française in Cape Town.
Natasha Bowers
Mum
Page 4
We have our Ensemble Concerts coming up.
Thursday, 30 October : Grade 4 - 7. ALL the children in the CMS in Grade 4 - 7 will be ON STAGE performing in
ensembles (small music groups).
Short Concert : 18:30 - 19:30
This is a wonderful opportunity for our CMS children to showcase their talent and hard work. All children and parents
are welcome to join us for this very special evening. The performers should please be in school uniform.
Director of Music
Sujana van der Merwe (“Miss Music”)
CHESTERHOUSE ARTIST OF THE WEEK
Rebecca Bibergal
Grade 9
Page 5
Cricket
U15 match Chesterhouse U15 vs Brackenfell U15 (at Brackenfell) Sat 18.10.14
Chesterhouse 140/7
Drew Carstens (Grade 9) 100 not out.
Brackenfell won
The Chesterhouse U15 team travelled to Brackenfell on Saturday. We won the toss and elected to bat. After 2 early
wickets, Drew Cartens came to the crease and built our entire innings with an absolutely brilliant 100 not out. We
ended on 140 for 7
Brackenfell then went in to bat, and although we were looking good at lunch (they needed 74 to win in the final 13
overs) we never managed to keep the pressure on and a few drop catches made life difficult for us. Brackenfell
scored the final runs with 2 overs to spare.
Coach Bobby
U15 Cricket
U19 match Chesterhouse U19 vs Durbanville U19 (at Chesterhouse) Sat 18.10.14
Durbanville 288/9 (40 overs)
Emce vd Walt 112, Linel van Niekerk 85
André Jooste (Grade 12) 3-48, Matthew Valentine (Grade 10) 2-28
Chesterhouse 166/5 (40 overs)
Angelo Yiatses (Grade 10) 55, Dean Bruintjies (Grade 11) 39
Durbanville won by 122 runs
Chesterhouse had Durbanville in early trouble at 14/4, however dropped catches and poor fielding let the advantage
slip and allowed Durbanville to amass a formidable score. The best that Chesterhouse could do was stay competitive
by batting out the overs to reach 166/5. Chesterhouse with a very young team (without most of our Grade12 players
who have exam priorities) showed plenty of fighting spirit throughout the match, specifically in batting out their overs
with only 5 wickets down against a powerful Durbanville bowling attack.
Sonya Adams
Head of Sports
Dressage Show
Sarah Robinson (Grade 1) came second in her first dressage show. She
was the youngest by four years competing in a competition for young
riders riding experienced horses and adults riding novice horses. She
scored 2nd overall, riding Snappy (Snapshot).
Kim Robinson
Mum
Page 6
Western Province colours Biathle
Joshua Scott (Grade 6) and Aimee Scott (Grade5) have both received not only Western Province colours but also
Western Cape Colours (Western Cape includes Western Province / Boland / South Western Districts & Northern
Cape) for Modern Pentathlon Biathle (this is a continuous run/swim/run with transition) which is a great achievement.
Aimee was also awarded two trophies for Best Junior Female Athlete for results achieved in Western Province
Biathle Championships Western Cape Biathle Championships and South African Biathle Championships
Aimee is hoping to go to World Championships next year in Russia!
Eunice Scott
Mum
Parent Prayer group
We would like to invite parents to join us in praying for Chesterhouse on Friday 7th November @ 7am in the school
Library.
“I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for
anything in my name, and I will do it.”
John 14: 13-14
We look forward to seeing you there.
Nikki Carstens
classreps@chesterhouse.co.za
The 2nd hand store
The 2nd Hand Store will be open on Fridays from 12 till 2.30pm.
All stock can be viewed on the website at
http://www.chesterhouse.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2nd-hand-stock-list.xls
We would appreciate any donations of school clothing which are no longer
needed. Your donations can benefit other parents as they will pay a fraction
of the cost for the clothing. Please leave your donations with either of the
secretaries.
With your assistance we can make the
2nd Hand Store a great success.
Michele Heinrich
2nd Hand Store/Lost property
Email: secondhandshop@chesterhouse.co.za
Page 7
Page 8
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Page 9
Chesterhouse Detailed Calendar
Term 4 2014
Date
Junior School
College
Page 10
Page 11
Chesterhouse Detailed Calendar
Term 4 2014
Date
Junior School
College
Page 12