SRC 2023
The Student Representative Council (SRC) of 2022 was one of Blouberg’s smallest SRCs. Yet what was lacking in size was made up for in willingness and determination. Led by Kazimla Dyakalashe and supported by a strong Matric class, they led and excelled in every task assigned to them. Not once did they tell us that something could not be done. Thank you, SRC 2022, for your dedication in serving your school. You have set the bar high for the new SRC.
A bigger class than that of 2022, the SRC of 2023 comprises of eight students. Our congratulations go to Oscar Berger, Shaylee Brandt, Philade Luthango, Landelwa Maqanda, Nadia Mohamed, Daniel Moodie, Chidozie Muoka and Erin Stewart on their selection for this important role.
2023 will see the implementation of some notable changes to student leadership in the school, including greater involvement of the Student Leaders and the introduction of cheerleaders. The SRC will be involved in many of these changes. They will also attend workshops, many of which will be designed to help them develop their leadership skills.
We look forward to watching our SRC grow in the year ahead, as well as to all they will help develop and initiate at the school.
Sheila Marais
SRC Coordinator
Top Row Left to Right: Oscar Berger, Shaylee Brandt, Philade Luthango, Landelwa Maqanda Bottom Row Left to Right: Nadia Mohamed, Daniel Moodie, Chidozie Muoka and Erin Stewart
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Convincing Careers
Year 5s started with a new topic in Global Perspectives for Term 4, called Will a Robot Do My Job?
Students had to identify the career that they would most like to pursue as an adult, giving reasons for their choice. They had to use a KWL chart to help them think about the career they have chosen:
- K – They started by completing the “What I know” column with any information that they already have about their chosen career (for example: the skills and knowledge they think are needed to do the job, and any qualities that are required).
- W – Students then completed the “‘What I want to find out’ column with any questions about their chosen job that they want to find the answers to. They shared their questions with other students in groups, and discussed where they might be able to find the answers.
- L – We will research these questions during the next lesson and complete the “What I’ve learned” column.
As we continue with this unit, the students will also have to come up with convincing arguments as to why or why not a robot will be able to take over their job one day.
“The only way to do great work is to LOVE what you do.” – Steve Jobs
Take a look at the exciting careers some of our students would like to pursue one day!
Ria du Plessis
Year 5 Coordinator
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Live Sketching in Arts and Craft Club
“Art has the role in education for helping children to become more like themselves instead of more like everyone else. “ – Sydney Gurewitz Clemens
The Year 1 and Year 2 students in the Arts and Craft club thoroughly enjoyed a quiet lesson on Monday, completing a live sketch of a plant. They had the choice between an orchid and a bonsai tree. This took a lot of concentration and visual analysis of the different parts of a plants structure which the Year 1 students mastered in Term 3.
A live sketch is also known as a life drawing which is the drawing of an object through observation. We found this form of art something new and different for the students to try which completely blew the teachers away by the interest, concentration and beautiful sketches that were completed.
We found this form of sketching encourages students to make use of visual analysis, a lot of concentration, aids in creative problem solving and helps hand-eye coordination as well as fine motor skills.
We are grateful to have such talented students in our Arts and Craft club and look forward to watching them continue to grow more skills over this last term.
“The arts can help students become tenacious, team orientated problem solvers who are confident and able to think creatively.”- Arne Duncan
Erin Hierse
Year 1 Teacher
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Holiday News in Reception Year
The students have come back from the term 3 break and were brimming with excitement to share all the interesting things they had done in the holiday. These are the most memorable things they did:
Sofia Haskins (6 yrs old): “I went to a sleepover with my friend.”
Omime Ogumah (6 yrs old): “I went to the braai and pool.”
Nikraad Manoucheri (5 yrs old): “I went to the dentist.”
Rume Oriesa (6 yrs old): “I went to the zoo.”
Chaitrika Kotari (6 yrs old): “I went to the pool.”
Kaedy Frey (5 yrs old): “I went to my granny’s house.”
Grayson Muller (5 yrs old): “I went to the dolphin show.”
Tiwatope Olanrewaju (5 yrs old): “I went to the braai shop.”
Zion Durojaiye (5 yrs old): “I went to the beach.”
Ariah Mukubvu (5 yrs old):” I went to the park.”
Amelia Engelbrecht (5 yrs old): “I went for a walk with my dog.”
Joshua Mpako (6 yrs old): “I went to shop.”
Chiamaka Davidson (6 yrs old): I went to the pool.”
Jonah Atson (5 yrs old): “I went to my cousin’s house.”
Bronwen Nuthall
Reception Year Teacher
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Just keep swimming, just keep swimming…
This week we learnt all about different sea animals. How some live in the ocean and others can live both in the sea and on land. The students loved learning more about the sea: who doesn’t love sharks and jellyfish!
We did the following hands on learning activities this week:
Numeracy: The students had to find different numbered shells in the sand to complete the number line.
Literacy: The students wrote their names and sounds in the sand with the shells, this activity strengthens their pencil grip.
Fine motor activity: The students enjoyed building and creating ocean sculptures while developing their problem solving, fine motor and social skills at the playdough area.
Construction area: We have added boats, ocean animals, shells and gems to our construction area. The students were very excited to build something new, which will extend their thinking as they build something different than they usually do.
Arts and crafts: The students made lovely crafts this week practising and developing their scissor and fine motor skills.
Music and Movement: The students shake out the sillies by copying the actions of the ocean animals. They had to “wobble like a jellyfish”, “clap like a seal”, “slide like a sea snail” and “leap like a dolphin “ .
Sensory Area: We created an underwater sensory bin filled with water beads and sea creatures for some imaginative exploratory play.
We reminded the students to be safe when they go to the beach and follow the following rules:
- Wear a hat with a wide brim to shade your face and neck.
- Sunglasses can help to protect your eyes.
- Cover up with a t-shirt to protect your shoulders and upper arms.
- Always wear sun cream.
- Drink lots of water.
- Just swim where it is safe.
- Make sure you can swim NEVER swim alone and make sure you are always supervised by an adult at the beach.
We also encouraged the students to get involved in protecting the ocean by:
- Reduce and recycle.
- Joining a beach clean up.
- Asking shops and restaurants if they have plastic-free alternatives.
The students had a blast doing all of the activities.
Martie van Dyk
Pre-Reception Teacher
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Creating community in the Spanish class
Building community is one of the most important aspects in the Spanish class.
Personally, I have the feeling that I have failed in the past to build a more positive environment with certain year groups that would have improved the quality of my Spanish lessons and the learning experience of my students.
For that reason, my main objective for this last term and for the whole 2023 is to improve that relationship with my students, focusing on making genuine connections.
This aspect based on my experience is key to creating a better dynamic in the class, a class where the students can find a safe place with low levels of stress and zero anxiety.
My first step to achieve this goal will be to give them the opportunity during this last term of asking me questions in Spanish through an activity that I have called: Interviewing the Spanish teacher.
I think that by giving them certain details about my family, pets, travels, favourite things, and memorable moments will help me to build better connections with them.
Generating an excuse to start a conversation
Secondly, I am planning to have more conversations with the students about things and topics that interest them, of course they must be able to understand the message to start a conversation and the teacher must be the facilitator of the language acquisition.
Introduce more projects that interest them and topics that would like to talk about.
Some of the Term 4 projects:
Year 5 and 6 – Interviewing the teacher. Every student can ask me one question in Spanish.
Year 5 – This is me: the students are going to introduce themselves in groups of two having little conversations asking each other’s names, ages, nationalities, place of residence and grade.
Year 6 – Interviewing a classmate: Asking questions about his or her favourite food, music and sport.
Other little thing on my list that helps to connect and establish better relationships with them:
· What would my students like to be called? Are they using other names rather than the ones on your class list?
· How much do I know about them? Hobbies; sports that they practice; siblings…
Learning about each other
The students can also learn about each other to create bonds with other classmates over common interest they may not have discovered yet
From little conversations to great conversations
Engage them in a follow-up conversation, simplest way is by using WHY? so, they can express themselves further.
Making learning fun, useful and interactive
In this article’s featured photographs you will find some special moments of the Year 5 and 6 students performing their role-play activities: At the restaurant and at the clothing shop.
At the end of each role-play, the group has been asking questions in Spanish to their classmates about their stories promoting their interaction.
I look forward to a wonderful term of building a strong community in the Spanish class.
Javier Vidal
Spanish Teacher Primary School
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Welcome back to school!
There was much excitement in the Year 2 classes as they returned to school this week! Watching the different facial expressions as they walked into class, one could definitely see that, most of them were very happy to be back.
Within the first hour, however, questions like: When is it break? Can we eat yet? Do we have to do more work? Or statements like I’m tired, made me realise that it was going to take a while for the students to get back into their normal routine.
When asked what they missed about school, answers like, break time, playing with my friends, free time in class, or we missed you, were quite openly shared. Obviously school work did not rank high in the popularity poll!
However, given a few days to settle in, the students were soon eager and ready to start learning again. I was reminded that, especially, with younger children, their minds absorb information like sponges.
As we enter the final term of 2022, one looks back at the beginning of the year and appreciates just how much they have grown, academically, emotionally and socially.
Kim Coetzer
Year 2 Teacher
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From the German Classroom
In German, the Year 4 students have been learning vocabulary related to items that we use daily and that one can buy at the shops. They then learnt simple sentences related to going shopping and asking for that specific item.
Role-playing is the perfect way to put the learning into practice. This enhances the students’ speaking skills to make the foreign language meaningful and useful in conversation. It improves the students’ communication skills in learning a new language, and then in turn develops their interaction with one another. This also strengthens social skills including student collaboration. Role-play gives students the opportunity to experience real world/life scenarios in the classroom and learn from each other.
We first watched a short video showcasing Year 4 students from a school in Germany, who role play going on a shopping trip using the same vocabulary and sentences that the students had learnt.
This gave the students some inspiration to work on their own role-plays. They were then divided into small groups to plan and practice their own shopping trip. They chose the roles of either a shopkeeper/assistant or the person shopping and selected the items they wanted to purchase using some props in my classroom. Then the students were given the opportunity to present their role-plays.
The students were really motivated and had a lot of fun acting out the conversations and were able to put what they had learnt in theory into practice.
Looking forward to many more.
Frau K. Pani
Primary School German Teacher
https://www.niu.edu/citl/resources/guides/instructional-guide/role-playing.shtml
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Year 6 – Term 3 At a Glance
Our year 6 students enjoyed an exciting and adventurous term. Throughout the term, the students broadened their knowledge by learning about fractions, circuits, ecosystems and more. They developed insight into the educational struggles of others around the world through the inspirational story of Malala and got a taste of entrepreneurship by designing and creating products from sustainable materials.
During our insightful skills periods, the students became aware of good online conduct and how to use social media in a positive manner.
As the year 6 students will become the leaders of tomorrow, they went on camp at Bonamanzi. Not only did they learn to become independent, but also discovered which qualities are vital to be a good and influential leader.
Tired does not even begin to explain how they felt after they returned from camp. They went river rafting, created flags, competed in various group activities and went night walking, where they discovered scorpions, as well as the importance of covering your legs to avoid pesky ticks. Snacking was of utmost importance – who knew that 11-year-old students could eat so much!
The students also came into personal contact with the wild side of camping, with mosquitoes that must’ve originated in the Jurassic era, big and sneaky, causing them to all return home, looking like they might have the plague – they definitely would’ve made quite an impact on dot day! Poor Miss Nel injured her foot while running, having to hop along after the students as they ventured out and about.
Ending the term on a high note, the students hosted their very first student led conference. During this conference, the students chose which work they were most proud of during the term and presented it to their parents themselves. They were able to explain to their parents what they had learnt during the term, as well as how they improved and what they found interesting. Both the students and the parents thoroughly enjoyed this special bonding time together.
As another term ends, the year 6 students will definitely be able to tick off a few things from their bucket lists – yes, pun intended.
Rochelle Oosthuizen
Year 6 Teacher
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Adventures In Space
In English this week in Year 1. we have been working on our creative writing skills as we dramatised stories of our adventures in Space. Turning our desks upside down in class, we pretended they were our ‘spaceships.’ The students worked in groups and had a lot of fun acting and narrating out their space adventure stories. We then used the ipads to video their stories before writing about them. The class has a lot of fun working together and creating their own space adventures!
Clara Chassungo wrote: “I am going to space, I’m taking my brother, Geraldo and am also taking my mum and dad. We are going to look at all the different planets and we are landing on the moon! We will land at 3 o’ clock in the morning and we see aliens and footprints. We will jump in the sky…”
Buhle Sibiya writes: “ I am going to space so I can see the 8 planets in the galaxy and I am taking Ozzie, she is my friend. We landed on the moon and we saw aliens and we are going to land…”
Charlotte Cronje
Year 1 Teacher
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