End Of Term News
I think we can all agree that this term has flown by, and I can’t quite believe that we are already halfway through the year. It has been a busy term with prelim examinations, internal June Examinations and external Cambridge Examinations taking place.
Term 2 reports will be available on Engage on Friday, 25 June 2021. A letter was sent out on Engage explaining how to access your child`s report. If you experience any problems please contact Ms Trindade Camara on 021 557 9071 or at trindade.camara@iesmail.com.
I also want to congratulate our Interact Club on a successful clothing project. Yesterday they delivered 38 bags of clothing to Home of Hope. A special thank you to the parents who donated clothing and other items.
As a staff would like to thank each and every parent for their support during the term and we look forward to working with you in Term 3.
Julian Harrison
Head of Academics High School
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Shadow Puppet Shows
This Term the Year 5’s explored shadows in Science.
Did you know…
“A shadow puppet uses a silhouette to represent the puppet. Long ago, people recorded their history by telling stories. This was before writing was invented. In ancient China and Indonesia, storytellers used shadow puppets to help tell stories. Each Village’s storyteller was known as a puppet master. When he put on a show the whole village would watch. He used his hands and even his feet to make a puppet move. He also added noise effects.”
Year 5NM delved excitedly into the task of planning and preparing their own shadow puppet shows. The students wrote play scripts filled with adventure and mystery. They creatively cut out silhouette characters and props for the setting of their stage. They used bed sheets as their screens and torches, headlamps and lampshades as their light source. It was a massive task of planning and rehearsing to get everything ready.
Storylines included tales of forests and challenges, camp adventures and under the sea mermaids. Careful thought went into the character design. Students were able to manipulate the size of the shadow by moving the silhouette characters closer or further away from their light source.
Lots of fun and excitement was had by all. Well done Year 5!
Nadia Mahomed
Year 5 Teacher
The Benefits Of Fairy Tales
Fairy Tales are essential stories for childhood. These stories are more than just happily ever after, they portray real moral lessons through characters shown in the stories.
Frequent exposure to Fairy Tales will benefit your child creatively, intelligently and emotionally:
Creative development:
- Imagination – Fairy Tales are examples of storytelling at its best and it is the most effective way to teach a story to all students.
- Diversity – You might find stories which are thoughtful, romantic and even action orientated.
- General Connection – Fairy Tales can bridge the generational gap between students and their grandparents by providing common stories for them to relate to.
Cognitive Expansion:
- Critical Thinking – The language of Fairy Tales is uncomplicated, it’s often easier for students to understand.
- Vocabulary – Students vocabulary grows with every story.
Emotional Development:
- Problem solving – Fairy Tales are often filled with non-examples for students to follow, but it is seeing these characters make poor choices that our students learn of better ways to handle problems.
We learned so much during the last two weeks. We also dressed up as fairy tale characters and pirates. Then we participated in a Treasure Hunt.
Martie van Dyk
Pre-Reception Teacher
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Our Values
The year 4’s have been inspired by the Eisteddfod Art competition. For the competition, their art needs to include the Nautilus of the Blouberg International School crest and the values of BIS:
Dedication
Excellence
Respect
Responsibility
Integrity
Stewardship
Leadership
The lesson was a great opportunity to discuss these values with the students and was thoroughly integrated with our Global Perspectives learning outcomes.
Learners also learned the skill of paper marbling, which linked to our Science lessons, where they learned about states of matter and density. It was so lovely to share the skill with the learners as it is a lesson that I remember doing when I was about 10 years old.
Many learners are still busy completing the project and we can’t wait to see their interpretation of it.
You can try it at home, but be careful as you need to use oil-based paint. See the following link.
Marlize Keyser
Year 4 Teacher
Learning About Frogs In Reception Year
We have been learning about frogs in Reception Year. The students were excited to find that frogs are amphibians and that they live on the land as well as in water. The students loved listening to a song that explains all about the frog life cycle.
See the link below:
https://youtu.be/wGIc7KitJCA
Did you know… an interesting fact about frogs is that although they breathe using their lungs, they can also take in some oxygen through their skin when swimming for longer periods. They are also able to smell better under water than on land.
The students were fascinated to see how a frog can catch its prey using its sticky tongue. We listened to the story of the Wide Mouthed Frog by Keith Faulkner and made a picture of a wide mouthed frog catching a bug on its tongue for art.
Bronwen Nuthall
Reception Year Teacher
Landscape Art
In Art, the Year 6’s have been working on creating their own landscape art pieces.
As a class, we looked at many different images of landscapes, including paintings and photographs. We discussed the following elements of landscape composition: background, foreground, horizon, the source of light, lines that lead the eye, natural features and manmade features.
The students then went on to creating their rough sketches of natural features from some of the paintings and photographs that we looked at. Once this was done, they looked at local landscapes in our beautiful city and sketched the different landscapes, paying close attention to detail.
The final push was picking one local landscape and creating their own variations of a local landscape, using various techniques that they learnt in Term 1 and Term 2.
The Year 6’s really impressed their teachers by creating these familiar landscapes in Cape Town, including Table Mountain, Lion’s Head, the Waterfront, Boulders Beach and many more! We are so proud of the hard work and effort they put into their art pieces and how they have taken what they have learnt and applied it.
“Art is a place for children to learn to trust their ideas, themselves, and to explore what is possible” – Maryann F. Kohl
Brittney Hakime
Year 6 Teacher
In Pre-Reception This Week, We Are Learning About…
This week Pre-Reception are learning about Frogs! The students are very excited to learn interesting facts about frogs and their life cycle.
Some interesting facts they are learning:
- They are amphibians.
- They typically lay their eggs in the water and a group of eggs is a frogspawn.
- The eggs hatch into tadpoles.
- A group of frogs is called an army.
- Tadpoles have no lungs, they have gills. They grow lungs before they mature into a frog.
The students really enjoyed painting and making their own frogs in their creative activities. They learnt a new rhyme, Five Green Speckled Frogs and had such fun singing together.
In Literacy, the sound of the week is ‘d’. The students eagerly practiced writing the letter in rice with their finger. They excitedly found objects in the class that start with ‘d’. I was very impressed with what they found. A duck, dinosaur, door, a drawing, doll etc. They loved learning the action and song for the letter ‘d’.
In Numeracy this week, they are practicing to recognize numbers 1 – 5 and put them in the correct order.
It has been a very busy learning week; we have also been doing messy sensory activities to strengthen their fine motor muscles. All in all the students have had lots of fun learning through play!
Cindy Nunan
Pre-Reception Teacher
Celebrating Healthy Living
I pledge to stay healthy and clean
through exercise and good hygiene.
I will eat balanced meals every day
to have more energy to learn and to play.
Every night I will get a good rest
To be more ready to do my best
If I work to be healthy and strong
I’ll be happier my whole life long.
(Poet unknown)
In Science, this term, Year 3 learnt about what it means to lead a healthy lifestyle. They started by examining their own food habits and creating a personal ‘food pyramid’ and then moved on to investigating the contents of their lunch boxes, recording findings and making conclusions based on these findings. We looked at how important it is to get enough sleep, researched what happens to our bodies after we exercise and conducted an experiment investigating why too much sugar is bad for our teeth.
The students also enjoyed a Healthy Day Inting. The day was spent with the students participating in some fun group activities, sports and games. Each student was also supplied with a delicious, healthy goodie bag for lunch and we had some VERY tired Year 3’s at the end of the day!
Our delicious goodie bags.
(NOTE: This Inting occurred before school sport was cancelled by the WCED, all content in this article was photographed and recorded before the cancellation.)
We ended the unit with the students presenting individual posters and orals on what it means to live a healthy lifestyle. Students had their classmates riveted with their creative, innovative designs and exciting presentations. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to your presentations! Well done on an amazing job, Year 3!
Mandy Goch
Year 3 Teacher
Liam with his poster.
Thabelo with his poster.
Peyton with her poster.
Nahla with her poster.
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The Very Hungry Caterpillar
In Reception we have been learning all about different insects.
As part of our topic we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. The students loved the story and decided to make their very own Hungry Caterpillar book.
Our little authors did such a good job, especially loving reading their little book once they were done.
WATCH: https://youtu.be/MIwbXYpF1RA
Monique Meyer
Reception Year Teacher
From The Principal’s Desk, 13 May 2021
Dear Parents
DROP AND GO
Please be aware that the main parking area is a “Drop and Go” zone. This means that parents should not be leaving their cars unless they have parked in one of the designated parking bays. At times, cars are backed up into the road and this causes major congestion for the community around us. As with everything else, the smooth running of this system is reliant on everyone co-operating and working together. Please try to limit your “drop” to one minute only and keep the flow of traffic moving.
UNIFORM
We are currently revising our uniform policy. However, we are all aware of what is required.
Please could we ensure that our children wear the correct uniform to school. School uniform means the proper school shoes, pants/skirt and shirt. When we wear our PE kit and tracksuit, we wear takkies. Shirts tucked in, looking proud.
The hair and jewellery regulations have not changed. We all have a responsibility to ensure that our school is presented in a positive manner.
Staff are unable to enforce school pride alone. This needs to be a team effort and I therefore request that parents ensure that, when they drop students at school, they are looking smart.
This is OUR school.
The updated uniform policies will be placed on the website soon.
SCHOOL TIMES
Time management is an extremely important skill we should teach our children. I am aware of many students arriving late for school. This is quite unacceptable.
Please assist us in teaching our students that being on time means you are also respecting other people.
Students should be dropped off no later than 7:45am in the morning. Please assist us in this regard.
IES CHIEF ACADEMIC DIRECTOR VISIT
Our IES Chief Academic Director, Mr Darryl Lottering, is currently in South Africa. He will be visiting Blouberg on Friday, 14th May and also Monday, 24th May. In addition to this, he will be assisting the staff with our “clean-up operation” on Saturday, 15th May.
Darryll would also like to offer our parents an opportunity to speak with him. We are, therefore, having a parent meeting on Monday, 24th May at 5.30pm. This meeting will be limited to 50 people. It will work on a first-come-first-serve basis. If you would like to attend this meeting, please email me at andre.swart@iesmail.com.
The meeting will take place in the Junior Hall.
FEATURE PHOTO
Our main newsletter photograph features Ms Bronwen Nuthall. Bronwen is a born and bred Capetonian who has lived in the Table View area all her life. She has teachers on both her mom and dad’s side of the family. Bronwen obtained a BEd (Foundation Phase) at CPUT in 2003 specialising in ECD and Special Educational Needs. She has been teaching for 17 years and has spent 10 of these years at Blouberg International School. Bronwen has taught 4 different grades namely Grade 1, 2, Reception and Pre-Reception. She now has 12 years of experience teaching Reception Year and believes that there is something special about teaching this age group. It is very rewarding to observe the student’s growth over their Reception Year knowing she had a part to play in preparing them for “big school”. She maintains that a students’ personal growth and independence remains the most important part of the Reception Year. A child’s Emotional Intelligence is a far better springboard for success one day no matter their academic IQ. In her personal life she likes to be creative and make cards and gifts for others by knitting or crocheting. She is very much involved in her church and is passionate about facilitating Divorce Care 4 Kids at View Church Milnerton.
Fun facts about Ms Bronwen Nuthall:
- Ms Nuthall is the only teacher to still be in the same classroom (Room 9 at the Junior Campus) at Blouberg International School, since taking occupation of the classroom in 2012.
- Ms Nuthall is one of a twin and is “Aunty Bonnie” to her twin brother’s twins (also a pigeon pair).
- She speaks 3 languages, namely English, Afrikaans and IsiXhosa.
- Ms Nuthall started writing children’s stories at the age of 8. She has a published poem, ‘Beautiful Time’. The several unpublished children’s stories she has written since childhood have often been given away as gifts.
- She is rather obsessed with all things feline and her long lost cat, Shmeegles is on her screen saver of her school computer. She often apologises to parents in advance for potentially converting their child to a “cat person” and for any future pets that may be named after her Shmeegles.
- Ms Nuthall loves to sing and dance, although she may not be an expert at any of these.
- Joining Run Walk for Life was the best decision she made in 2020 and she recently completed her first 10 km, which was a personal best achievement for distance and time.
Thank you for making a difference in so many students’ lives.
WEEKLY THOUGHT: Choices
“Short cuts make long delays.” – J. R. R. Tolkien
These are true words which we will do well to remember when it comes to the many decisions, we make every day…
As humans, we usually opt to do things the “quick & easy” way. Unfortunately, we often only realise our error in doing so when it is too late.
Instead of just choosing between various options when making decisions, let us consider Tolkien’s advice and realise that the “shortcut” could very well be (and often is) the long and tedious way to take.
I am reminded of someone who once remarked: “If something is worth doing, it is worth doing well!” May this be our attitude towards life and its challenges.
Let us be ready to face each challenge head-on and do what needs to be done to resolve it, even if it takes more time and effort than some other “easier” solutions might promise. By choosing to do things right the first time, you will be saving yourself and others some serious heartache and trouble in the long run.
Have a brilliant weekend of personal growth – make sure to invest in yourself – it is a worthwhile investment!
Andre
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