Rocking Future – Career Expo 2019
Our Year 11 and 12 students attended a coordinated career expo at school this week.
The morning started out with great enthusiasm as a speaker from Rocking Future gave them a motivational speech. They were informed of all the wonderful and exciting opportunities there is for them to pursue. Representatives from numerous great tertiary education institutions set up displays and freely offered their expertise to help guide our future graduates in their very challenging decisions.
This event is always so successful as it empowers our students with the knowledge they so urgently need during this transition in their lives. They have big decisions to make at a young age and that can cause immense stress for them. At Blouberg International School, we support and guide our students through all these steps, to help them feel at ease while navigating these overwhelming life changes.
Creating excitement and a sound support system around the prospects of the next generation’s careers is the best way to help them face these challenges with confidence, and will prepare them for a bright and successful future.
Written By: Trindade Camara
High School – Term 1 Review 2019
2019 started with a bang and I can only wonder where the time went as we approach the end of the first term. It’s been a busy and productive term both culturally and academically.
On Saturday the 26th of January, we had our Interhouse Athletics Day which was closely followed by the annual ISA Athletics Day on the 15th of February. Our students did us proud, with Samuel Hermabessiere in year 12 winning the award for the ‘Best U19 Male Athlete’. We narrowly missed winning the Spirit Cup this year but were proud to come second against tough competition. Next year, however, the Spirit Cup will be back at BIS where it belongs.
Valentine’s Day saw our year 11 students deliver roses and goodies to students throughout the school and our annual Valentine’s Dance, held on the evening of the 22nd of February, saw students dancing late into the night.
Term 2 begins on Tuesday the 9th of April and is an important examinations term. We will be holding parent-teacher meetings next term and more information will be sent out in a letter on Engage. We encourage parents to attend these meetings to discuss their child’s progress in preparation for the June examinations.
From all of us in the High School we would like to thank the parents and students for their hard work and support this term. We wish you all an enjoyable and restful holiday and if you are travelling, we wish you a safe journey.
Mr Julian Harrison
Head of Academics High School
De Beers English Olympiad 2019
On Tuesday the 5th of March five of our senior students competed in the prestigious De Beers English Olympiad.
The De Beers English Olympiad is an English competition that draws over 8000 entries each year from around South Africa and its neighbouring countries. The competition is organized jointly by the Grahamstown Foundation and the South African Council for English Education (SACEE). The competition began as a small project in 1976 when Dr Malcolm Venter, a member of the Eastern Cape branch committee of SACEE was asked to organise an event locally. The first competition attracted 119 entries and the winner received a prize of R50. Today, by comparison, the top 3 candidates receive substantial cash prizes of R33 000 (1st place); R30 000 (2nd place); R27 000 (3rd place) broadening their opportunities for possible further study or travel.
The competition seeks to enrich learners, encouraging them to explore beyond the scope of the school syllabus. It encourages critical thinking and creative writing, promoting the study of English amongst first and second English Language speakers and actively increase the participation of candidates from previously disadvantaged schools.
The De Beers English Olympiad is distinctive in that, unlike other Olympiads, it requires learners to study a prescribed text, not found within the school syllabus. 2019 saw the students study short stories, collated under the title ‘A Twist in the Tale’. Each year a different genre is studied, and a new anthology and theme compiled by SACEE. The examination is then based on this theme and anthology. On receiving the prescribed material, we set up study groups to analyse the stories and our intimate group sessions allowed us to examine the texts on a level not always possible in the structured classroom environment. The competition also gives students the opportunity to work with other students in different grades; students from years 10-12 may enter the competition and watching students, who wouldn’t normally interact in a classroom setting, quibbling over different interpretations of a text was simply wonderful.
In ‘Wings for Bulbie’ (Patrick Waldo Davids) we read of a tortured but brilliant soul, a maths teacher hounded and ostracized by a community who cannot, and will not, understand him. ‘The Luncheon’ (Somerset Maughan) sees a young writer at the mercy of the most trying lunch companion imaginable. In ‘The Suitcase’ (Es’kia Mphahlele) a young man, down on his luck, takes a chance and claims a suitcase left on the bus he is travelling in- with disastrous consequences. Many of the stories had a distinctive South African flavour but all of them were honest reflections of human nature and proved to us the timelessness of certain themes and stories.
A massive congratulations to the students who competed on Tuesday! The examination was three hours long, plus half an hour of reading time. Entering into this competition is a commitment not taken lightly and I am proud to say that all the students displayed the effort and determination necessary to stand themselves in good stead.
I encourage more students to participate next year as this competition engenders a deeper appreciation of literature by providing insight into human nature and experience. It also offers students the opportunity to bond, not as classmates or students in the same school, but as students of literature, as lovers of stories.
Alice Pryor
High School English Department Head