Team Building Tournament
Year 4 students enjoyed a lovely morning of team building to end the term. Coach Fabein from FP Sports and his team of professional coaches organised some fun activities for the classes to complete in a Round Robin competition. The students had a great time and Mrs du Plessis’ class won the challenge overall.
We would like to thank our wonderful team of coaches for the care and support that they show our students every day. We look forward to a well-deserved holiday and to come back refreshed and ready in Term 4.
Yvette Fourie
Year 4 Teacher
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Year 7 & 8 Boot Camp 2019
Camp At Buffalo Drift
After dinner the students enjoyed an evening hike and later, after hot-chocolate and fire-singed marshmallows, the students were packed off to bed after a busy and fulfilling day.
On day two, the teams faced off over an obstacle course and learnt the value of teamwork, determination and the necessity of packing extra socks. Muddy but cheerful, they emerged from the course, even convincing a teacher or two to brave the mud.
Soaped and showered, the afternoon activities commenced and the day wore on. As the shadows lengthened, the four teams battled for points and the coveted title of ‘winning team.’ Leaders emerged and friendships cemented, as the students laughed and battled their way to glory. Dinner was a serious affair that evening after a day of such high-energy activities and after a round of ‘hide the lantern’, it was time for bed. Silence came early to camp that night as the excitement of late night chatter was overcome by sore feet and drooping eyelids.
Morning saw a flurry of packing and clean-up operations. Awards were announced and the winning team celebrated. Thanks were said, hands shaken, and the students herded onto the bus for the return journey. The camp was a great success, and congratulations must go to our year 7 and 8 students for their perseverance, good humour and team spirit.
When I first arrived at camp, I thought I would have no fun at all, and that everything would be too difficult. But after getting to know the team and doing activities such as the obstacle race, I realized that sometimes things that seem hard at first can actually be a lot of fun. I really enjoyed this camp, even if some tasks were challenging I learned that everything you do is better when you do it as a team.– Catherine Fortuin
Camp with the Year 8’s was a day I had been waiting for. I was not expecting to bond with the year 8’s. The year 7 boys got pranked (including me) by the year 8’s and the teachers crawled through muddy water on the obstacle course. We played many games like capture the flag and stalk the lantern. What I learned was that being with year 8’s was fun, we made many friends and close blonds. I hope next year we will bond as well with the grade 7’s.
– Themba Ngono
We are already looking forward to more adventures at next year’s camp!
Janine van Niekerk
High School Teacher
Go Bokke Go! – The Benefits of Team Sports
“Sport has the power to change the world” – Nelson Mandela
Sports provide a platform for people to come together and support their country. International events like the Rugby world cup serve as a point around which to rally and show national pride and unity. We will back the Springboks win or lose. There is a certain togetherness, a camaraderie that total strangers can achieve simply by virtue of living in the same country and rooting for the same team.
- Develops self-esteem
- Regular exercise
- Teaches leadership skills
- Teamwork
- Stronger relationships
- Better communication skills
- Teaches respect
- Time management
WATCH: Our students and faculty all rallied together last week to wish the Springbok team the best of luck in the 2019 Rugby World Cup final. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f69gRB9Ftq8&t=1s
Martie van Dyk
Reception Year Teacher
From the Principal’s Desk – 28th February 2019
Dear Parents
It has been a busy first term thus far and it has been lovely to hear positive feedback from parents and students and know that growth is definitely taking place.
This coming Saturday, the 2nd of March, we are having our first Open Day for 2019. The response to our marketing of this event has been incredibly positive and we are looking forward to welcoming prospective parents and students to our school. Teamwork produces positive results and I am extremely grateful to my staff, as well as some of our students, who are collaborating to promote our school on Saturday.
The Heads of the IES schools had a collaboration meeting this morning where were able to identify areas of growth in our various schools and do some benchmarking as well.
I am reminded of a quote which has always inspired me:
“Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together.”
-Author unknown
As mentioned in my newsletter last week, construction of the cricket pitch commenced this week and the progress is satisfying. Unfortunately, however, due to climate and weather predictions, we have had to push back the completion date for the project. The cement is going to take longer to set than first anticipated but I am certain the wait will be well worth the end result. During the upcoming March school holidays, construction will start on the gravel parking area below the library. This will ensure that, come winter and rainy days, we all have a safe and accessible place to park.
I hope you all enjoy some wonderful family time this weekend.
Kind regards
Edna
Year 6 Monitors 2019
Our Year 6 monitor programme aims to develop leadership skills in our students. We believe that every student has innate qualities and can build skills that they could use to help serve our school and community in some way. Monitors help the students and teachers during break times and help monitor the classes at line up time. In addition to this, there are different portfolios that the monitors are responsible for.
Some of the other roles and duties of our monitors include:
- Assembly and Library Monitors: Set up the hall for assemblies and help Mrs M in the library.
- Recycling Monitors: Collect recycling from the classrooms every week.
- Social Responsibility Monitors: Promote social responsibility in the school by visiting the different classes and talking about important issues. This term the Social Responsibility Monitors have been explaining the importance of recycling and teaching the children what we can and can’t recycle in our paper bins.
- Journalist Monitors: Write articles about some exciting things happening at school.
Below is one of the articles our Journalist Monitors wrote about our Leadership inting.
Cool To Be Me – Year 6 Leadership Inting
On Friday the 22nd of February Y6ME and Y6AH gathered in the hall and participated in the Cool To Be Me inting.The grade 6s learned that it is okay to be ourselves and ignore judgmental words. We were taught to use great qualities such as:
Be a good role model.
Use your role to help one another.
Do no abuse the responsibility of being a monitor.
Leaders are kind, fair and helpful.
The two grade 6 classes participated in multiple different activities on the day. Each activity taught us how to use our strengths to become better leaders in the school. We finished the inting off by creating a toolbox of our personal leadership qualities.
Written by: Ben Van der Westhuizen, Jens Buchwald, Patrick Kessel, Linamandla Moyo and Chloe Ralph
“Every individual is intelligent in a different way. Understanding how we are intelligent allows us to identify when and where we can lead.”
– Quoted from the Cool to be me Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/cooltobemeSA/
Marisa Esterhuizen
Year 6 Teacher
https://www.facebook.com/IES.Blouberg/posts/2323620484337070
