The teachers scratched their heads to come up with a new idea to celebrate Father’s Day this year and someone suggested a camp out.  The logistics of this was debated but we decided to give it a try. 

The excitement built for the dads and kids for days before as the children put their dads under pressure to come.  Plans were made and the excitement reached fever pitch by Friday! 

Some dads arrived straight after school to claim their places and pitch their tents but most of them arrived at 5pm.  The camp site grew with many tents, large, small, pink and blue.  Cooler boxes, camping equipment, blankets, sleeping bags, toys, games, balls and unicorns all arrived!  The fathers took up a comfortable position around the fire while the children proceeded to play like they always do on the big field.  As the sun went down, a feeling of calmness and fun settled on the camp.  According to the children, they went to bed at midnight but the dads said, “9pm!”  You can decide who to believe.

The Grade 1 class had an exciting visit to Holmeleigh Farmyard on Friday 14th June. The day started with a fun  ride on a tractor which was enjoyed by all the children. We then joined the guide and visited all the animals and each child was given food to feed the different animals. The guide explained what each animal likes to eat and most children did not mind the animals eating out of their hand. After the visit in the farmyard, the children learnt how to milk a cow and then they enjoyed their snack after which they played in the playground. The big double decker bus and the tower were a big hit. Thank you to all the parents that transported the children and enjoyed the visit with us. 

The 2 main themes discussed this term were bees and the jungle. When studying bees the focus was on life cycles and the importance of bees to our environment. We spoke about and discussed the different parts of the jungle, the sorts of plants and animals found there, and we wrote interesting stories about what it would be like to have a jungle adventure. The children spoke confidently during their orals about their chosen jungle animal and presented them like pro’s. The Grade 2’s also began to learn how to write in cursive and everyone participated in the class assembly.

This term, the Grade 3 themes have been focused on comparing life cycles of insects (butterfly, bee and dragonfly), amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. The children did a self-study on an animal of their choice, and they then presented their project to the class. It was lovely to see the effort that the children had put into their projects, and very interesting to hear them present their findings to the class using pictures, posters and even some live creatures or a power point presentation. 

We then did a focused study on cats, comparing the domestic cat to wild cats, culminating in an outing to Simbonga Wild Cat Sanctuary.

The children thoroughly enjoyed the outing, rating Simbonga between 4,7 and a perfect 5 out of 5, as a place of interest. Our guide, Lauren, gave the children a most enlightening and educational tour, introducing each lion (and a tiger) to the children by pointing out special characteristics and physical features. The children heard about each animal’s sad history and the (sometimes) daring rescue mission involving the relocation. This outing reinforced the importance of caring for our wildlife in a responsible manner.

Term 2 started off with a bang!  Several of our students took part in The Stulting Arts Festival. The festival hosted various schools from the Eastern Cape.  It was a time to show off some wonderful talent.  St Francis College received various gold and silver certificates for Piano, Violin, Singing, Dance and Drama.  Well done to the following pupils who were so brave on stage:

Singing:

Cora Brown, Zoe Harding and Annabell Oosthuysen

Piano:

Erin Hurley, Paige Oosthuysen, Skylar Rands, Alex Hanekom, Emily Colebank , Alexandria Torode, Genevieve Richardson, Tayla Watson, Bailey Richardson, Conor Howell

Drama:

Lucy Anderson

Dance:

Amy Masterson and Emily Colebank

The Trinity Guildhall music exams took place in May, at Grey High School in Port Elizabeth.

Amy Masterson and Annabell Oosthuysen received merits for singing Grade 3

Conor Howell received Distinction for Piano solo Grade 2

During class music and drama time, the Grade 0 – 3 classes started discussing the upcoming concert which will take place during term 3.  The children chose their rolls to play in this magical script. 

We  had a visitor from the up and coming artist, Ben Rodrigues.  He is a musician who played and sung his new single “Was it real” on his guitar, which has gained much popularity.  The children were in awe as some could relate to him. Ben used to live in St Francis and attended GLA school in Jeffreys Bay.  He inspired all of us with his story of becoming famous, from humbled beginnings.  Telling the children how practicing and setting your mind to achieving goals can be achieved!

You can follow Ben on Spotify and Instagram

The garden has kept us all busy since the beginning of term. We’ve had some challenges including visits by a rat, a porcupine and a couple of moles (someone should write a story about this), but we have worked around it and made the best with what we had. The grade gardens were presented, and we are anxiously waiting for the announcement of the winner (but more of that next term).

In the meantime, we would like to introduce our latest fundraiser. After half term, we will be selling homemade zesty lemonade concentrate which can be used to make your own lemonade at home. Jenn Colebank, our Garden chef, squeezed and prepared the concentrate with lemons donated by Jakoos Scheepers from Gonjah Boerdery in Patensie. A special thank you to Jakoos for all the lovely lemons.

To make this project just that one bit more special, we had a label making competition and are very excited to congratulate Sarah Anderson in Grade 5 on her winning design. The Andersons must love lemonade because Lucy Anderson’s design came in second. Local art teachers, Jacqui and Pete Jones judged the competition – many thanks to both of them.

Have a wonderful break and happy gardening!

Our annual Golf Day on 17 June was a huge success, despite the postponement due to rain. We are so very thankful to our sponsors, especially GEO Equip Africa, and JOB SA, as well as everyone who made the day memorable! They donated over R30000-00!!

Our raffle ticket winners are:
J Nel - 2-night stay in PE (Fifth Ave Beach House) and wine tastings (The Taste Room)
Sean Jackson - Stand Up Paddle Board (The Glass Family)
Colin Job - Local Vouchers (The Store, Surf Sense, Captain Kev, Shell Shop, Kairos, Dockside and Versicolour)
H Nienaber - Airfryer (Spar) and Cordless Drill (Build It)
Gert Vorster - 2-night stay in Addo (Happy Lands) and Ziplines (Adrenalin Addo)

Our top 3 4-ball winners are:

1. Andries Le Roux, Samuel Visser, Wynand Bezuidenhoud and Hein le Roux
2. Ross Anderson, Jeff Clause, Charl Blaauw and John Hay
3. Lindsay Pearson, Andre Bekker, Graham Smith and David Truter.
   CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL!

Funds from the Golf Day will go towards further development of the new sports field.

We are looking forward to the rest of the year, with the Barn Dance in October and the Mountain Bike Race in November.

Please consider joining our team. It is for our school, our community and our children.

Warm regards,
Lee Job