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Wednesday 24 February 2022
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NEWSLETTER 24 FEBRUARY 2022
FROM THE HEADMASTER - MR LINDSAY PEARSON
I trust that all associated with the St Francis College community can reflect on a positive start to the year. A very warm word of welcome to all, especially new staff, pupils and parents. Our grateful thanks go to those who continue to serve the school in a selfless capacity in a range of activities. These include the Governing Body, PTA, eco schools’ volunteers, class representatives, and all those who role up their sleeves when called upon to do so. I am pleased to report that the Governing Body have approved a number of projects that will enhance the school environment for the pupils. These include extra ablution facilities for the ECD, a jungle gym for the Foundation Phase, an obstacle course for the Senior Phase, the extension of the wooden fence at the front of the school for the safety of the ECD children, projectors and screens for the classrooms, air-conditioning in the new pre-fabs, additional benches and shade in the playgrounds, additions to the reading programme in the Foundation Phase, and a few other odds and ends. Governing Body
The Governing Body was constituted at the first meeting of the year as follows: - Chairman: Andrew Bowren
- Deputy-Chairman: Guy Pearson (Human Resources)
- Treasurer: Mike Pearton (Finance Committee)
- Secretary: Lucy Kotze
- Chairperson of PTA: Cally Gibbs (Marketing)
- Educator Representative: Michelle Miller
- Parent Member: Derek Suttie (Human Resources)
- Co-opted member: Barry Phillips (Grounds and Buildings)
- Headmaster: Lindsay Pearson
One of the first tasks of the Governing Body will be to review the constitution, composition of the Board, and updating and reviewing policies and procedures for running the school. |
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Grade 7 (Mrs. Miller)
In the past two weeks the Grade 7s have spent two mornings at Talhado Montessori School in Sea Vista, St Francis Bay. Our learners were able to interact with the children, learn about the Montessori system, and help cut, stick and even prepare lunch. It is always such a great opportunity to visit another local school and the Grade 7's thoroughly enjoyed all the songs and activities. We wish to thank Talhado for always welcoming our visits. They provide such a great foundation for their learners.
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Foundation Phase Grade 1 (Mrs. Webb)
The grade 1s celebrated Valentine's Day by 'dressing' their gingerbread men with icing sugar and decorating them with jelly tots and smarties. We celebrated the day with fun activities, while still managing to complete a fair amount of our academic schedule. We have almost completed our 6 week preparatory programme, setting a firm foundation on which to build, amongst others, future concepts in Numeracy and coding/encoding words for Reading and Phonics. I am so impressed by the children’s steady progress and look forward to the fun activities of our Beach Fun Day, where they can bond as a class group outside of the confines of the classroom and wish everyone a well-deserved half term break.
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Early Childhood Development, Grade 0 (Teacher Eva)
Well what a great start to 2022, our classroom has been bustling with so much excitement and fun. Excited to be back at school and one year older, the children quickly settled into our busy routine. Being five going on six has much to offer and the children have embraced all the exciting challenges they have encountered, with a zest of enthusiasm and desire to learn.
Our little busy bees have been great scientists. Discovering tastes, conjuring up potions, and working with quantities, all in the name of learning. They have been fantastic explorers, investigating our environment around us, scrutinizing nature, and creating masterpieces through our natural world.
The children have enjoyed setting up our very own Busy Bee restaurant with a simply tantalising menu, including sushi, chicken pies, spaghetti and milk tart. What more could you want! What better way to practice our life skills and manners than to have our very own tea party! . We have had such fun over the last few weeks and look forward to what lies ahead. Happy half term everyone !
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Eco School (Mrs. Miller)
We are very excited to announce that we were awarded our Platinum 1 Decade Award in 2021! This year we are aiming for the Platinum 2 Decade Award. We have chosen Waste as our new theme for the year. One of our main focus areas this year will be on reducing plastic in our home, school, and community. Plastic may be unavoidable but we do have opportunities to make better choices and our aim for the year is to start encouraging members of our school and community to be aware of their plastic consumption. The Grade 7s have started looking at the 7 R's and have some exciting projects coming up.
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St Francis College Butterfly Garden Turns Over a Brand New Leaf (Saskia Boonzaier & Bonny Torode)
For those of you who are new, and not-so-new to the school, the St Francis College Butterfly Garden is a little sanctuary (found behind the staff room classroom block) where pupils get a chance to learn, experience, play and share in an outdoor, garden environment. The Grade 4s, 5s and 6s have each been allocated an hour’s session per week in the garden for “Gardening Time”, and, as a new initiative, the keen bean gardeners in Grade’s 4-7 can spend time in the garden during their Thursday afternoon 2-3pm cultural slot as part of a “Gardening Club”. The children have by now all been introduced to the garden and its inherent magic and mysteries, and have learnt that even a brown and rather sorry looking plant can hold within its dried up buds the essence of new life. Seeds have been investigated, collected and stored for replanting. Another important foundation to a bountiful garden was explored by learning the importance of reusing kitchen waste for compost and soil health. The children were amazed at how even a yukky banana peel can be the best thing for a growing garden J. The children at Gardening Club learnt how to expertly propagate basil stems – and now have a multitude of little basil plants happily rooting in water filled glass jars. You will get a chance soon to purchase these basil seedlings, once they have been planted in their niftily upcycled tins. There are going to be heaps of exciting activities happening in and around the garden after half term, including a visit from our local worm-farm guru and the celebration of World Water Week towards the end of March. We have been incredibly lucky that a number of awesome mums have raised their hands and helped not only with their gardening know-how, but also with their time, energy, ideas and support. The Garden gate is always open (metaphorically only, as we do need to keep the chickens out!) and if any parents feel that they can help in any way, please contact either Bonny or myself. Looking forward to growing greener fingers, Have a great half term,
Saskia (0780585000) & Bonny (0823833097) “To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow” Audrey Hepburn
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SBDCU Chess Tournement (Mrs Slabbert)
St Francis College learners took part in the first tournament since lockdown. We had 12 children participating in the tournament. There were lots of losses, lots of wins and much experience gained by all. Congratulations to Cade Klinkert (Grade 7) for winning the B section. Well done also to all those who took part.
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Eastern Cape Provincial Nippers championships
Four of our Grade 4 pupils and one Grade 3 pupil took part in the Eastern Cape Provincial Nippers championships held in East London last weekend. James Reid, Addison Shaw, Jamie White, Hayley Holmes, Emma Darke all did well and we are very proud of you all! Congratulations to Addison Shaw who walked away with three first places, for the board paddle, run swim run and ocean swim. James Reid also came first in the surf swim and run swim run. In addition to 1st place, Addison also received the Victorious Ludorum.
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Jack & Josh Moore - Go Carting
Jack and Josh Moore finally received their Go Carting Trophies 🏆 for their extremely successful season of Go Carting last year.
Josh.. 2021 Junior Victor Ladorum and Overall Winner MicroMax Class
Jack.. 2021 Junior Driver of the Year and Overall Winner Bambino Class. Well done boys!
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CALENDAR DATES 2022
TERM 1
Thursday 24 February Half term starts after school
Thursday 24 February Thoughtful Thursday Grade 00
Tuesday 1 March School re opens after half term break
Thursday 3 March Thoughtful Thursday Ladybird Class
Friday 4 March Baker day Grade 2
Monday 7 March Valentines Raffle Draw
Thursday 10 March Thoughtful Thursday Bumble Bee & Butterfly Class
Friday 11 March Baker day Grade 1
Thursday 17 March Thoughtful Thursday Grade 7
Friday 18 March Baker day Grade 0 and Dragonfly Class
Friday 18 March Greenwood Bay Sport - Plettenberg Bay U13 teams
Monday 21 March Public Holiday - School Closed
Wednesday 23 March Leadership Camp - Grade 7
Thursday 24 March Leadership Camp Grade 4 to 7
Friday 25 March Baker day Grade 00
Saturday 26 March Family Fun Day - full details TBC after half term
Thursday 31 March Thoughtful Thursday Grade 5
Friday 1 April Baker day Ladybird Class
Thursday 7 April Thoughtful Thursday Grade 4
Friday 8 April Baker day Butterfly & Bumble Bee Class
Friday 8 April End of term after school day
Wednesday 4 May Term 2 commences
Monday 9 May Talent Show auditions (Grade 0 to 7)
Thursday 26 May Talent Show - Cape St Francis Resort
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RECIPE BOOK R150
We still have St Francis College Recipe books available in the office.
R150 per book with some amazing recipes inside!
An enormous thank you must be extended to those families and children who submitted recipes, to the parents who gave of their time in putting this together and to the restaurants and local businesses who assisted in sponsorship towards the layout & printing costs. It became a very big project and we are very proud of the final product.
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UNIFORM ORDERS - WINTER TOPS
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Preparing for the cooler months!
Our school fleece tops will be available to order after half term for grades 1 to 7.
We do not keep stock, so please place your orders with the school office by Friday 25 March (R280 to R380 depending on size per fleece). A rail with samples of various sizes will be on display in the office to try on.
School Beanie Hats can also be worn during the winter months and can be purchased from the office at R60 each.
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FEBRUARY BIRTHDAYS
02 Feb Joshua Le Roux
07 Feb Zoe Harding
08 Feb Davidko Siemens
14 Feb Che Goldstone
18 Feb Stacey Bekeer
20 Feb Annabell Oosthuysen
21 Feb Francis Sacks
22 Feb Mila Meyer
22 Feb Grace Christy
25 Feb Rebecca Wilson
25 Feb Miané Bosch
25 Feb Lutha Mofu
27 Feb Daniel Potgieter
28 Feb Ms Kaunda
29 Feb Matthew Firth
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MARCH
BIRTHDAYS
02 Mar Teacher Caroline Boshoff
03 Mar Malachi Pieterse
07 Mar Eliana Bateman
10 Mar Conor Howell
13 Mar Fletcher Dunkley-Suttie
15 Mar Jake Knezovich
17 Mar Blake Sanders
17 Mar Maya Kotzé
17 Mar Thomas Dreyer
18 Mar Iyla-Fleur Oosthuizen
18 Mar Monica (Gr 00 Assistant)
19 Mar Michael Gibbs
21 Mar Emma Darke
21 Mar Gia-Lily Gous
21 Mar Luana de Paiva Renk
24 Mar Ella-Mae Skelton
24 Mar Sienna Thornton
24 Mar Freya Webster
26 Mar Tinashe Phiri
31 Mar Jack Moore
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APRIL
BIRTHDAYS
02 April Annie Cornish
03 April Usenathi Desha
04 April Mieke Siemens
04 April Zaydee Crouse
06 April Blessing Dube
07 Apr Genevieve Richardson
08 April Alexandria Torode
08 April Theodore Salazar
09 April Libby Knezovich
10 April Ella Hugo
10 April Olivia-Rose Gous
12 April Evan Gibbs
12 April Neve Kotzé
14 April Siyolise Stuurman
15 April Knox Anderson
17 April Hayley Holmes
21 April Griffin Sacks
24 April Liam de Lange
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Please see the list below and let us know if your family or business is able to assist in any way.
ECD Phase - Fridge
- Water table
- Green house
- Drying racks for artwork
- Giant building blocks for outdoor play
- Storage units
Foundation Phase
- 3 in 1 Solar Robot kit
- Robotics core set
Intermediate Phase
- Electro-magnetic science sets
- Block out roller blind
Sport / Music
- Cricket balls
- Soccer balls
- Volley balls
- Soprano recorders
If you have identified something on this list you feel you would like to sponsor or assist with, please let Lucy in the school office know on info@stfranciscollege.co.za
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R1000 SPAR SHOPPING VOUCHERS UP FOR GRABS EACH MONTH!
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THANK YOU to our local SUPERSPAR for continuing to sponsor a R1000 prize every month.
Congratulations to the following winners
January Draw won by Diane Harcus
February Draw won by Bruce Booker
If you would like to enter into the monthly draw for just R50 per month please inform the office on info@stfranciscollege.co.za
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HAVE YOU GOT A MYSCHOOL CARD?
MYSCHOOL CARDS ARE AVAILABLE FROM THE SCHOOL OFFICE - PLEASE REMEMBER TO SWIPE EVERY TIME YOU SEE THE MYSCHOOL LOGO TO EARN POINTS FOR OUR SCHOOL.
You can also link your WOOLWORTHS card to MYSCHOOL online and select St Francis College to earn points, just by using your Woolworths card.
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St Francis College has PBO status!
St Francis College has been recognised as a “Public Benefit Organization” and has been issued a PBO number. This is good news for the school, and to potential donors to the school, as any donation to a PBO is deductible from the donor’s tax liability. Please share this information widely!
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