It’s hard to believe that the first term of 2024 has come to an end. The time has flown by in a whirlwind of activity. From the family braai in the beginning to the Talent Show at the end. The in between part was filled with Cycle Tests, Swimming Galas, Soccer matches, Chess League and Tournaments, outings to various places, other sporting activities, gardening, community work and service, many hours of learning new things in Xhosa, ICT, Art, Music and Drama, mad games on the beach, quietly reading in the library and getting heart rates up while burning endless energy at Phys Ed. Many children excelled in other areas that are not even part of our school activities from Go-Karting, Karate, Gymnastics and Life-Saving. Then of course there was a very important Academic Curriculum to get through too. Thank you to my Senior Phase colleagues for guiding the children so competently through many tasks, tests and other forms of assessments. I am sure every learner from Grade 4 to 7 is more than ready to tackle the exams next term with gusto. But for now, I am sure everyone is ready for a well-earned break. They certainly deserve it.

On the 6th of March the Grade 7 class set off for their Leadership Camp at Innikloof. This is a wonderful venue and it is one of the highlights for the Senior Phase every year.

The Grade 7 class spend the first day discussing leadership characteristics, effective communication and how to relate to different members of a team.

On the second day the Grade 4, 5 and 6 learners join for a night of camping. The Grade 7 learners are split into mixed grade teams which are randomly chosen. The activities commence as each team strives to be the winning team with the most points. Competition is strong among the groups and the Grade 7's practice encouraging, motivating and communicating effectively with their team. 

After the excitement of Beach Day and half term, the foundation all moved into studying various aspects of the sea and life around the sea. The Grade 1s explored how the tides are formed, looked at different types of fish and discussed whales and how they differ from fish. The Grade 2’s spoke about life under the sea and the different sorts of fish we find there. They also attempted their first Grade 2 orals and chose an animal which is found under the sea. They spoke very well about a variety of animals and interacted well with their audience. The Grade 3’s drew three different 2 dimensional views of a chosen underwater creature before recreating it using salt dough. This culminated in the children sourcing some information on their chosen creature and presenting it to the class as an informal presentation. 

We also participated in the world-wide celebrated Dr Seuss day. The Grade R-3’s all dressed up and read Dr Seuss books and then read to each other on the Friday.

The Grade 1s have grown in leaps and bounds this term. For most of them reading was a whole new skill and now they are all reading their readers with enthusiasm and great excitement. They have started doing sums and it is a pleasure to see their progress. We have also had experiments with capacity and they all enjoyed the water “play”. We had a very successful day on the beach. The weather played its part and the children played on the beach, swam in the shallow water at the mouth. We would like to sincerely thank Dylan Anderson for sharing his extensive beach knowledge with the children.

The Grade 2’s began reading Afrikaans pieces and will move on to the Afrikaans books. They are also learning the Afrikaans sounds. They have also produced the most beautiful Art pictures. We spoke about Human Rights when we celebrated Human Rights Day and learnt how to write better stories. We say farewell to Nicole as Ashleigh will join us next term. We wish her all the best as she explores her future options

The Grade 3’s have had a very productive term, and are well into their Afrikaans readers. They have also been learning and revising the Afrikaans short vowel sounds as well the pronunciation of the v, w, y and g letters. In Afrikaans theme work, they have learnt vocabulary and short simple sentences for formal and informal greetings, colours, members of the family and numbers to ten. In English, they have learnt adjectives, verbs and nouns (proper and common nouns), and it is lovely to see them using some interesting adjectives in their creative writing work.

Human Rights day gave the children a great opportunity to create posters depicting human rights and the corresponding responsibility that comes with that right. They had so much fun and produced interesting and colourful pieces. Having had such a lovely, industrious term, the children (and their teacher) have earned a well-deserved break. I wish my Grade 3’s a lovely rest and some quality time with their families

The ECD has had a fantastic term with lots of cultural experiences and interesting demonstrations from community members. First, We were treated to a musical extravaganza by the Rainbow school Marimba band, then in celebration of World Book Day, we delved into our favorite book characters, getting all dressed up. We were lucky enough to get a visit from past pupil Ryan Marais, who read a fun story while joining in our dress up fun. Juliet, from Nevermind restaurant, came to do delicious cookie making demonstration and we celebrated Easter with our annual hunt. The kiddies went home full of Easter cheer as term 1 draws to a close. Wishing all a fun-tastic holiday. See you next term.

What an exciting first term we’ve had.  Music and drama time is always special for me.  Seeing the little smiles when the butterflies, bumble bees, ladybirds and caterpillars walk in, enjoying all the movement, percussion instruments and singing. 

The foundation phase were very busy with valentines and Easter songs, percussion and movement whereas the Senior phase discovered more rhythms and note values.

But the highlight of this term was the preparation and excitement leading up to the Talent Show.

I would like to thank each child who entered for the performance and non-performance arts.  The standard seems to be getting better each year.  We received the most beautiful Lego creations, photography and artwork.  

The show was held at the Brewery on 3 April.  It was well attended and the support for the performers were greatly appreciated.  Thank you to the Brewery for offering their venue so that the audience could have a bite to eat and a drink whilst they watched the singers, dancers, gymnasts, instrumentalists to name a few. 

I am extremely proud of all the performers and they didn’t even show any sign of jitters.  They handled themselves very well.

Hoping for the best April holidays for you and your family. We have lots more exciting musical adventures that await us during term 2.

Take Care
Natasha Brown

St Francis College hosted Kings College for U11 and U13 boys soccer matches. The U11s scored an early goal and held onto the lead until the 2nd half. Due to an unfortunate last minute goal Kings College managed to take the win 2-1. The U13s then played and also scored early to take the lead. The first half ended 1-1. SFC scored again in the second half to lead 2-1 until the last 5 minutes when Kings College scored another equalizer to end the game 2-2. It was great competition and good practice for the Kouga soccer league starting next term

Chess got off to a busier than usual start this term, with league starting and tournaments galore.

We have only played 2 league matches so far. We played Stulting and Jeffrey’s Bay Primary. These are our strongest rivals and we lost both matches. This year we have a very young team, with some players playing their first matches ever, so I was very proud of them.

Five players participated in the Kouga Municipality Mayoral Cup Trials. Chen Wang and Damon Stantcheva both played excellent chess and made it through to the finals. The finals will be played on the 12/13th April during the holidays.

Quite a few of our St Francis College children participated in the first round of the Sarah Baartman District Trials with Sean Watson winning his age group. Chen and Damon participated in the 2nd round in Grahamstown coming 4th and 6th respectively in their age groups. The 3rd round takes place in Graaff Reinet in May.

On the first day of the holidays (6 April) there are 7 players participating in the Stulting Individual Tournament. With devices up for grabs as prizes let’s hold thumbs for our children.

On the last Friday of the holidays, I am hoping to take a team of 5 through to Kareedouw for the Paul Sauer Team Challenge. We are the defending champions, so it would be nice to take part.

Looking forward to next term’s chess battles!

It has been another wonderful term in the garden. As usual, we started the term by preparing the beds for the upcoming rainy season. We have been weeding, watering, feeding worms and learning about all kinds of new things relating to growing veggies and flowers. The grade 4’s have immersed themselves in gardening and have surprised us with their eagerness to dig deeper and watch things grow. They loved learning about worms with Andrew from St Francis Bay Organics.

The grade 5’s have derived most joy from chopping food for worms, digging and landscaping. John Davies invited the Grade 6 class to his farm where they experienced what goes into running a working farm. They were amazed by his fields of green and composting skills. John also kindly sponsored some of his delicious soil for the grade beds.

We have ended the term by planting our grade gardens. Keep your fingers crossed that they survive the elements over the holidays because these kids have come up with some phenomenal ideas.

In other news, Nicole Spencer has started an initiative to have trees planted on the school grounds. We have received many tree donations, we now need to work on getting enough compost to keep the trees healthy.

By the school holidays, we will finally have a sprinkler system installed by Dylan from Stepping Stones that should keep our beds watered all through the holidays. It will be so exciting to come back and see the growth!

Many thanks to our team of gardening moms, but especially to Bonnie Robb who really goes the extra mile to keep our garden happy.

PTA NEWS

The first term was off to a flying start with our first fundraiser, the Easter Raffle, done. We had over R9000-00 in prizes donated, and have raised R24280.00 towards new senior ablutions, and sports field development.

THE WINNERS ARE:
1) Away to Jeffrey’s Bay   Micaella White
2) Bring The Party   Lizzy c/o Kaitlyn Nel
3) Keep It Healthy   Liezel Marais
4) Easy Night In   Mrs Nel
5) Surf Sense Voucher   Nevil Ackerman
6) Breakfast The Dunes   Zoe van Dyn c/o Emily Miller
7) Family Photo Shoot   Glaudina Venter
8) Garden Hamper & bubbles   Amelie Meyer

Congratulations to the winners, and thank you to all for your generous donations.

Upcoming events:

Golf Day - 1 June 2024

Choir and School Birthday - Date to be confirmed

Barn Dance - Date to be confirmed for October 2024

MTB Race - 2 November 2024

Christmas Market and Carols - Date to be confirmed

If there is anyone who would like to join the PTA, please let me know on 0721991233. We really value our parents' input, after all, it's for all our children we are working for.