The netball and soccer players got a lot of match practice in this term, starting with the Kouga Soccer League in week one. St Francis College played away at Graslaagte Primary with a combined team of U11 and U13 players. It was a tough game that gave the boys a lot of experience for the next few matches against Kings College, Jbay Academy and VCS.

The netball girls also played well against Jbay Academy and VCS at their home grounds. After the exams and half term break, the netball girls were invited to play against Woodridge, where they made St Francis College very proud. Soon after, Graslaagte Primary visited to play a soccer match against our U11 team and then the U13's. Our boys showed a huge improvement and can be very proud of their performance. 

The week before term ended was a busy one, starting with soccer and netball matches away at Oakridge. It was a tough day out in the cold wind against strong competition, but was enjoyed by the grade 3 to 7 players from both schools.

Our tennis team played a match against Stulting the very next day, where they competed well. Then on Friday, all students from grade 1 to 7 took part in the annual interhouse cross country event, with Mussel Cracker winning the day.

Hermitage House travelled all the way from Addo on Saturday Morning to play soccer and netball against our U9 and U13 teams. It was a great day of sportsmanship, and wonderful to see how far the boys and girls have come this term.

Last but not least was the interhouse netball, soccer and hockey matches that took place during the last week of term. These were played in a round robin format during school time, with teams being selected and organised by the grade 7 house captains.

Red Roman won the netball, soccer and the hockey. Well done to all the kids that participated and thank you to those that supported! 

Since the mid-term break it has been go-go-go in the Senior Phase. Continuous assessment with tasks and tests kept our phase busy as they wrapped up their academic work for the term.

All sorts of sport fixtures continued and ended on a high note with a sport derby against Hermitage House and a tennis clash against Stulting. They also competed eagerly against their friends in the interhouse cross country and other interhouse clashes all these points go towards the best house trophy at the end of the year.

The Grade 5s took the win in the gardening competition and will be looking forward to a special outing in the 3rd term as their reward.

The Grade 7s honed their business skills and brought us a fabulous market day hopefully filling the pot with profit.

The children jived away on the dance floor at the Grade 6 disco fund raiser for their end of year tour to Plettenberg Bay. Next term is another busy term, so rest well all the Senior Phase pupils and teachers. Happy Holiday!

The second part of term 2 has passed us by in a flash. The Foundation Phase was very busy learning and creating, and have had a very successful term. During extra murals, a few of them had the opportunity of participating in team sport and playing in teams against other schools. During STEM, they created a sea creature out of plastic bottles. They also experimented with blowing aeroplanes to see what was necessary for them to fly further, and with marshmallows and sticks to investigate different strategies and use trial and error to build the highest tower. We had great fun confusing everyone with’ opposite day’ from dressing in pyjamas, to writing upside down.

It’s so exciting to see the Grade 1s progressing from reading words to enjoying reading books, from writing words to writing full sentences and from drawing simple drawings to exploring many mediums in art. We experienced a very cold winter this year and the children enjoyed chopping up vegetables to make their own pot of soup. Both classes made “toebroodjies met botter, kaas en konfyt” and they tasted “vrugte” ! We donated items of clothing to the less privileged for Mandela Day and we enjoyed following the progress of the Olympic Games. We made our own medals and discussed what the rings represent and what it takes to become an Olympian! On Friday our budding athletes ran in the Interhouse Cross Country and did so well - even those who were convinced they would not be able to do it! They ran off the excitement of the Grade 7 market day which was held earlier on Friday. 

We began the term by visiting African Dawn where we saw many of the bird species which we had learnt about in our theme. We then explored our ‘Superhero’ theme and discussed the different aspects of being a superhero including the sort of growth mind-set a superhero needs to have. Over Mandela’s birthday, we spoke about how Nelson Mandela was a superhero and why we thought so. Lastly we spoke about the Olympic Games and what it takes for those athletes to become Olympian heroes. We emphasized that everyone is good at something. We also started reading Afrikaans reading books which has been very exciting.

The second half of this term has gone in a flurry of activity! The Grade 3’s programme has shifted gears, and the children are now writing in their classwork books using cursive. They are doing really well! In Numeracy, we have continued to work on Number Sense, but a lot of our learning has included some new multiplication and division procedures as yet another strategy for the children to add to their Math toolbox. The  theme we covered on healthy eating will be continued next term.

The Bumble bees, Ladybirds, Caterpillars and Dragonflies, proudly walked onto the field with great excitement to participate in the Mini Olympics. They had lots of fun with activities such as ring toss, hoops and hurdle jump, torch relay and a challenging obstacle course where they used various athletic skills. The highlight of the day was of course the chocolate medal they received at the end.

Another exciting highlight was the incredible dog show. The children enjoyed watching the dogs do tricks and learned a few tips on how to care for our animals.

This term in the Library, we have tried to make the books come alive for the ECD children, by making a craft to compliment the story of the day.

Amongst other activities, we have decorated Gingerbread Men biscuits, made masks of the three little bears, threaded our own necklaces for the Magic Necklace and made Pinocchio puppets to mention a few.

Our goal is for the children to develop their imagination and a love for books.

Our highlight during this term was the beautiful choir evening!  The newly revamped River Club went the extra mile to create a beautiful setting for this evening.   Huge congratulations to all the choir children who performed their hearts out.  I would also like to thank the PTA for all their assistance with the beautiful décor.

In the last 2 weeks, we assisted the music department with the table decorations for the choir evening. It was a lot of fun putting the hats together.

We are partaking in some Calamari Festival events in September. Further info will be communicated.

We are also looking forward to the MTB race in November, and the Christmas Market early December.

If you would like to be part of our special and fun PTA team, please contact me on 0721991233.

Happy 20th birthday, St Francis College!!!

Warm Regards,

Lee Job

The second term has blown to a swift ending - always being the coldest period in the garden. The winners of the grade gardening competition were announced at the start of the term and the Grade 5 'Fairytale' garden took first place. It seems like the gardens get more and more impressive as the years pass!

Some of the highlights of the last few weeks were a visit to the garden from Lana of DeNude who showed us how to make infusions from herbs and plants in the garden. Sipping herbal tea together brought smiles all round.

We also learned all about local owls and have Deon making an owl box for us to put up next term.

We have weeded, played with worms and had a good few harvest sales. Our new sprinkler system is ready to use over the holidays!

Thanks you to all the friends of the garden who make this a happy place to be for our children.