For heritage day the Grade 5's did a gumboot dance performance which is a style of dance that was invented by the gold miners of Johannesburg. Pupils got to dress up to represent their heritage and it was wonderful to see the children proud ambassadors of their country. 

This term the Grade 5’s hosted their annual Lumo party and it was a night to remember!

Teens and tweens from a host of different schools got together to dance and party the night away.  It was wonderful to see all the kids in our special town mingle and socialize together.  DJ Mr V was a hit and there was lots of stomping on the dance floor. 

Grade 5, 6 and 7 pupils gathered together to make almost 100 cupcakes for the National Cupcake Day on the 30th September.  Cupcakes were baked, decorated (and definitely tasted!) and then shipped off for sale in Jeffreys Bay. 

The Fountains Mall sale brought in R20 877 and this helped bring the national total up to a very impressive R 2.3 Million! All money raised will go towards helping children to fight cancer.  A very big thank you to Mrs Marais for being our person pastry chef and to all he pupils who helped support this very worthy cause. 

Grade 4s have had a busy academic term already. Learning and writing tests that will prepare them for their final exams. But all work and no play is not good so this term we have started our hand work projects. Some children chose to knit and after many dropped stitches and teacher headaches we are now on our way to knitting a beautiful bunny. The others chose to build a wooden boat, honing their sandpaper, painting and hammering skills. We look forward to seeing the end products.

Grade 4s have also made the loveliest Christmas bags for our Thoughtful Thursday community project. They filled the bags generously with lovely goodies which will be donated to the old people in our community.

School is also fun!!

St Francis College soccer boys started the term off with a tournament on the 7th of Sep, hosted by VCS. We played against VCS and Grasslagte and unfortunately lost both games. 

It gave the boys some work to do to prepare for the next tournament hosted by Oakridge on the 5th of October. The U11 and U13 played 3 matches each, with results as follows: 

U11

vs ESS won 2-0

vs Future Stars drew 0-0

vs VCS won 1-0

U13

vs ESS lost 3-1

vs Oakridge drew 1-1

vs Future Stars lost 4-0

U11 were tie on points for first place with Future Stars. A final game was played where Future Stars won 3-0 to take home the trophy. SFC U11 came 2nd out of 8 schools and U13 came 6th out of 8. Well done to the boys on a very hot day!

Interhouse athletics this year took place on our new top field, which gave plenty of space for a variety of track and field events. Musselcracker took the win on points but it was the tug of war that was the highlight of the day. Thank you to the parents for attending and well done to everyone who participated!

The Spring term arrived which we greeted with great excitement as we prepared ourselves for Heritage day and to participate in the extended Calamari Festival. The children participated in the recycling competition contributing many creative items made from recycling. Jake Knezovich won 3rd prize for his Chokka boat.

We began the term by doing Conquesta assessments which are the government benchmarks. We expect the results by the end of the year. We also spent time reading to each other across the grades. It was wonderful to see how the children had improved and put effort and expression into their reading in an effort to make it more interesting. The Grade 2’s and 3’s had a Maths Multiplication Mash-up as they played tables games against each other. The games became very competitive and it was thoroughly enjoyed.

Mrs Bianca Riley has spent the past five weeks in Grade 1 doing her teaching practice and we would like to thank her for her contributions. The Grade 1s enjoyed exploring length using non-standard units as well as learning to measure in centimetres. They had fun measuring different objects as well as each other! We talked about the growth of plants as we moved into Spring, and watched bean seeds grow in a bag. The children have been excited to get to school to see how much ‘hair’ has grown on their seed heads! We learnt about Vincent van Gogh and the children produced some very creative ‘Sunflower’ still life artwork.

The Grade 2’s began the term by speaking about water- how to save it and what we use it for. We discussed the water-cycle and planted beans which grew beautifully. During the Heritage day week we spoke about leaders and what being a leader is. In Art, we drew an Ndebele house and decorated it with patterns focusing on repeated patterns. We also wrote folktale comics using South African animals as the characters. 

A highlight to the beginning of our term, has been to learn about the traditional clothing, dwellings, diet and art expressions of a few of the cultural groups that live in South Africa. This led to some interesting and colourful artworks and posters using various art media. We then celebrated Spring by building a self-contained terrarium where the children could watch their own miniature water cycle at work. The Grade 3’s also learnt how to write an acrostic poem, which they really enjoyed. They produced some lovely poems, and we look forward to doing some more work involving poetry over this term. 

TICKETS AVAILABLE TO PURCHASE FROM THE OFFICE 

Our ECD students have been having a blast this term! They've been busy exploring insects, sharing a wonderful day with their grandparents, and getting their hands dirty in the garden. We’ve planted some lovely vegetable seeds, and the excitement is contagious! We can’t wait to see what more adventures await our little ones!

As we approach the last bit if school for 2024, we are looking forward to the Carols and Christmas Market on 4 December. There is no entry fee, please come and enjoy the evening with us. There will be food, crafts, baked goods, bar and much more!

We had a Boerewors Roll Stall at the Calamari Festival on the 28th October, which was a lot of fun. A BIG thank you to the helping hands!

We have also secured the 12 July 2025 for our annual Golf Day. Please contact me if you are interested in sponsoring a T-box, or a prize.

Forever grateful for your generosity!

Lee Job