carlswald house preparatory | july-august 2015 | …€¦ · carlswald house preparatory |...

CARLSWALD HOUSE PREPARATORY | JULY-AUGUST 2015 | NEWSLETTER 3

NEWSLETTER As we draw to the end of our winter term, I would like to reflect on the many, varied and wonderful things that have taken place at 345 and CHP since the start of May.

345 had a busy term We kicked off with the 345 concerts at the end of May. What a treat it was to watch our little ones on stage singing and dancing to the music. They loved every minute of it and, seeing the smiles on all of your faces, you enjoyed them too. 345 Reports were also sent out in June. I thoroughly enjoyed reading them all and seeing how our little ones have grown and developed this year. To watch their physical, emotional and academic

development is like watching a small plant grow into a beautiful tree. I have no doubt you have enjoyed seeing the progress your little ones have made too. We also enjoyed a wonderful Sports Day last Saturday. It was so good to see the enthusiasm of the children and the fun that they had as they ran across the field. Such excitement! Sadly we say ‘Farewell’ to Miss Michelle Heyneke, who has resigned from 345 Carlswald and will leave at the end of the year. She will be returning to university to continue her studies.

FROM THE DESK OF MR TAGG

ACADEMICS AND STAFF Our children have done exceptionally well in the classroom. My favourite time in the day is to walk into the

classrooms and watch the learning happening and the enthusiasm that is shown by both the children and the

teachers. What a pleasure it was to read all their reports and see how our children have grown and progressed this

term. Well done, CHP! You have made your teachers proud!

Next year our Grade 4s move up to Grade 5 and we are happy to announce that Mrs Tracy Sowerby has been

appointed as Grade 5 class teacher for 2016. Mrs Sowerby comes to us from Grayston Preparatory and brings with

her 10 years of teaching experience, 8 of which have been in independent education. Tracy also brings a wealth of

knowledge and experience in the technology arena, having worked extensively with iPads in the classroom as well

as in Google. We are very happy and fortunate to have secured her services for 2016.

We will also be having two Grade 3 classes next year as the school grows and so Ms Kelsey Govender will be

moving from Grade R to join Mrs Nel in Grade 3 in 2016. Another very exciting and positive step for Kelsey. CHP is

growing and there are still so many new and exciting things to look forward to next year.

Sadly Mr Reuben Mandlazi has tendered his resignation and will be leaving CHP at the end of the year to take up a

promotion post as Head of Junior Sport at The Ridge School. We are deeply saddened to loose Mr Mandlazi as he

has been at the forefront of our sport development as well as the teaching of Zulu in the classroom. We wish him all

the very best in his career at The Ridge.

MUCH HAS HAPPENED ON THE CHP FRONT THIS TERM

SUBHEADINGS IN BOLD

But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of

denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give

you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual

teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder

of human happiness.

No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is

pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue

pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are

extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or

pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain,

but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil

and pain can procure him some great pleasure.

SPORT The Grade 2, 3 and 4 children represented CHP on the Soccer, Netball and Hockey fields this term, playing against

other schools in our area. What a great start to our competitive career as a school. The children did so well and, on

many occasions, gave the other schools a fright! I was so proud to see the dedication and effort they put into their

sport. Thank you too to the many parents that come to watch the children play at the various schools.

SAS

NEWSLETTER | JULY-AUGUST 2015 | 2

TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION This is a hot topic at the moment, and CHP is moving up. We purchased our first set

of Apple iPads for the children in Grade 2, 3 and 4 to start using in the classroom.

This is a mobile lab with 12 tablets in it. This is very exciting and signals the start of

the next phase in Academic development and growth at CHP. We are adding the final

touches to our network and, once completed, the iPads will be available for the children

to use in class. The teachers have also all received their own iPads to develop their lessons and learning

experiences for the children. Watch this space. It is our goal to become an Apple Distinguished School in the next

5 years!

MUSIC The Magic of Music was also a huge highlight this term. Our Junior Choir performed at the annual Magic of Music fund

raiser at the Linder Auditorium at The University of the Witwatersrand. Our choir was only formed in February this year

but they thrilled the audience, singing and drumming their hearts out. Yet another proud moment for CHP. I received

many compliments and commendations on how well they did. Thank you again to the parents that came to listen and

support our children.

BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION We commenced with the building of 4 new classrooms behind the main classroom block at the start of July. This new

building will house 4 state of the art classrooms which will have WiFi connectivity as well as audio visual capability,

bathrooms for the children, a new HOD office for Mrs Venter as well as two sport storerooms. We are aiming to have

this block completed for the start of the 2016 year. Keep an eye on the gallery tab on the website for updated photos

of the building progress. As soon as the classroom block is finished we will begin construction on the next phase

which will either be the new hall and administration block or the next 4 classrooms. Watch this space!

SAS


OUTREACH We spent a wonderful day in Tembisa in July handing our “We Care” bags to the little ones at 3 preschools. How

wonderful it was to see the smiles and appreciation of these little ones. The bags contained a beanie, gloves,

crayons, a party pack and some toiletries that were all collected by 345 and CHP children and families. We will be

embarking on further support for these three schools next term and we will see what else we can do to help them.

Thank you to all the 345 and CHP families for your generous donations towards these 3 schools.

TO END OFF I wish to thank you, the parents, for your continued support and enthusiasm. Without this support and involvement, 345 and CHP would not be growing and thriving as it is. Please continue to support your children and your school. There are many very exciting things on the horizon and we have the wonderful privilege to embark and enjoy these times. Finally a very big thank you to my staff and assistant staff. I constantly marvel at the hard work and dedication shown from Grade 0000 all the way to Grade 4. Thank you for the love and care that you show as well as your commitment to giving our children the very best education there is to offer. I wish you all a wonderful, restful holiday. If you are travelling, travel safely. I look forward to welcoming you all back in September. Warm regards

Stewart Tagg

SAS


SPORTS DAY


Image caption with a few lines describing what is happening in each photograph.

MADIBA DAY CHARITY

DRIVE

NEWSLETTER | MAY 2015 | 5


In celebration of Mandela Day, 345 and CHP donated ‘Care Packs’ to three day care centre’s based in Ivory Park and

Tembisa. Both schools were tasked with the collection of bars of soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, crayons, scarves and

beanies, which were then packaged in backpacks purchased and donated by 345 and CHP. These were distributed

to Roviningo Pre-School, Elelwani Pre-School and Little Stars Pre-School – all part of the Daycare Preschool Group, a

non-profit organisation directed by Frans Leo. We would like to extend our gratitude to everyone involved. It was a

privilege for us to bring a smile to the wonderful children we met and an honour to witness the amazing work being

achieved by the teachers with so few resources at hand.

.



DINO-TIME! The Grade RG class have had a wonderful time learning all about dinosaurs. They were fascinated by these creatures

and learned many interesting facts about them. We had loads of fun with our dinosaur art, showing amazing

imagination and creativity!


GRADE R-G

DO YOU KNOW YOUR ABC’s We are starting to build words! We have been so enthusiastic and Teacher Kelsey is so impressed with what we can

do!

Our very own dinosaur fossils

Dinosaur collage


DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY It was time to set sail with D&T! Teacher Freyja gave us the task of building a boat. She divided us into teams and

the team that built the best boat won the challenge! We worked so well as a team and did such a good job!


GRADE R-W

THE WORLD OF DINOSAURS! We’ve had a lot of fun learning all about dinosaurs! Kayler drew the

most beautiful drawings, which she brought to school

to share with us.

MATHS Teacher Tanya gave us some construction toys and put us on the carpet

to sort out colours and shapes. We also learnt all about ‘data handling’.

It was a lot of fun to see who could get the most out of a colour and shape.


“WE LOVE HAVING FUN TO LEARN”….out of the mouth of one of our babes!

We have done a lot of practical learning this month. One of our Life Skills themes was “Plants and Seeds”, so we are busy

growing our own beans to see what they look like. We also used smarties to learn how to draw graphs in Maths.

MANDELA DAY On this very special day, we learnt all about who Nelson

Mandela was and about the long road that he walked

for the freedom of South Africa and all its people. In

tribute, we made our own “Long Walk to Freedom”, by

tracing around our feet and making a pathway around

the school with all our feet. We enjoyed the teamwork

it took!


GRADE 1-D

We had fun planting our beans. We used old CD cases so that we can see the roots and stems and leaves developing. We

also learnt about the different parts of a plant

and how a sunflower grows. We then made out

own beautiful yellow sunflowers.

Mrs D told us that we’re going to use smarties to

do Maths. We were puzzled – they’re for

eating, not for counting! But we managed to hold out long enough to learn how to draw a graph of

things that we can group together…and were

allowed to eat them after we had finished! Yum!


The Grade 1-Ms have been enjoying the Life Skills themes. They have learnt all about ‘Pets’ and how to take care

of them, as well as plants and seeds.


We drew our own version of

the famous “Laurel

Burch” cats

GRADE 1-M

We drew our own version of

the famous “Laurel

Burch” cats

We learnt what plants and

seeds need to grow, and

planted our own bean

seeds.

In Maths we practiced

graphing with smarties! We were so happy when we were told we could

eat them afterwards!

GRADE 2-F


We are very excited that we became authors and illustrators in Grade 2! We drafted, edited and wrote our own space

stories, and made our own front covers for them too!

We have been learning all about SYMMETRY and enjoyed drawing the other side of our faces so they would

be symmetrical.

We have been learning how to write

interesting sentences using different parts of grammar. Here are some sentences we made using different

prepositions.

Isago, Craig, Sbusiso, Ngabisa, Ntwenhle Tumelo, Saloni, Owen, Tshenolo, Nolo

Mutshidzi and Swazi

“The dog is going in and out of the house and it’s

driving me nuts.”

“Before we went to the zoo we had ice cream and Owen

had a brain freeze.”

“The boy went around the school park and into the

play ground with his friend after lunch.”

“The dog was

behind the bed and it was eating my cake that I left on

the floor.”

“During the school

holidays, I stayed inside the house and I was playing with my dogs. Their names are Tom and

Bob.”

GRADE 2-Y


MATHS IS FUN! Grade 2-Y have been very busy in Maths during July, perfecting their understanding of place value, working in

groups to solve word problems, making a start on multiplication and practicing informal measurement using unifix

cubes.


LOOK AT OUR NEW RECORDERS!

A very excited and enthusiastic class got

to experience their very first music lesson

on their brand new recorders. Siyanda

and Harshad kept us further intrigued,

bringing in their accordion and drums to

show the class.

GRADE 3-N


INSECTS – LIFE SKILLS THEME Learning more about different insects, their characteristics, body parts and habitats. Yet another super interesting and

exciting theme!

We are going BIG with the recycling challenge in our class! Mrs Nel is in the lead at the moment, but we have promised to “come to the party” and bring all our glass to school to recycle.

READING We understand the importance of reading

and really enjoy spending time inside the

books when we have completed our class

work.

MANDELA DAY We had the privilege of helping to pack

the “We Care” bags that were handed out

to underprivileged children in Tembisa.

GRADE 4-D


At the start of July we were joined by Teacher Jessica in Grade 4. She is a

student teacher and has spent the whole of July with us. She has taught us

some Maths, Science and Art lessons which have been lots of fun!

In Art we are working with

patterns. We had a fun art day

where we used different

mediums to create patterns,

such as potatoes and leaves.

We went out and about school

to find the perfect leaves to use.

In celebration of Mandela Day, we created our own Nelson Mandela pop art using the Andy Warhol

method.

In Maths we have been

learning about capacity. This

meant we got to do lots of fun

Maths lessons outside,

learning how to measure liquid

and converting between

millilitres and litres.

carlswald house preparatory | july-august 2015 | …€¦ · carlswald house preparatory |...

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