DISTINCTIONS | 2014GIRLS IN A CLASS OF THEIR OWN

The following girls have been awarded Academic Honours blazers

Afrikaans Chatterbox

Back: Julia Brownlee, Jemma Richmond, Jana Smuts, Karien Scribante, Alessia Matheussen, Bianca Bailey, Robyn Wareing, Catherine GraceSecond row: Ivana Cetinich, Ciara Rowe, Kelly-Ann McNeil, Georgina Karnasopoulos, Ashleigh Donaldson, Daniela LamparelliFront: Melissa Spencer, Megan Duffy, Antonia Robertson, Valentina Osato, Stephanie Polkinghorne

Back:Thalia Rogers, Lehandri van Zyl, Alexandra BarryThird row: Grace High, Terri Elie, Melissa Kariuki, Ndivhuwo Magondo, Oluwatobi Ogunojemite, Simone FaesenSecond row: Zoleka Mosiah, Lauren Levieux, Anastasia Achilleos, Ashleigh Shepherd, Chido DzinotyiweiFront: Lauren Trinder-Smith, Jessie Moore, Natasja Wanblad, Refiloe Mokgele, Nicole HarlleyNot pictured: Caitlin Hackney

In October 2013, Sophie Patricios and Kaylyn Taljaard (both in Form I) participated in the Afrikaans Chatterbox, “Klets is Pret”, competition. The girls spoke well, and each won a gold certificate in her individual category.

academics

The Star Design-an-Ad competition

isiZulu Olympiad

The St Mary’s Art department entered the 2013 The Star Design-an-Ad competition and fared very well. The competition is a good introduction to the world of advertising. Caela-Jae de Beer (Form II), Ciara Rowe (Form V) and Julia Bartlett (Form II) all had their adverts published in a special supplement in The Star.

Towards the end of 2013, the results of isiZulu Olympiad were announced. Mmampe Khumalo (Form IV) placed fourth nationally and Aphelele Gama (Form III) placed third nationally. Bongiwe Bongwe (Form IV) achieved 78%.

Caela-Jae de Beer Ciara Rowe Julia Bartlett

Mmampe Khumalo Aphelele Gama Bongiwe Bongwe

Thalia Rogers (Form V) was placed 12th in the 2014 De Beers English Olympiad. Thalia travelled to Grahamstown in July to attend workshops at the National Arts Festival. She also attended a breakfast where her position was announced. This year, 8 102 entrants, from across South Africa, participated in the De Beers English Olympiad.

academics

Nkululeko Mhlongo (matric class of 2013) was awarded a prestigious Allan Gray Fellowship.

Nkululeko enrolled at St Mary’s in 2009, matriculating with an 89% aggregate and receiving 10 distinctions.

The fellowship covers full tuition, books, residence and a living allowance for an undergraduate degree at a South African university. Nkululeko chose to study Chemical Engineering at the University of Cape Town.

This is the third year in a row that a St Mary’s School pupil has been awarded an Allan Gray Fellowship.

Allan Gray Fellowship

Kumon English Programme

In 2013, Tenjiwe Sithole (Grade 2) achieved gold status on the Kumon Advanced Student Roll for the Kumon English Programme.

English Olympiad

Nichola M’Crystal achieves gold

SACEE awards

Nichola M’Crystal (Form V) was awarded the Gold President’s Award. This is in addition to her already having achieved both silver and bronze. She now becomes part of an elite group of participants who have obtained all three awards.

To achieve gold, Nichola completed 102 hours of community service at various organisations including Forest Town School, for children with special needs, Gerald Fitzpatrick House, for the aged, as well as initiating her own charities. The skills she developed for her award were marketing, jewellery design and manufacture, and spinning fire. The sports under-taken by Nichola were swimming, netball, athletics and dance. For the adventurous part of the programme, she embarked on a four-day hike in the mountains around Kaapsehoop, in Mpumalanga.

In addition to achieving gold, Nichola also represents St Mary’s on the President’s Award Gauteng Youth Committee and holds one of the four executive positions.

St Mary’s youthful poets and writers shone at the finals of the 2013 South African Council for English Education Creative Writing Competition.

Julia Huysamer (Form III) was a semi-finalist in the junior prose category and Kristin de Decker (Form II) won the junior poetry category with her meaningful poem Alpha and Omega.

In the Junior School, Tarya Pillay, Emma Harding, Kiera Jackson and Esmé Thornhill-Davis were winners and were awarded gold certificates. Hannah Codrington was the overall prizewinner for Grade 6.

Hannah CodringtonKristin de Decker

CULTURAL

Cultural Honours blazers

Jessica Morris, Karien Scribante, Jessica Myhill

Service Honours blazers

Boniswa Matiwane, Nomsa Majola, Chido Dzinotyiwei, Ellen Louw, Lerato Letsoalo, Nelisiwe Mkhele, Sarah Forsyth, Nichola M’Crystal, Robyn Wareing

Solo drama examinations

Hannah Bolus-Berkowitz, Victoria Grace and Fotini Prokas (all in Form V) took part in the Trinity Grade 8 solo drama examinations. They all received a distinction for this examination.

PSSA National School Photography Competition

St Mary’s photographers excelled, yet again, in this national competition. It is run by the Photographic Society of South Africa, which is the officially recognised photography body in South Africa and is affiliated internationally. Its awards are prestigious in the field of photography.

Arabella Pastoll’s (Form II)Bubblypomegranate won the 2013 competition and she was awarded a PSSA medal. St Mary’s also achieved five of the top 10 national awards.

Chess

Inge Marx (Form II) was awarded 2nd

place in the U16 section of the SA Junior Closed Chess Championships, and was reawarded South African colours. In 2014, she will represent South Africa at the World Youth Chess Championships, the African Youth Chess Championships and the World Youth U16 Chess Olympiad.Arabella Pastoll’s Bubblypomegranate

CULTURALPublic speaking

St Mary’s achieved exceptional results in the 2014 Speech and Drama College of South Africa’s High Schools Public Speaking Festival. Out of approximately 600 teams, our 10 prepared teams were the runners-up in the overall team result and our junior teams were the runners-up in the best junior team competition. We are especially proud that, of the 11 St Mary’s teams which entered the festival, no team received lower than an A symbol. Special mention must be made of our senior impromptu public speaking teams, who were the winners of the impromptu section.

Senior public speaking team

Junior public speaking team

In August 2013, Rebecca Mortimer (Form V) competed in the SADTA Stars of Tomorrow dance competition. She danced in the U16 jazz championships section and was awarded 1st place.

Kayla Read

Rebecca Mortimer

Bronwyn Craddock (Form II) won the 2014 Individual Dance Category prize at the inaugural Johannesburg Youth Arts Festival.

She also took part in the Talent Africa National Championships and competed in the ballet, contemporary and jazz sections. Bronwyn took the gold in all three sections in her category.

These results qualified her to compete in New York at the Talent for America competition, as well as the IFDPA Compete in the Magic competition, which will be held at Disneyland Paris in October. Earlier in the year, Bronwyn entered the Dance World Cup South African qualifier competition and qualified to go to the Dance World Cup.

Bronwyn Craddock

Taryn Adams (Form III) competed at the Showdance World Championships in Riesa, Germany, at the end of November 2013. The Junior South African Dance Team won gold and are the 2013 world champions. In March 2014, Taryn entered the Dance World Cup South African qualifier competition and qualified to go to the Dance World Cup in Portugal later in 2014.

Kayla Read (Grade 4) competed in the 2013 American Dance Awards at Sun City. She was awarded gold and, as a result, danced in Boston this year.

Taryn Adams

CULTURAL

Liesel Roux

Liesel Roux (Form IV) was selected to perform, as a soloist, with the Rand Symphony Orchestra in the Rand Symphony Orchestra Youth Concerto Festival in May and June 2014. She played the second movement from the Clarinet Concerto in A by Mozart. At the prestigious Roedean Yamaha Competition, held in June, Liesel received an A+.

PARTICIPATING BANDS:Pridwin P’Zazz BandSt. Alban’s College

Big BandHeritage Music School

Jazz BandKing David Jazz Band

St. Mary’s Waverley Senior School Jazz Band

Johannesburg YouthJazz Ensemble

Cornwall Hill CollegeBig Band

Tshwane University of Technology Little Big Band

Thursday 15 May

19H30

The Edge,St. Mary’s Waverley,Johannesburg

Adults R90,Seniors/Scholars/Students R45

2014

Gauteng Big Band Jazz Festival and Apollo Saxophone Quartet

The Edge was proud, once again, to host the Gauteng Big Band Jazz Festival.

The St Mary’s jazz band had the honour of performing in this prestigious event. They received much acclaim for their vibrant and skilful performance as well as their diverse programme, which featured standards and a jazz funk tune.

In April, The Edge hosted the world-renowned British band, the Apollo Saxophone Quartet. This quartet is the single largest contributor to the repertoire for saxophone quartet in the UK. They presented a tour de force saxophone performance, the likes of which are seldom seen in South Africa.

The Edge is becoming one of the foremost performance venues in Johannesburg.

Viebz music competition

Nelisiwe Mkhele and Jessica Morris, both in Form V, were finalists at the 2014 annual Viebz contemporary music competition, hosted by St Andrew’s. The standard of finalists was outstanding. Nelisiwe impressed the judges with an original song called Bring Me Down. Jessica, once again, had the audience on their feet dancing to her excellent drum rendition of Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen and Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson. Jessica received a commendable achievement award.

Robyn Murning

Robyn Murning (Form IV) won the brass section in the prestigious 2014 Roedean Yamaha competition. Earlier in the year, Robyn was selected by an audition panel of the Manhattan School of Music, New York City, to attend the 2014 Camp MSM. This is a programme of intensive musical instruction for a limited number of young musicians from around the world, with individual tuition, participation in large and small ensembles, a variety of musical and non-musical elective classes, and master classes given by renowned performing artists.

CULTURAL

Singing Sistas

April 2014 saw both the Senior and Junior choirs and orchestras joining girls’ schools from around Johannesburg, showcasing their talents at the annual Singing Sistas evenings. Singing Sistas is about bringing the girls together to enjoy an evening of singing. The choirs did not fail to entertain with their versatile voices.

Junior School orchestra

Junior School choir with choirs from Kingsmead, St Peter’s Girls’ School and St Katharine’s School

Senior School orchestra

Senior School choir

sport

Awarded at the end of Terms II and III in 2013 and in Term I 2014

Sports Honours blazers

Lerato Letsoalo, Jessie Moore, Amber Penney, Emma Hardham, Shannon Nicol, Megan Duffy

Prestige Athletics 2013

Courtney Pulford (2013 vice-captain) and Chido Dzinotyiwei (2013 captain) proudly hold the Inter-high Athletics shield after winning the 2013 Inter-high Athletics meeting

St Mary’s Junior School were the proud winners of the Prestige Athletics 2013.

The St Mary’s U9 relay team enjoyed an unbeaten season.

U9 relay teamBack: Miss Tracey WoodFront: Ella Babaya, Danielle Grobbelaar, Francis Bolton, Georgina Hector, Victoria Dahl

Athletics

Late in 2013, St Mary’s placed first at the Inter-high Athletics meeting and won the prestigious shield for the sixth year in a row.

Special mention must be made of Megan Hancock (Form II), Carly du Toit (Form II), Jamie Leslie (Form IV) and Amy Gerber (Form IV), who all placed first in two or more events.

In total, we recorded 17 first places but it was the depth of our performance that enabled us to produce such a stunning overall result.

sport

Diving

St Mary’s continued its dominance on the local diving scene with wins at Summer Splash, the National Aquatics Festival and the inter-high diving meet.

Aerin Davidson and Kate Shepherd (both in Form III), along with three other South Africans, were privileged to compete in the 2014 International Youth Diving Meet in Dresden, Germany. Both girls have also been selected to represent South Africa in Group A at the 20th FINA World Junior Diving Championships in Penza, Russia, from 9 to 14 September.

Isabelle Boles

Isabelle Boles (Grade 7) was selected for the Central Gauteng Youth Nationals team.

Junior and Senior divers at Summer Splash

Aerin Davidson and Kate Shepherd

Back: Shanté Dunstan, Kate Shepherd, Claire Hislop, Nonceba Nyoka, Emma DavidsonSecond row: Romy Len, Amy Greig, Aerin Davidson, Montana Wernars, Isabelle BolesFront: Alexandra Kirstein, Kerry-Leigh Morrison

Junior equestrian

Nicola Douglas (Grade 7), Lia Wheeler (Form I), India Wagg (Form I) and Itumeleng Mosiah (Grade 6) all qualified for the 2013 equestrian nationals

Equestrian

Senior equestrian

Andrea Douglas, Margaret Tucker, Zoleka Mosiah, Marisa Cetinich, Tessa Shorten and Jessica Eekhout were selected for the 2013 Gauteng team

At the 2013 Gauteng Equestrian Finals, Zoleka Mosiah (Form V) and Jessica Eekhout (Form III) both won first place, in equitation and dressage respectively. St Mary’s riders won 10 top-10 placings, while six girls were selected for the Gauteng team.

sport

Senior provincial players

St Mary’s is proud of the 25 girls who were selected for various provincial hockey teams.Back: Shannon Nicol, Kirsten Damant, Chloe Keeping, Amber Penney, Francesca Vercellotti, Liezl Kritzinger, Hannah Pearce, Stephanie Polkinghorne, Angela MorisseSecond row: Rachel Bartlett, Emma Davidson, Samantha Hislop, Megan de Lange, Julia Bartlett, Roxanne Keeping, Julia Fleming, Tessa HawkenFront: Courtney O’Shaughnessy, Juliet Sellers, Alexandra Rohde, Carly du Toit, Aerin Davidson, Georgina RoyNot pictured: Kerrith O’Fee, Karabo Makgamathe

Touring the Cape

St Mary’s spent the last weekend of the 2014 April holidays touring Cape Town. The girls played four matches and won them all convincingly.

Hockey

Netball

Jade Neser (Form I) was selected for the U14 Southern Gauteng netball team.

Jade Neser

The St Mary’s 1st netball team won the Sun City netball tournament.Refiloe Mokgele, Ntebatse Rachidi, Seipati Mahobja, Shanté Dunstan, Lerato Letsoalo, Caitlin MacDonald, Kayleigh Nielsen, Sithokozile Parirenyatwa, Jaime Leslie, Raffaella Masselli

The 1st team also participated in the Independent Schools Sports Festival and won all their games.

Junior School hockey

Ruby Morphet, Katherine Ward and Kate Reuss were selected for the D9 district hockey team, with Kate being named captain. Sarah Grinyer and Nicola Shapiro were selected for the U13 Southern Gauteng team. Sarah was named vice-captain of the Southern Gauteng U13 team. All five girls are in Grade 7.

Lilian du Plessis

St Mary’s excellence in hockey continues. Lilian du Plessis (class of 2010) has joined Shelley Russell and Lisa-Marie Deetlefs (both from the class of 2005) in the South African ladies’ national hockey team.

Ruby Morphet

Sarah Grinyer and Nicola Shapiro

Katherine Ward Kate Reuss

sport

At an awards ceremony in July 2014, Caitlin Reed, St Mary’s head rowing coach, and Tayla-May Bentley (Form IV) received their national colours for rowing.

Tayla-May was selected as one member of a double crew for the South African Junior National Rowing Squad to compete at the Junior World Rowing Championships in Hamburg, Germany, in August. Caitlin, as coach of the girls’ double crew, will be touring with the team. This is a reaward for Caitlin as she received her national colours in 2013.

Rowing

Junior World Rowing Championships

Lisa Heyneke (Form III), Constandina Protopappas (Form III), Alexandra Savenye-Terblanche (Form II) and Reid Hefer (Form IV) were selected as members of the South African Junior Development U16 and U17 squad that competed in the Ghent Regatta in Belgium in May 2014.

Pictured left: Constandina Protopappas (development squad), Lisa Heyneke (development squad), Tayla-May Bentley (junior national squad), Reid Hefer (development squad), Alexandra Savenye-Terblanche (development squad)

Megan Davis and Teegan Magnussen holding the U16 overall trophy

Emma Bellingan and Reitumetse Mokgele with the U15 age group trophy

At this year’s South African Rowing Championships, the U15s and U16s won their overall age group categories.

sport

Luciana Mordoh Acrobatic gymnastics

Luciana Mordoh (Form I) placed second in Level 7 at the 2013 South African nationals. She took part in the World Gym for Life competition in Cape Town in 2013, where her team won gold. She also travelled to Germany where she participated in a gymnastics festival.

Jade Adams

Jade Adams (Grade 5) and her partner were chosen to represent South Africa at the acrobatic gymnastics in France, in July. The girls competed in the 11–16 age group: women’s pair in the 8th Acrobatic Gymnastics World Age Group Competition.

Rhythmic gymnastics

St Mary’s is proud of the Junior School girls who were selected as provincial representatives for rhythmic gymnastics:Ava Economakis, Micheala Lotto, Zalika Methula, Venus Chow, Danika Neuhoff, Ella Babaya, Amy Levick, Chloe Smith, Jessica Lansdown, Meadow Robson, Hannah Jacobs, Alexia Bakos, Kayla Read, Reece Williams, Tyra Penney, Claire McIvor, Caitlin MillerNot pictured: Luciana Mordoh and Jade Acquah

At the 2013 Central Gauteng rhythmic gymnastics awards ceremony, Ella Babaya (Grade 4) was named the highest scoring gymnast in Level 3 in Central Gauteng.

Ella Babaya

Mercedes Kreissel (Form III) played some impressive golf at the Rose Bowl Championship in Cape Town. She won best gross on the first day, second-best nett overall and placed second in the B division. Earlier this year, she won the Blue Valley Ladies’ Club Championship for the second time in a row.

Recently, Mercedes was the only girl to compete in the B division of the Glacier Junior series and emerged the winner. In July, Mercedes received provincial colours from the Gauteng North Golf Union and was named captain of the junior girls’ team, representing the union in the junior inter-provincial tournament.

Golf Karate

Elizabeth Lonmon-Davis (Grade 3) and Victoria Milasinovich (Form IV) each achieved first place for kumite in their relevant age groups in the belt division (karate) at this year’s South African KWF Budo Karate International Championships.

Elizabeth Lonmon-Davis and Victoria Milasinovich with their trainer, Malcolm Dorfman

Badminton

Gautami Bhat

Gautami Bhat (Form III) played in the U19 badminton inter-provincial. She was graded number one in the C section.

Mercedes Kreissel

sport

Squash 2013 Aggregate Shield Gauteng winners

Talya Diepenbroek (captain) and Lauren Trinder-Smith (vice-captain) celebrate after hearing that St Mary’s won the 2013 Aggregate Shield for Gauteng squash. This means that across all age groups, the St Mary’s teams were the best-performing girls squash teams.

The victorious St Mary’s 1st squash team: Alexa Pienaar (coach), Tayla Diepenbroek, Jaime Leslie, Hayley Blakeman, Gabriella Nutter, Julia de Beer and Daniela Scriba posing with their mascot, Yoghurt

The St Mary’s 1st squash team took top honours by winning the 2014 Gauteng Top Schools Squash Tournament. The team has now qualified to participate in the National Top Schools Squash Tournament, which will take place in August at Epworth School, Pietermaritzburg.

National Top Schools Squash 2013

At the 2013 National Top Schools Squash Competition, St Mary’s earned their first-ever medal. The girls were delighted with their bronze medals: Hayley Blakeman, Tayla Diepenbroek, Jessica Davies, Calanthe Frost, Victoria Stark and Jodi Hanson

At the end of the 2014 inter-provincial squash tournaments, the latest squash rankings were announced. Panashe Sithole (Form I) was ranked the number one player in South Africa in the U16 age group, while Olivia Langford (Form I) was ranked the number nine player in the South Africa U14 age group.

Panashe Sithole and Olivia Langford

U13 provincial squash representatives

Senior provincial squash representatives

St Mary’s has 11 squash players selected for various provincial squash teams.Back: Hayley Blakeman, Tayla Diepenbroek, Jaime Leslie, Gabriella Nutter, Megan Hancock, Daniela ScribaFront: Panashe Sithole, Georgina Barrow, Amy Greig, Olivia Langford, Julia de Beer

Kiara Walsh, Cara O’Flaherty and Jemma Warsop (all Grade 7) were selected for the Central Gauteng U13 A team. St Mary’s has three of the five players in this provincial team.

sport

Tennis

Imaan Hassim (Form III) is currently ranked 21st in South Africa in the U16 age group and reached the finals of the South African doubles U16 championships. She was chosen for the South African U19 schools team.

Adetayo Adetunji (Form I) is ranked 21st in South Africa in the U14 age group and was chosen to represent Nigeria in the African Junior Tennis Championships. She was chosen for the South African U15 schools team.

Cara O’Flaherty (Grade 7) is currently ranked number 10 in South Africa in the U12 section. Cara was chosen as the number two player in the Gauteng Central Primary Schools team, and is also a member of the South African Primary Schools team to tour the United States in August.

St Mary’s junior and senior teams won the Private Schools Tennis Tournament at Sun City in September 2013. The senior team also won the mixed doubles event at the Hilton/St Anne’s Private Schools tournament. St Mary’s came second in the St Mary’s Invitational Tennis Festival.

Both the Junior School and the Senior School won their tennis leagues in the first term.

The St Mary’s B team, comprising Naima Sagar, Roxanne Lowe, Roxanne Keeping and Julia Fleming, won the B inter-high, with the St Mary’s C team placing third in this same competition. The C team is made up of Jessica Morris, Annabel Tennick, Liezl Kritzinger and Shannon Leitch.

Four players represented the Gauteng A Provincial Schools team, and four players were chosen for the Gauteng B team. One-third of the provincial representatives came from St Mary’s.

St Mary’s Invitational Tennis Festival team: Adetayo Adetunji, Imaan Hassim, Kathryn Rohde, Tegan Scorgie, Aderotimi Adetunji

B Inter-highThe B and C teams that competed in the B inter-highBack: C team: Annabel Tennick, Jessica Morris, Shannon Leitch, Liezl KritzingerFront: B Team: Naima Sagar, Roxanne Lowe, Julia Fleming, Roxanne Keeping

Imaan Hassim

Girls selected for various provincial tennis teams:Back: Aderotimi Adetunji (U19 B), Naima Sagar (U15 A), Imaan Hassim (U19 A), Kathryn Rohde (U19 A)Front: Shannon Leitch (U15 B), Tegan Scorgie (U15 B) Roxanne Keeping (U15 B)Not pictured: Adetayo Adetunji (U15 A)

The junior team that won the Private Schools Tennis Tournament at Sun City in September 2013: Ruth Moore, Cara O’Flaherty, Sarah Grinyer, Olivia Langford, Courtney O’Shaughnessy

The Junior A and B tennis teams won the primary schools tennis league in a most convincing fashion.Back: Samantha Trinder-Smith, Kiara Walsh, Courtney O’Shaughnessy, Adetayo Adetunji, India Wagg, Robyn DoddsFront: Cara O’Flaherty, Ruth Moore, Sarah Grinyer, Nicola Shapiro, Olivia Langford, Anthea Poklewski-KoziellNot pictured (but who played in some of the matches this term): Sophie Patricios and Nina Patience

Cara O’Flaherty Adetayo Adetunji

sport

Amber Penney and Emma Hardham, both 1st team water polo players, were selected for the U18 SA World Cup team to compete in Madrid, Spain, in August at the FINA World Women’s Youth Water Polo Championships.

What a fantastic season it was for water polo at St Mary’s. The 1st water polo team won a total of four gold medals and are the National Aquatic Champions, Old Mutual Cup Champions, Old Petrians’ Champions and Reef Cup Champions. The 1st team are now ranked as the top water polo girls’ team in South Africa.

Emma Hardham (Form V), Amber Penney (Form IV) and Megan Duffy (Form V) were also selected for the U18 South African junior squad.

St Mary’s 1st water polo teamBack: Nicola Hardie, Caitlyn O’Shaughnessy, Kirsten Trinder-Smith, Jenna Duffy, Amber Penney, Lehandri van Zyl, Megan Duffy, Emma Hardham, Tayla DiepenbroekFront: Lace Hallendorff, Jessie Moore, Roxannne Lowe, Kirsty Fitzhenry, Sasha de la Rey, Kelsey White (coach)

Water polo

SwimmingGabriella Nutter (Form IV), Ashleigh Fitzgerald (Form III), Carly du Toit (Form II), Daniela Passoni (Form II) and Jade Neser (Form I) all competed at the Level 3 Swimming Championships. All the girls swam personal best times. Carly and Jade achieved senior national qualifying times.

SA water polo

Amica Hallendorff

Amica Hallendorff (class of 2010) has been selected for the South African ladies’ water polo team. St Mary’s head water polo coach, Kelsey White, was selected as captain of this team.

Kelsey White shooting vs England

Carly du Toit and Jade Neser

GENERAL

Bring back our girls

The Senior School girls braved the chilly winter morning air to add their voices to the mounting public outcry for the release of the schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram in Nigeria. The girls congregated outside the St Mary’s School gates, attracting the attention of passing motorists and pedestrians with their signs. Waving placards that read “Bring back our girls” and “South Africa supports you girls”, the St Mary’s students showed their concern for the more than 200 missing schoolgirls. This initiative was led by St Mary’s head girl, Jessica Morris. The Senior Primary girls received white ribbons to pin on their blazers to remember the girls who were abducted in Nigeria.

Clothes 2 Cash eXchange

The Clothes 2 Cash eXchange drive in May/June 2014 was a great success. The Senior School girls collected 2 148kg of usable clothes, for which they received R10 740. This money will be used to fund various initiatives, including buying and planting trees in underprivileged areas in Alexandra. They also collected 627.6kg of unusable clothes; these will be repaired and reused for charity through the Life Link 24/7 Cares Foundation. In addition, C2CX matched two-fifths of our total raised amount and donated it to Life Link. This means that St Mary’s effectively raised R15 036 for charity.

St Mary’s Senior School girls showing their support for the more than 200 kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls

Senior Primary girls: Alexandra Kirstein, Kiara McLuckie, Ynez Mayet, Sayuri Moodley

Connell Cruise

South Africa’s latest singing sensation, Connell Cruise, visited St Mary’s much to the delight of our girls.

Daniela Lamparelli, Jessica Morris, Connell Cruise, Nelisiwe Mkhele, Robyn Murning, Wayne Purchase (head of culturals)

GENERAL

Former Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe with members of the Junior School choir

PUTCO donation presentation: Back: Tessa Browne (Reggio co-ordinator), Des Hugo (headmistress: St Mary’s Junior School), Franco Pisapia (PUTCO CSI Foundation)Front: Obianauju Asuzu, Jocelyn Appel, Simran Soni, Kganya Kodisang, Kyla Grobbelaar

Reggio

In June 2014, the Africa Reggio Emilia Alliance (AREA), together with St Mary’s, hosted the fourth International Reggio Children’s Conference on the approach to education by the world-renowned municipal pre-schools and infant toddler centres of Reggio Emilia, Italy.

This year’s conference focused on children and teachers as researchers: making creative thinking and collaboration visible.The majority of the delegates (totalling nearly 500) were people from under-resourced schools in townships, informal settlements and rural settings, who were able to attend as a result of a generous donation from the PUTCO CSI Foundation. Among the dignitaries who attended the opening ceremony were Former Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe and Ambassador Anthony Mongale, previous ambassador to Reggio Emilia.

In May this year, St Mary’s School, along with Roedean School (SA) and Kingsmead College, hosted the South African Girls’ Schools Association Conference. Over 100 heads, deputy heads and staff members from girls’ schools throughout South Africa, both government and independent schools attended.

Random Acts of Kindness

The RAK (random acts of kindness) nomination is an exciting initiative, in which schools nominate other schools to give back to the community. St Mary’s was nominated by St John’s College to take up the challenge. We collected over 520 teddy bears for the Princess Alice Adoption Home and various other organisations. St Mary’s has passed the RAK nomination on to St David’s and St Stithians Colleges.

SAGSA

Lisa Kaplan (headmistress: Kingsmead College), Jenny Mundell (ISASA), Mary Williams (executive head: Roedean School (SA)), Deanne King (principal: St Mary’s)

St Mary’s caterers, Educhef, served an array of delicious dishes

GENERAL

The Little Saints mosaic project

In June 2014, the children, teachers and families from the Little Saints class of 2013, gathered to bless the mosaic on the Pitt block. The story of the mosaic was created by the children at Little Saints, aged between three and five years. They designed and created this breathtaking mosaic to celebrate St Mary’s 125th anniversary. They first identified and later symbolised five elements which made up the essence of St Mary’s: God, beauty, learning, relationships and activities. A beautiful, poignant narrative evolved to connect the various images they had drawn and selected for the final design.

Revd Lee blessing the mosaic

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