WATERKLOOF PRIMARY SCHOOL NEWSLETTER 12 – 2014
28 July 2014
From the Headmaster’s Desk Term 3 Welcome back to all members of staff, learners and parents. I hope the three week break has renewed your energy levels and rejuvenated your spirit.
Staffing We welcome three new members of staff to the school. Mr Law, who has been appointed in Mrs Williams’ post; Mr Wissing who takes over Ms Williams’ Grade 4 post, and Ms Stevens who has been appointed in Mrs Lee Fon’s post while the latter is on accouchement leave.
Buildings and Grounds A sterling job was done by the groundsmen in the maintenance and cleaning of classrooms during the last holiday. Thank you very much gentlemen for your hard work and dedication to the school. The change rooms at the swimming have been upgraded and repainted. Thanks go to the PTA and parents supporting the PTA, whose fundraising efforts contributed to this project. A new water point has been installed at the Foundation Phase. The first phase in laying synthetic lawn at the Foundation Phase classrooms has been started, with excellent results. Thank you to the staff and parents who raised funds towards this project.
Assessment Plans - Term 3
Mrs J. Shee
These are available for perusal in the front office. Please note that all dates are subject to change.
Consultation Times - Term 3 - Grades 4 - 7 Grade Grade Grade Grade
4 5 6 7
Mondays Thursdays Thursdays Tuesdays
14:00 14:00 14:00 14:00
-
Mrs J. Shee 15:00 15:00 15:00 15:00
Appointments are 15 minutes in duration and by appointment only. Please send your request for a meeting via your child’s homework diary. NB. If your note is not signed, we have not seen it!
Absent Children
Mrs J. Shee
The high level of absenteeism last term was unacceptable. We worked until the last day and many children have missed large sections of work. Please do not arrange holidays during school time or allow your child to stay at home unless they are ill. Thank you.
Discipline Statistics
Mrs J. Shee
Our discipline system uses a tracking book system to monitor the children’s academic work and their behaviour. Having analysed the records from January to June the following has been noted. 4% of our Grade 4 - 7 children required intervention meetings with the School Management Team or School Governing Body and their parents to try to assist them with problems relating to their school work or behaviour. 63% of our children have required an acceptable number of reminders and assistance that has required teacher assistance, but no major corrective measures. I am extremely proud that 33% of our children received 0,1 or 2 entries in the tracking books over 6 months and, therefore, have been rewarded with the WPS wristband as a visible sign of the school’s pride in them well done!
Read-a-Thon
Mrs J. Shee
In September we will once again hold our annual Read-a-Thon. I ask parents to give this fundraiser their full financial support as we would like to use the money this year to upgrade the staffroom to a venue suitable for staff to work and mark, as well as have their tea breaks. This room has not been revamped in nearly twenty years!
SPCA - Charity
Mrs A. Stobbart
The charity we support during Term 3 is the SPCA. We ask our children to bring dog food, cat food and blankets for the SPCA animals, to school. We would like to appear to all our valued parents and learners to support this project. It would be appreciated if each class can donate as many of dog food, cat food, old or new blankets. All the food and blankets can be sent to the learners’ register teacher each morning. Mrs Korki Levanon from the SPCA will collect our donations at the end of the term. Each term SPCA collection tins are placed in each register class and we collected R1800.00 last term - well done. Let us try to better that amount this term. We are very grateful to our parents, learners and staff who open their hearts to such a needy cause. Thank you in advance for your generosity.
Big Walk
Mrs J. Shee
Thank you to all the children and parents - our Big Walk raised R37 767.40. This money was put towards the cost of laying the artificial grass in the Foundation Phase.
From the Sportsdesk
Mrs J. de Beer
Extra murals as per extramural timetable started last week. Please note that if your child decides to join chess or dancercise, it is expected that they are committed for the entire term. Unfortunately, after the second week of the term, no new children can be admitted to these activities. Teams are selected and routines worked out, and this requires the full commitment of the children. Please note that no parents may watch dancercise. We give parents an opportunity once a term to watch a special production of the term’s work.
Athletics - Congratulations to the Saturn girls and the Neptune boys for winning the Tug of War held on the last day of Term 2.
Interhouse Field events
The field event programme, including Long Jump, High Jump and Shot Put, will be held on Thursday 31 July 2014 starting at 13:00. These events are optional and athletes must give their names to Mrs de Beer. The top three athletes in each event and age group will qualify to be part of the school team. Ribbons and trophies for these events will be handed out during the Interhouse Athletics day on Friday 1 August 2014. The field events are for u 11 to u 14 only.
Interhouse Track events
The track event programme, including Middle Distance, Hurdles, Sprints and Relays will be held on Friday 1 August 2014 starting at 08:30. We remind children that if they came in the first three places during the inter house run outs held last term, they will be competing in the sprint and relays for their house. If your child came fourth in the interhouse run outs, they will be competing in the relays for their house. If your child would like to take part in Hurdles or Middle Distance they must give their names to Mrs de Beer. u 9 & u 10 run 600m u 11, u 12 and u 13 run 1200m u 14 run 1500m Team lists for the Interhouse athletics day are available on the Communicator and outside the sports office. Only athletes from Grades R. 1, 2 and 3 will be expected to come to school on Friday 1 August 2014. The children will receive written confirmation. The remainder of the foundation phase children may stay at home without being marked absent. All children may wear their school tracksuit OR black, navy or grey tracksuit pants with the red school jersey. All athletes must take part in their white shorts with their house t-shirt. If your child is placed in the first five runners during the Inter House Meeting, he/she becomes part of the school team and is expected to attend practices regularly according to the extramural timetable. Eats for the Inter-house Athletics All athletes in Grades 1, 2 and 3 and all learners in Grade 7 must please provide a plate of eats for the parents.
Ballet - Jesse Kettle achieved a distinction in Level 1 Grade 3 Royal Academy of Dance Ballet Examination. Jesse was awarded an overall mark of 81 %. Well done Jesse and keep up the good work.
Karate - Ayakhla Qhomfo in Grade 5 was chosen to represent South Africa in Namibia after winning a gold medal in the national karate championship. Well done.
Recycling
Mrs L. Eagle
We are recycling one again and a big thank you to all those who collected their waste over the holidays. Once again I would like to remind you that we require CLEAN items, sorted into plastics, aluminium tins, tin cans, glass, polystyrene, and then paper and cardboard which can be placed on the soccer field. Please place ONLY PAPER and CARDBOARD on the field. There are many parents who are dropping off bags which contain glass on the field, and you can imagine what would happen if the bag is dropped or ridden over by a car! It is athletics season now and the children are practising with bare feet on the field. I encourage all those who have not yet made an effort to join our recycling project. Every household has some plastic bottles, milks cartons or newspapers and magazines to dispose of - how about cleaning them and sending them to school on Wednesday morning? I would love to see you all there.
Scripture Union
Mrs L. Eagle
Scripture Union will be resuming their meetings at the school as from Friday 1 August 2014. We will meet in Mrs Sebastian’s classroom from 14:00 to 14:45 each Friday. This is open to all children, from Gr R to 7.
Exams
Dr P. Biccard
Exams are written twice a year in Terms 2 and 4. We do not write exams right at the end of these terms. The reasons for this include: to teach children that they are not at school only to be assessed. They are at school to learn. Assessment is one of the ways in which learning can be gauged, it is not the sole purpose of education; to allow teachers time to mark thoroughly, and to allow children the opportunity of seeing their papers and doing corrections within the term that the papers are written. Part of the learning process is seeing one’s exam script and doing corrections to learn from one’s errors. Please note that scripts belong to the GDE and are not sent home; to allow time at the end of the year for award ceremonies, based on the whole year’s results, and to acknowledge outstanding academic achievement where acknowledgement is due; and to allow time to produce reports. Please note that from 2015 the Term 2 report will be issue in the first week of Term 3. We do understand that for some children their sport’s commitments continue during exams. This is unavoidable, and is in itself a good lesson in time management. All our “What to Learns” are issued well in advance so a study timetable can be timeously compiled.