Grade 3s on top of the World! - Somerset House
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Volume 38 ~2 November 2018
Grade 3s on top of the World!
Well done to the Grade 3s on
conquering the Helderberg
Mountain! They went up to the
gorge and down again in record
time, despite the heat! Thank you
to all the parents, friends, family
and staff that accompanied the
hikers!
HEADlines… Founders’ Day Thank you to all our parents, pupils, staff and friends for your support last Friday. The children enjoyed the occasion, which is what it is all about. So many commented on the non-competitive gala that was so much fun and the children loved the fact that Elvis Blue played for them! It was a great way to celebrate 70 years of this special place. Thank you. Turbulent times The developments in our country, especially around the end of last year and beginning of this year, have certainly taken their toll. At the ISASA Conference in Johannesburg there were many reports of schools losing children due to emigration. This sets up a chain reaction as jobs open up, and people move. Although far more sheltered than most other schools around the country, Somerset House has not been unaffected by this phenomenon and there is an above average amount of movement in our parent and pupil body. Our staff has also been affected and there are a number of changes for 2019 which we will communicate next week in the Blah. As far as our school strategy is concerned, we remain on track to deliver the new Grade 1 and 2 classrooms by the end of next year, although it is most likely that these will be complete by mid- year. We also remain committed to delivering an approach to education which is relevant to the future needs of our children and based on a well thought-out programme as opposed to an “off- the-shelf solution. Roxy Mennen Ms Roxy Mennen, who has been teaching in Grade 3 for the past two years, will be leaving us at the end of this year. Roxy has made an impact at Somerset House in the very quiet way that she goes about her teaching. Hugely concerned for the well-being of her children, she will be missed as she leaves to travel and work in other areas of the world. We wish her well and hope that one day she may even return to Somerset House, where she has made such a positive impact. Thank you Natasha van Greunen Mrs van Greunen will also be leaving us at the end of this year. She has worked in all three phases of the school and is currently in Grade 000 where she has enjoyed her teaching immensely and has been an important part of the team. She will be leaving for New Zealand with her family where she will be teaching in 2019. I know that it is her desire to travel and we wish her well with her venture next year. Chris Storey – Headmaster chrsto@somersethouse.co.za We need paper boxes… The Junior Prep need boxes – the kind that reams of paper come in. These boxes will be used to package the gifts for the Tereo children. If you have access to any of these paper boxes – please send them to school. The boxes can be donated wrapped in Christmas-themed wrapping paper (with the lid wrapped separately) or without the paper. If there are any parents that can assist with wrapping boxes – please let us know! We also need some assistance with exchanging all the coins collected for notes. Please chat to one of the teachers if you can help. Reminder… We would just like to remind all parents about the end-of-year collections. The letter was sent out at the start of term and the link to the letter can be found on “the Blah e-mail” each Friday. You are welcome to contribute to as many causes as you choose, and no donation is too small or too big. Many thanks.
Community Charity Club The Community Charity Club has been hard at work over the last few weeks. Our interaction with the Community Garden has ranged from planting various herbs and vegetables to creating a wonderful new wall for the garden. This week we started with the painting of the derelict wall which forms part of the garden. Our aim is to revolutionise this space into a beautiful piece of artwork. All involved have loved being a part of the project thus far.
Huelin Cottage News Huelin Cottage is always a buzz of activity. We have Sophie the “therapy” cat who regularly comes in to check on how everyone is working, but tends to nap on the job. We have some rather intelligent individuals who use their special glasses to check and edit their work before handing it in. Odwa has mastered the alphabet and was proud to show it off with magnet letters. Two Senior Prep children are hard at work at Maths and English, taking on the various challenges that Mrs Jones sets for them. Keep an eye out for the Huelin Cottage brain challenge, its sure to keep you on your toes. Two boys this month have been working diligently in Speech and Language and need to be recognised for their impressive work, and congratulated for their newly acquired skills. Caleb Scrace wrote a piece using complex conjunctions and comparison words while structuring a paragraph. Dean Scharrighuisen was learning to identify important information from a text and summarise in his own words. Mrs Rogers is so proud!
Reflections of Founders Day
F un and happiness.
O kay to be different.
U nder 900 people at the concert
N one unhappiness.
D ifferent is good.
E xactly amazing.
R idiculously fun.
S
“ eventy” schools Birthday. It was amazing!
(Thomas Niehaus)
Our school’s Birthday was on Friday and we had the assembly and it was very nice, because
the candle lightning was interesting. The cup cake and the lollipop were very yummy. The
amazing race was tight, because there were trees. It was fun.
(Lee Seloka, Grade 1)
At assembly I was a candle lighter. After assembly it was cake cutting with the oldest and the
youngest child. After cake cutting, we didn’t eat the cake, but it went the hospital, so we got
cupcakes with lollipops. After we ate cupcakes we got to play. After break time it was the gala. I
did the race and did the marshmallow race, then it was break and we ate hot dogs. After that we
went home or to aftercare.
(Milla Coetzer, Grade 1)
We went to the assembly. Milla was lighting the candle. We went to the bell for the cake cutting
under the tress. After that we went to the gala, we also did the amazing race.
(Ava Monteiro, Grade 1)
On Friday it was our school’s Birthday. We had assembly and people were talking. Lots of
candles we lighted. We had cake and it was break time. At break time we had cupcakes with
lollipops in them. Then we had a gala and amazing race and the Elvis Blue concert. (Beth
Crampton-Jacobs, Grade 1)
At the assembly we saw the candle lighting. Then we went to the bell and we had to cut the
cake and cupcakes were handed to us. At the gala we had the marshmallow and the kick board
race and the t-shirt race. At the amazing race it is like being a family. Then we had an Elvis Blue
concert. (Mia Steyn, Grade 1)
H elping one another. A pples always provided. P eace and joyfulness. P utting a smile on your face. Y ou keep us safe. B ig bells ring. Inch prettier than all the schools. R espect and unselfishness. T eam spirit. D etermination. A pologies always accepted. Y ou are amazing. The first thing we was to go to assembly, it was very long. There was a big award and that went to one of the pupils that was here a long time ago. After the assembly the youngest and the oldest pupils cut a very delicious looking cake. We had cupcakes instead because the cake went to sick people in the hospital. I think Mrs. Rautenbach made it. Next, we did a inter-house gala, but this year we didn’t count the points. Next was the amazing race and my partner was Makai. We lost one of the boys in our group. The grab and go lunch was so nice. Mikhaila and I almost took one home, because we were having a play date and you get very hungry on play dates. When I got to Mikhaila’s house we got dressed and went to the Elvis Blue concert. I really enjoyed the Founder’s Day and I think lots of other people did. (Gemma Griffiths, Grade 3)
Senior Prep Living Maths Results The children in Grade 4 – 7 have all written the Living Maths Olympiad for 2018. This is always a challenging and puzzling paper as the questions require lateral thinking, application of knowledge, higher-order thinking and logical thinking. A break from curriculum Maths is difficult, as sometimes the children battle to comprehend the context of the question. Try some of these to get your brain waves circulating a little quicker: Grade 4 paper: Grade 5 Paper: Grade 6 Paper: So quite a challenge to say the least! Our pupils did really well. We will only receive the National results from the Living Maths Organisation towards the end of the month. Our top Senior Prep results are as follows: • 10 Platinum certificates (Achieving 21 or more out of 25) • 25 Gold certificates achieving (16 – 20 out of 25.) Well done to all our pupils for immersing themselves in the papers and for tackling these problems with such enthusiasm. Scroll down to see some pictures of the children busy with these Maths papers.
Say NO to Plastic “Blake is a lover of life, outdoors, sports, travel, people and charity. He has dedicated his health, vitality and mobility to making a difference in the world around him.” CNandCO wrote. Blake Dyason is passionate about making a difference to clean up the planet. He came to speak to the Junior Prep children on Tuesday morning. Many children felt inspired by his journey, as he shared his experiences of how one person (or child) CAN make a difference. He spoke about the effects of plastic in our oceans and challenged the children to use alternative materials to plastic. Well done, Zinnia! Zinnia Peterson (Grade 2) recently won an Award in the Kids Safety and Security Category, for the Western Cape Province, at the African Child of The Year Awards. There were another 3 nominees from the Western Cape - 1 girl won in the Philanthropy Category, the other 2 were runner-ups in other categories. There were nominations from all the Provinces, and some other countries as far as Zimbabwe and Kenya. The African Children's Awards is the brainchild of 11-year old author, Stacey Fru, who decided to celebrate, acknowledge and recognize the contributions of African Children towards making a difference in their communities with the work they do and their contribution in changing the life and that of other people in and around their community
Time for Fun with Maths for Grade 5! As part of the Time component in the Maths class, the Grade 5 pupils had a choice of completing a working clock or designing a pendulum that could accurately measure one minute! Sebastian Newton-King and Joshua Terheijden were the only brave souls to design the pendulum! Their pendulum completed 53 cycles in one minute…so they were just short of creating an accurate 60 cycles in one minute! Well done to all our pupils for designing such creative clocks!
Grade 5 Afrikaans Orals! The Grade 5s delivered some fantastic Afrikaans orals! They had to research the history of a particular kind of toy.
Grade 1 2019 Orientation Day What a busy day it was for our current and future Grade 1s! Our current Grade 1s were the perfect hosts to the Grade Rs as they completed a quiz by visiting various places around the campus. They also spent time drumming with Mr Alexander, playing some ball games, enjoying a musical statues competition, working in the ICT lab as well as reading and playing games in the Knowledge Centre. At the end of their day they enjoyed a delicious lunch in the dining room. We can’t wait to see these new Grade 1s officially start their Prep School journey at Somerset House!
Sports News
INDOOR TENNIS DOUBLES TIEBREAKER TOURNAMENT
On Monday evening our Indoor Tennis Tiebreaker Tournament
came to an end with some exciting final matches being played.
Three of our four teams qualified for the finals and the final
results were as follows:
GIRLS U11 BOYS U11 GIRLS U13 BOYS U13
De Hoop Lochnerhof Som. House Som. College
1ST Suzy Whall &
Zara Hingeston
Som. House Som. College Som. College Som. House
2ND Esther Benson & Connor Morrison &
Ashley Hingeston Aidan Sanders
Som. College Som. House De Hoop Lochnerhof
3RD Aidan Hughes &
Rosseau Theron
4TH Lochnerhof De Hoop SWPS De Hoop
The final matches were played
“first to 15 points”, with both U13
finals going to 14 all with Somerset
House winning the Girls’ final 15-
14 and Somerset College winning
the Boys’ final 15-14.
Congratulations to Suzy and Zara
for winning their U13 division.
This 4-week tournament was a
great success and we hope to
repeat it next year.
CRICKET MATCHES: U11 AND U13 CRICKET
Age-group Opposition Result Stand-out performer
Tuesday 6th November
U11 B Lochnerhof
nd
2 XI Lochnerhof Lost by 21 runs Nic Hall
Wednesday 31st October
U11A Beaumont Lost by 2 wickets Thomas Crossley, Tristan Rautenbach
Daniel Stenslunde, Nic Oscroft
1st XI Beaumont Lost by 4 wickets
Michael Royden-TurnerMINI CRICKET VS BEAUMONT
Age-group Opposition Result
Boys
U7 Cobras Gordons Bay won
U8 Lions Gordons Bay Lost
U8 Titans Gordons Bay won
U9 Lions Gordons Bay won
Girls
U7 Cobras Beaumont Lost
U8 Lions Beaumont Won
U9 Lions Beaumont Lost
SH TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS
Our SH Tennis Championship Semi’s and Finals took place this
week. Our U11s played outdoors and our U13s indoors. The
top 4 players on our junior and senior ladders are invited to
participate in the Championships. Congratulations to all our
finalists and overall champions. The results were as follows:
Girls U11 Boys U11 Girls U13 Boys U13
2018 Champion Esther Benson Aidan Hughes Zara Hingeston Connor Morrison
Runner-Up Ashley Hingeston Ethan Pieber Suzy Whall Aidan SandersPOTGIETER GALA Last Thursday we sent a swimming team to Somerset West Primary to participate at the Potgieter Gala. We were able to give our #3 and #4 ranked swimmers in each stroke the opportunity to participate in this gala. The gala itself was not for points, however, our swimmers swam very well, with a number of them winning medals on the day. Congratulations to the entire team, we are very proud of your achievements.
UNDER 9 HARD BALL CRICKET This term our U9s have been improving on their hard ball cricket skills. We currently have 18 boys who take part in the sessions on a Thursday. We are very pleased to say that we have three hard ball matches that are lined up this term. Please take note of the following matches and please ensure that your son is available for the matches. Thursday 8th November: vs De Hoop at De Hoop starting at 15h00 Saturday 10th November: vs Somerset College at Somerset College at 08h00 Thursday 22nd November: vs Lochnerhof at Somerset House starting at 15h00
Week 6: Programme for Week ending 17 November 2018
DATE TIME ACTIVITY
Mon 12 Nov 14:30 – 15:15 Grade 5 Boys Indoor Hockey Trials for 2019 League
15:15 – 16:00 Grade 6 Boys Indoor Hockey Trials for 2019 League
Tues 13 14:30 Oakwood Orientation Day for 2019 Grade 000s
Nov 14:30 – 15:15 Grade 5 Girls Indoor Hockey Trials for 2019 League
15:15 – 16:00 Grade 6 Girls Indoor Hockey Trials for 2019 League
Internal SH Music Exams
Wed 14 Nov From 14:00 Girls Mini Cricket vs Applewood (Away) U7 x 1, U8 x 1, U9 x 1
From 14:00 Boys Mini Cricket vs Applewood (Home) U7 x 1, U8 x 1, U9 x 1
18:30 Grade 7 Music Evening (Haydock Hall)
Internal SH Music Exams
14:15 U9 Hardball Cricket Match vs Lochnerhof (Home)
Thurs 15 From 14:45 Girls U11 Tennis vs Rhenish (Away)
Nov Boys U11 – BYE
Girls U13 vs Strand Aces (Strand Tennis Club)
Boys U13A vs Rhenish (Home)
Boys U13B vs Strand Aces (Strand Tennis Club)
16:00 Board Meeting
Fri 16 Nov 08:10 Sports Awards Ceremony (Simpson Hall)
Sat 17 Nov 09:00 – 11:00 Oakwood Sports DayYou can also read
