Micklefield School Term 1, 2019 Newsletter

Growing Friendships

Overall Excellence in Language & Mathematics Micklefield School was invited, along with two other independent schools, to attend the annual WCED Awards evening. The awards celebrate excellence in schools. We received the award for Overall Excellence in Language and Mathematics in the 2018 Systemic Assessments in the Inde-pendent Small Schools section.

Congratulations to all our hard-working and tal-ented teachers and to the girls for their diligence and commitment.

Congratulations!

Micklefield started an exciting new initiative on Valentine’s Day this year.

Gr 4-7 girls met across the grades in “family groups” according to their

class number with the intention of sharing and supporting one another.

Later on in the term the groups met again, this time including the Grade

1s, 2s and 3s. The girls have really enjoyed the opportunity to get to know

girls from different grades and the groups will continue to meet through-

out the year.

A Baby Girl is on her way ... We would like to wish Keshma Patel all of the very best for the remainder

of her pregnancy and her and Jared every happiness as they prepare for

the birth of their baby girl.

Developing Leaders This term, the Grade 7 girls were appointed to their various leadership roles. Although it has been an extremely busy term, what with Leadership Camp, Sports Day and Valentine’s Day, it has been a lot of fun. The following girls were elected to serve on the Executive Committee for Term 1 :

Chairlady - Kiera Howard Treasurer - Genevieve Douglas-Jones Secretary - Cate Lea

Cultural Committee The Cultural Committee chose to do a performance to celebrate Valentine’s Day. We wrote our own script which told of the sad tale of St Valentine and we really enjoyed performing a short skit to the Intermediate Phase. To finish off, we did a Pop Quiz and there were some lucky winners who received Kit Kats and Smarties! Written by the Cultural Committee Pastoral Committee This year for Valentine’s Day, the Pastoral Committee held a staff tea. We deco-rated the staff room with red roses, hand written cards for each of the teachers, balloons, and some tea and cakes that the school organised. We loved making the cards and it was such fun decorating the room so that the teachers felt ap-preciated. As a Grade 7 class we also made cards for each girl from Grade 3 to 6. They were handmade and had a special note written inside. We hope it made each girl feel loved and special. Written by the Pastoral Committee Outreach Committee The Outreach Committee has been hard at work, trying to help the community this term. We started with Valentine's Day when we took brownies, a card and an appreciation video to the Rondebosch Police Station, with the Grade 7 class expressing their gratitude in the form of a poem. On Sunday, the 2nd of March, we made lots of sandwiches and took them to the people on the street. The best thing about that day was seeing smiles on the people’s faces, just to have some-thing to eat, which is something we take for granted. We hope to do much more work for our community in the future and will continue to help those in need. Written by the Outreach Committee Swallows House On Friday 22nd February the Swallows girls gave a stellar performance at the Inter-House Cross-country. Their hard work paid off with the Swallows taking the gold. Sports day started with an exceptional performance, with the girls really showing their Swallows spirit, during the house march. After an amazing fancy hat parade, the Swallows were delighted to hear that we had won Sports Day! Written by the Swallows Committee Kingfishers House This term the Kingfishers worked so hard for Sports Day. We had many song practices and gave it our all. All this work paid off when we took the spirit cup home. The Kingfishers are an amazing, hard working team and I’m quite sure that we couldn’t have done better! Written by the Kingfishers Committee Robins House Micklefield was full of excited girls on Sports Day, wearing red, blue and green t-shirts. All the girls showed a great amount of house-spirit and sportsmanship. The Robins performed brilliantly and can be very proud of themselves. Overall Sports Day and Inter-House Cross-country was a great success and the Mick-lefield girls left with a huge smile on their faces. Written by the Robins Com-

The Grade 0s were treated to a puppet show followed by a very hands-on talk about some useful South African plants. Then the girls adventured around the gardens in search of these plants with lots of fun games in-between.

Earlier on in the term, the Grade 7s enjoyed a worthwhile and stimulating morning at the biodiversity garden in Greenpoint Park, led and guided by Wendy Hitchcock, an educational envi-ronmentalist, who shared her knowledge and brought about a greater awareness of the flora and fauna of the area, ecosys-tems and the impact that humans have on our biodiversity. After a morning of study and concentration, everyone enjoyed a tasty treat at Jason’s Bakery across the road from the park.

Gr 7 Biodiversity Outing

Gr 0 Outing to Kirstenbosch

The Grade 7s enjoyed an afternoon of theatre at the Athol Fugard to watch Langarm, a story set in the 1960s in District Six, about two star-crossed lovers who are not supposed to be together in terms of apartheid laws. They both love dancing but cannot partner up across the colour line. The show is a magical musical and dance journey with so many elements, ranging from the good old Cape Town sounds to the heartwarming joy of an unfolding love story. ‘It was most enjoyable and a great learning experience, as part of it was in Afrikaans and it really made us think about life through the eyes of the people who had to suffer because of their skin colour. Imagine being separated because of your skin colour! We can't even fathom it because we are so used to being integrated, so the show did open our eyes to how unjust apartheid laws were. I think the whole class loved the performance, and all in all, we had a lovely time dressing up for the occasion, taking in a new experience and doing something that really made us appreciate the life that we have. Thank you Mrs Walker!’ Written by Jemma Rebe

An Afternoon of Theatre

Valentines Day As per tradition the Grade 7s held a bake sale on Valentine’s Day. There was a wonderful spread of the most deli-cious treats and before long, all stalls were sold out! We were very happy with our profits which will go towards the Grade 7 gift to the school at the end of the year. Written by the Cultural Committee

Some Fun with Books The annual Exclusive Books Lit Quiz took place at Grove Primary during February. It was a fun afternoon filled with questions, dreamed up by literary quiz mas-ter Wayne Mills from New Zea-land, that had all the teams scratching their heads for the answers. Our Grade 7 and Grade 6 teams enjoyed the afternoon and now have a long list of titles that they are dying to get their hands on for new reading mate-rial during the holidays.

Summer Picnic Kaleidoscope

Thank you to everyone that donned their brightest colours

and supported the Summer Picnic Kaleidoscope early in

the term. It was a happy and relaxed affair, with charming

performances by the marimba girls and staff marimba

group as well as the senior and traditional choirs. The

weather was glorious and everyone of all ages had a won-

derful time. Thank you to Belinda Gordon for the kaleido-

scope bunting that added to the festive atmosphere. A

fantastic sum of R40 705 was made!

Micklefield Market

What a fantastic market it was! The stalls were amazing, the parent involvement huge, and the girls had the most

amazing time. Thank you to all the girls, staff, mums, dads and family members who gave of their time and exper-

tise and who donated so generously. A special thank you to the class reps for their enthusiasm and hard work and

to Michele Yazbek for her assistance in co-ordinating the market again this year. We raised the incredible sum of

R110 000!

Gr 6 Entrepreneurs Experience the Market

Aalia and I were very excited and prepped for the market. We were hoping to arrive as early as possible so we

could get a nice table, but we never arrived early. When we finally got to the market there were no tables left for

us. We were very stressed trying to find an empty table. Luckily our teacher, Mrs Patel, helped us get a table. The

wind picked up and made us stress, as our table cloth would not stop blowing and our sign would not stay up.

Nothing was going well until finally we realized the wind was not going anywhere, so we made a new plan with our

table cloth, game and everything we were selling. When we calmed down, the excitement rushed through us again

like a flash of happiness. The table looked great! It was not even 3:00 pm when people started browsing through all

our products, we already had buyers! Lots of people were now gathering around our table, which was very exciting.

A lot of girls and boys were interested in the charity we are supporting, Steps, and they were all giving big dona-

tions, which we thought was great! Then 5:00 pm came along. Aalia and I had not sold out, so we decided to sell for

a bit longer. Aalia decided she would walk around the school trying to get people to buy our flower pots. She was

successful and came back with no more flower pots! While she was gone, I got lots of people to buy our products

and then we sold out on everything! Aalia and I were very happy to see we had sold out on everything expect one

thing. The best part was knowing that our hard work had paid off.

Written by Jemima McQueen

Sports Day On Friday 22 February , the Grade 3-7 girls ran the traditional Inter-house Cross– country. Well done to the Swal-

lows on first position, the Kingfishers in second and the Robins in third.

On Saturday 23 February, we had our annual Micklefield Sports Day. A great morning was enjoyed by all with fun

races, parent events as well as competitive races. The house captains did a superb job building spirit amongst their

houses and fantastic Fancy Hats were on display. A huge thank you once again to March Turnbull for his witty com-

mentary and also to all the parent volunteers who helped to make the day run so smoothly. It was wonderful to

have Merrilee Berrisford, a past pupil from 1952, joining in the Past Pupils’ race.

Congratulations to the Swallows who finished first, closely followed by the Kingfishers and in third place, the Rob-

ins.

Tennis & Swimming The first term has seen the girls very busy with tennis and swimming. We entered 10 teams into the tennis league

so that all our girls could participate in matches.

The 8 girls’ primary schools that belong to the PGSGU compete in the Inter-Schools tournaments.

Congratulations to the Open A tennis team who won the Open A and B Tennis Tournament played in March at the

RGHS courts.

Section A: (the number 1 and 2 couple)

Micklefield 42

St Cyprians 26

WGJS 20

RGJS 19

Herschel 17

Oakhurst 11

Greenfield did not participate

Section B: (the number 3 and 4 couple)

Micklefield 38

St Cyprians 34

Springfield 23

RGJS 22

Herschel 15

WGJS 10

Oakhurst 5

Greenfield did not participate

Well done to our gala team who competed in the Inter-

Schools gala held at the Herschel Senior School pool in

March. We are so proud of our swimmers as we are the on-

ly school without our own pool which makes training chal-

lenging!

Herschel 220

Springfield 207

RGJS 181

WGJS 172

St Cyprians 133

Greenfield 119

Micklefield 89

Oakhurst 67

Trinity Music Theory Results Micklefield’s Trinity Theory Examinations results arrived at the end of last year once school had already closed.

Micklefield had a record number of entries and the average was 87%. We are so proud of these girls (including our

current “old girls”).

Bennett, Amèlie Grade 1

Edwards, Rebecca Grade 1

Gebhardt, Sophie Grade 1

Gray, Ella-Grace Grade 1

Kennedy-Smith, Jemima Grade 1

MacGregor, Gemma Grade 1

Makin, Georgia Grade 1

Melville, Anna Grade 1

Porter, Dominique Grade 1

Thompson, Jaime Grade 1

van Coeverden de Groot, Samantha Grade 1

Williams, Neve Grade 1

Faught, Cassidy Grade 2

Hewat, Rebecca Grade 2

Howard, Kiera Grade 2

Hutchinson, Jenna Grade 2

Josi, Leah Grade 2

Joubert, Kaitlin Grade 2

Kingston, Imogen Grade 2

Lea, Cate Grade 2

Lewis, Charlotte Grade 3

Parkin, Cara Grade 2

Richards, Qaylah Grade 3

Williams, Keira Grade 2

Growing Friendship Gardens

The Grade 4s had lots of fun working together on their “friendship gardens”, as part of the “Growing Friendships

through Kindness” Programme.