Feb 23, 2018 - I try to embody all of the IDEALS in my day-to-day life whether it be making (and educating those around
PREP NEWSLETTER Issue 7
www.bridgehouse.org.za
23 February 2018
Exclusive Books Kids’ Lit Quiz In the story “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, which dwarf’s name is not an adjective? The answer of course is “Doc”. This was the type of question that our two very enthusiastic teams who took part in the Exclusive Books Kids’ Lit Quiz, had to answer as internationally renowned quizmaster Wayne Mills fired questions at them from categories such as “Princesses”, “Orphans”, “Clocks” and “Body Parts”. The Exclusive Books Kids’ Lit Quiz is an International quiz that is aimed at discovering how widely young children read. Bridge House entered two teams into the 2018 quiz that was hosted by The Grove Primary School in Claremont on 14 February. Both teams performed extremely well and, knowing that the competition is tough, have come away determined to read more and to do better next year. Well done to Team 1 that consisted of Isabella Lundie, Simon-Scott Liddle, Maya Ethelston and Gabriella Godlonton and to Amber Cunningham-Moorat, Aarav Manek, Morgan Grieve and Rosie Ratcliffe who pooled their knowledge about books in Team 2.
Last week we celebrated Valentine’s Day as a school with the theme: “Love and Compassion” and donated R5 to the Red Cross Children’s Hospital.
Our Gr 6 Afrikaans Intensive class
So what (actually) is “Fun-Time”? The Play School Bees are enjoying small group activities called ‘Fun-Time’. Each activity is manned by a teacher and the children rotate and do all four activities in succession. This more structured time has become a firm favourite and the children look forward to seeing what the next activity will be. We are focusing on various skills including: Perception, fine motor co-ordination, sensory awareness and gross motor movements.
Pandora’s Box! The Grade 5 pupils have been revising abstract nouns in English. They were exposed to the story of Pandora’s Box in Ancient Greek Mythology and then recreated their own versions of Pandora’s Box, with a focus on the various abstract nouns that appear when their boxes are opened. Some pupils got really creative and used emojis to represent the abstract nouns in their boxes.
From the Deputy Head’s Desk After reading through ‘Barrow’s Barrow’ over the past few weeks, I thought it appropriate to add my own insert to the newsletter, in addition to the weekly sports wrap. But how does one come up with an endearing, catchy alliteration of a title. This challenge resulted in much conversation around the dinner table. Should we go with All’s Well That Ends Well, or maybe a simple Well,Well, Well…. In a previous role as housemaster, I had the opportunity to run assemblies on a weekly basis. What followed was a series of motivational speeches that became rather quickly, and aptly, known as Wells’ Waffle! But in a new environment comes an opportunity to start afresh, and with water at the forefront of discussions, the conclusion at the dinner table was to be Wells’ Well. I hope that this is not received as arrogance, and I certainly do not intend it to be perceived as a well of wisdom – simply an opportunity to share the goings on at school as food for thought. This week I would like to share the progress that is being made with our Grade 7 pupils, and the wonderful outcomes of our weekly Mentor sessions. For those not in the know, the Grade have been divided into smaller groups, with a value driven curriculum of topics. Fruitful discussions have ensued and the children have enjoyed another platform within which to express themselves. Respect has been the overriding topic for the past few weeks. The boys and girls have grappled with putting this term into words, often resulting in it being a reflection of how we treat others. But respect is so much more than talking kindly and listening to someone. It is a process of taking into consideration another’s emotions, feelings and needs. I have always been intrigued by the power of the concept of respect. I know of a number of schools who have replaced their lengthy, rules-based Codes of Conduct with a simpler version, aligned to respect. We as a school or community would be strengthened if we were to follow the three simple societal rules:
Respect for others Respect for our environment Respect for one’s self I look forward to the continuation of these conversations as we extend to the topics of tolerance, integrity and empathy. I applaud the Grade 7s for their mature and responsive approach to the sessions thus far, and look forward to them becoming respectful, servant leaders of our prep school this year.
Allan Wells
Athletics Congratulations to Nicole Viljoen (2nd u12 Girls 1200m) and Isobel Moore (4th u13 Girls Shot Put) who, based on their performances at last week’s Boland Athletics Championships, have been selected for the Boland Athletics Team that will take part in the Western Cape Championships in Oudtshoorn on the 2-3 March.
Cricket - U11B vs Ida’s Valley Primary Bridge House won the toss and elected to bat. Finn anchored the innings keeping his wicket for half the innings and scoring 8 runs. Carter Kent came in at number 4 and top scored with 24 runs not out, hitting 4 powerful 4’s. William Hewlett then came in in the last 3 overs and scored a rapid 10 not out. Bridge House ended their innings on 84/4. In reply, Bridge House got off to an outstanding start with a first ball Royal duck, bowled by Lampard and caught by Tekunda at keeper. Wickets were also taken by Jack Stewart and William Hewlett. There was also a run out by Lampard. Bridge House bowled well initially, but a few too many extras in the second half of the innings made the game incredibly close, with the opposition finishing on 83/4. Bridge House won by one run. Top bowler: Jack Stewart. Man of the match for an excellent batting performance: Carter Kent.
U13A vs Stellenbosch Primary Our U13 boys went to Stellenbosch to play against the above-mentioned school, on Wednesday 21 February. Bridge House batted first and managed to score 56 runs in their 20 overs with Jean Weber contributing a wonderful 20 runs. Stellenbosch managed to score runs easily and we lost by 6 wickets.
Upcoming Events 23 Feb
Friday
Swimming
26 Feb
Monday
Cricket
27 Feb
Tuesday
Swimming
28 Feb
Wednesday
Cricket
Bridge House Sprint Gala
U13 Internal Friendly fixture Courtrai Primary Night Gala
BH Groot Drakenstein Games Club Bridge House Paarl
U11B vs Rhenish Primary U13A Boys vs Paarl Gymnsiun
Rhenish Franschhoek
U13B Boys vs vs Paarl Gymnsiun
Paarl
U13 Girls vs Paarl Gymnsiun
Franschhoek
U12 T20 cricket vs Simondium Primary
OF THE WEEK Junior Primary Matthew Klingenberg & Mila Nienaber
Senior Primary Axel Yed & Nicole Viljoen
Grade 7s going to Grade 8 at Bridge House in 2019 Please note that Bridge House Grade 7s are automatically accepted into Grade 8 in the College. No application is necessary.
Reminder College Life Information Meeting for Grade 6 and 7 parents and pupils You and your children are warmly invited to a College information evening at which we will offer a thorough overview of College life, an opportunity to ask questions and a tour of the College. The format of this evening will be different to previous meetings. We look forward to meeting you and your children in the Theatre at Bridge House at 18h00 on Tuesday 27 February. The evening will end at about 19h30. Pupils should wear school uniform. Please come and find out what makes the College the special place it is and take the opportunity of meeting some of the College teachers. Parents, please RSVP to Koelthoem Nackerdien
[email protected] if you will be attending with your children.
Phoning in to Bridge House Please note that in order to make it easier to reach the various sections of the school you can phone their numbers directly. The numbers are as follows: College Reception: Prep Reception: Pre-Primary Reception:
Koelthoem Nackerdien
[email protected] Yasminah Allie
[email protected] Leonie Ambraal
[email protected]
021 874 8100 021 874 8403 021 874 8451
If there is a problem with our telephone system, we will communicate this via the D6 communicator and we will supply an emergency number.
Festival of Art at Bridge House Bridge House Theatre is one of three venues for the Festival of Art taking place in Franschhoek on 17 and 18 March. This promises to be an Art Extravaganza of note, celebrating and exposing South African artists with exceptional potential. There will be street performers, buskers, mime acts, jugglers, sculptors, and artists painting live at the allocated venues creating an ‘art in the park‘ atmosphere. A variety of food served from a food truck or wrapped to go will be available. Ticket holders gain entrance to all thee venues for the day where they can enjoy this and more while feasting their eyes on (and showing support to) locally sourced talent.
Quote from SA Art Times: “Bridge House has its own sense of reverence that comes from decades of moulding and sculpting young minds into learned scholars. Walk down the halls of Bridge House and you’ll immediately see the school’s commitment to artistic expression through the artworks lining the walls – some created by students, and some by parents themselves.” Watch drone footage filmed at Bridge House here: https://www.facebook.com/FestivalOfArtInFranschhoek/videos/1763885033652848/ and follow the Facebook page of the Festival of Art here: https://www.facebook.com/FestivalOfArtInFranschhoek/
The Festival of Art with Bridge House is being promoted in the following: Twitter, Instagram, Festival of Art Facebook page; March Tatler; March Sawubona; Smile Radio from the 2nd to 16th March the 19h00 - 22h00, 18 broadcasts; The Eikestad news; Paarl Post, and in a three page spread in the March SA Art Times. There is a banner up at the entrance to Franschhoek.
Round Square Africa Regional Conference for 12 – 14 year olds to take place at Bridge House Bridge House Prep staff are busy preparing to host the Round Square Africa Regional Conference for 12 – 14 year olds at Bridge House from 21 to 25 March. Just over 120 student delegates, plus close to 30 adult delegates from 12 schools across South Africa, Kenya and Tanzania are joining us on the Bridge House campus from Wed 21 March – Sunday 25 March to …WONDER! A number of Bridge House College students will be Baraza leaders at the Conference. To find out more about Round Square read the article by the CEO, Rachael Westgarth, on the last pages of this newsletter.
Bridge House Academic/Sports/Cultural Scholarships for Grade 8 in 2019
For Grade 8 in 2019: Scholarship tests for Grade 7 pupils outside of Bridge House will be written on Saturday 3 March. Parents who are interested should contact Gill Malcolm on 021 874 8100 or
[email protected]
Bridge House Sports Scholarships for Grade 10 in 2019
BRIDGE HOUSE SCHOLARSHIPS Sports Scholarships are available for Grade 10 in 2019
Applications for Sports Scholarships for pupils new to the school in Grade 10 in 2019 will be considered. While excellence in one of our core sports will be 18 recognized, pupils with the ability and willingness to contribute in both summer and winter sports are more likely to succeed in their scholarship application. Parents who are interested should contact Gill Malcolm
[email protected] for information.
Bridge House on Social Media For lots of photos and videos please follow Bridge House on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BridgeHouseSchl/
Are you following @BridgeHouseSchl on Twitter?: https://twitter.com/BridgeHouseSchl You can also follow bridgehouseschl on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bridgehouseschl/
60 Minutes with the Heads – this Monday 26 February in the Learning Commons The agenda for the 60 Minutes with the Heads meeting on Monday is as follows (all parents are welcome to attend): Please note that in order to allow time for parents to arrive after dropping their children, the meeting will begin at 08h10 not 08h00.
Art at Bridge House Sport, PE and the heat Whole school learning Drinking water Waterpolo: the plan Senior Primary benches Cycling Classes
Remember Straw Wars – say no to plastic straws! We encourage you to join the worldwide movement to eradicate the billions of plastic straws being trashed annually. “A small straw may not seem like a big problem, but when we look at our reliance on this petroleum based, single-use item, on a global scale it becomes very apparent that this unnecessary habit poses a huge threat to the health of our planet” – Straw Wars. Plastic straws have been found in the nostrils and stomachs of animals and birds and in unsightly piles of pollution. At Bridge House straws blow around and become buried in the soil. In the interests of saving our environment and making Bridge House a cleaner place to be, we ask you to take part in the #NoStrawChallenge.
Round Square - How to be a Mosquito By Rachael Westgarth on 21/02/2018
At the heart of the Round Square ethos is a shared belief that the foremost task of education is to inspire and equip students to be active and engaged global citizens. In pursuit of this goal, the schools in our network encourage their students to be courageous adventurers, champions of equality and diversity, and compassionate leaders who understand that to lead is to serve. They promote positive environmental stewardship and a commitment to sustainability. And above all else they encourage students to reach beyond their comfort zone to make a positive difference in the world. This recognises that as educators, we have the responsibility but also the capacity to change the world one student at a time. But can individual students really make a difference? “If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.” The Dalai Lama The Round Square movement is perhaps best-known for its service-learning programmes. Each year the RS network collectively engages more than 60,000 students a year in social service initiatives, partnering with, and supporting, more than 1,800 communities throughout the world. That’s 60,000 individual students that share the same ethos and commitment to be of service to others. Service learning in Round Square is, of course, a two-way-street, and in working with these communities, students come to understand, through practical experience, that every positive and sensitive intervention or act of support, however small, can make a difference. And the benefits of students’ participation in service activity extends far beyond the project itself. More than 60 years ago the educational philosopher, Kurt Hahn, on whose principles Round Square was founded, talked about the ability of all educators to “accelerate developments by example through our democratic participation in the societies in which we operate.” Simply put: If you involve students in a positive service learning experience, and encourage them (with the right support, and in the right context), they are likely to go on to emulate and replicate its practices. Students’ personal involvement in service programmes inspires and prepares them to seek and develop their own opportunities to make their mark in the world. Last year this was demonstrated by the many entrants for Round Square’s Anniversary Challenge Awards which recognised students’ efforts to make a difference in their local or wider community. With more than 80 entries, the initiatives demonstrated the breadth of ways that society can be improved through serviceminded interventions. For example, our students found innovative ways to build bridges with the elderly community, reduce the mortality rate for pregnant women in developing nations, improve awareness of cancer symptoms and causes, support malnourished children and improve access to educational resources. Service-learning is perhaps the most obvious way in which Round Square students develop a passion for local and global community engagement and activism. But they also connect with, come to understand, and develop compassion for, those communities through the broader opportunities available via their school’s membership of Round Square, from Round Square Conferences to Exchanges. These activities are further underpinned by a broad range of inter-school collaborative programmes and initiatives that are inspired by the Round Square IDEALS, and help connect students with their peers in Round Square schools throughout the world.
Through this broad spectrum of approaches, and infusion of IDEALS at their school, students develop a range of competencies, skills and values applicable to positive global citizenship. These have now become a formal part of Round Square’s DNA via the RS Discovery Framework which captures and describes the 12 “Discoveries” that students make on their learning journey: inquisitiveness, tenacity, courage, compassion, inventiveness, ability to solve problems, self-awareness, sense of responsibility, appreciation for diversity, commitment to sustainability, communication and team-working skills. The RS Discovery Framework offers a structure that supports integration of the spirit of each of the IDEALS into curriculum programming, through signposting ways in which they can be given purpose and value in an academic context. Through an inclusive approach accessible to students of all backgrounds, cultures and abilities, it offers a framework for the development of attitudes and skills for responsible citizenship, via a range of desirable, but hitherto unmeasurable, “soft” skills and qualities. As Natasha Pretorious, a former student of Round Square School, Bridge House and now Business Studies teacher at St Andrews’s College explains: “Round Square lives in your life: it enters into the entire fabric of it. I am so grateful for the opportunities I was given through Round Square in my school. I’m fortunate to now work at a school that is also a Round Square Member, and with the RS Discovery Framework, there’s the opportunity now to do even more to bring it all together.” The ultimate goal of the RS Discovery Framework is to demonstrate to students how they can infuse their life, and their chosen career, with a principled approach that is values-based, and seek opportunities for positive social impact in whatever field of work they go into. The true test of this is whether the passion that is ignited in students through their Round Square experiences, to understand, engage with, and make a positive difference to the world, continues into their adult life. Do the RS IDEALS become an enduring, hard-wired set of personal values, and do Round Square school alumni actively and democratically engage with the societies and communities in which they live and work? Perhaps unsurprisingly, many Round Square Alumni continue to volunteer as a lifelong commitment, but a significant number also pursue a service-oriented career. Josceline Cluff, a former pupil of Round Square School, Cobham Hall, in England, and now logistician for international disaster relief charity, All Hands Volunteers, describes how the Round Square philosophy inspired her deep commitment to a career in support of communities in need: “Everything about the Round Square IDEALS is about justice and service and helping people who are most in need,” she says. “The longer I have spent out of school, the more I have appreciated how fortunate I was to be part of such a wonderful philosophy. It’s quite a rare thing to have received an education that nurtures your desire to explore, learn and care in such an organised and exciting way.” Having been inspired by her exchange experience at The Indian High School, Oman and participation in the Round Square International Conference, Josceline undertook a number of voluntary roles in between her ongoing studies. In her current role Josceline oversees provision of the life-essential logistics required when a community is hit by a natural disaster, from building emergency latrines to prevent the spread of typhoid to constructing community centres and leading clean-up drives. Claire DesBrisay, an alum of Round Square school St Clement’s in Canada, is now Director of Communications for Smile Africa, a grassroots NGO that originated in Accra, Ghana, and promotes STEM in Africa through volunteer based initiatives. Claire recalls how the experiences of her 6-month exchange to Round Square school, St Cyprian’s, in Cape Town, “shaped who I am today.” She says: “It allowed me to explore all aspects of the local community and organised volunteering opportunities at a local public school and children’s hospital. It was really difficult to see the contrast between the experiences of the rich and poor; differences which only seemed to be heightened by the fact that these groups were living in close proximity. It was so different to my experience of living in Toronto and made me think deeply about where my place is in the world, what I can do to make a difference, and what I can do to educate other people about these issues.”
Beyond her exchange experience, Claire says that: “Round Square gave me the confidence and opportunities to explore a more internationally focused and service driven path (studies and work focused on human rights, social justice, service, democracy). I try to embody all of the IDEALS in my day-to-day life whether it be making (and educating those around me about) environmentally conscious choices; always adventuring at any opportunity, exploring and immersing myself in new places and new cultures, looking for new learning opportunities (and making life-long friends at the same time). Round Square allowed me not to just meet people from other parts of the world, but to engage with them on real, important issues, creating a platform to truly learn from one another and open our minds to other cultures and perspectives, all with an underlying sense of a shared humanity." Stories like these can be found throughout the alumni of Round Square Schools and show how their values and skills remain influenced by the IDEALS. BBC broadcaster, Mishal Husain remembers “the internationalism of the Round Square movement, which helped spark my interest in international news and broadcasting from around the world”. Farhanul Islam, Bangladesh-born Entrepreneur, magician and Founder of the Magicman Farnhaul Cancer Foundation, says that “Round Square took fear of challenges out of me. I knew I could achieve anything if I worked hard.” Now running his own tutoring business in Canada, Farhanul traces his determination to make a positive difference in the world back to the spirit of service he developed via his school’s membership of Round Square. Research Analyst, Shivam Jumani, says that: “The IDEALS of Round Square perfectly encapsulate the concept of being a global citizen. Service isn’t just about volunteering or working for a charity, Environmentalism isn’t just about planting trees. I believe you can still make an impact by expanding the definitions of these IDEALS so that they can be imbibed seamlessly in one’s day-to-day life, regardless of one’s passion and career.” And John Russell, former pupil, and now Dean of Students, at The Marvelwood School says: “My foremost calling remains to learn from others, serve others, and while working alongside young people, help guide them to tangible accomplishments that will have profound and lasting impacts on their lives.” Students’ first encounter with the RS IDEALS is usually through activities (through ‘doing Round Square’), but through repeated behaviour and reflection, for most the IDEALS soon become a core set of values, (‘being Round Square’) that they carry with them throughout the remainder of their lives. In our quest to track down and share the stories of Round Square School Alumni we are increasingly finding that, whilst the IDEALS influence individuals in different ways, an overriding impact felt by everyone is the development of a strong social conscience and a lifelong desire to be an active and engaged global citizen.
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