2021 Magazine

108 | Edition No. 24 | 2021 CULTURE Tenaka Pedro, Raquel de Castro and Hayden Visser In 2021 Culture at the College continued to play an important role. We’ve seen talented performers dance, act and perform musical items at assemblies; we’ve seen our artists entering virtual competi- tions; we’ve seen our debaters and public speakers excel. Even in these extraordinary times, we have been blessed to have been able to enjoy live events with small audiences and at the same time live stream these concerts and performances for many others to enjoy. In the absence of organised competitions, Parklands College continued with our Virtual Eisteddfod with external adjudicators, building on the success of last year. No matter what, long live Culture at the College! EQUITY AND DIVERSITY Katlego Ngobeni and Lelesibini Bikwani The Equity and Diversity portfolio was excited to create awareness around various topics and have discussions that we felt mattered, in order to promote progress. Our topics included a focus on Human Rights Day, Pride Month, Africa Day, Youth Day and Women’s Day, in which we gave a bit of background as to why it’s so important that we celebrate and embrace these commemorations. This portfolio is also filled with a lot of 'behind the scenes' work to ensure that everyone feels comfortable and heard within their re- spective grades. We wanted to ensure that everyone felt as though they had a voice and a sense of belonging. Through continuous meetings with the Learner Equity Council, we have been working to create new ways in which we can make ourselves visible and create an atmosphere of comfort at the College. | Culture PGT participants | Culture Dance at assembly HOUSES Cassidy Wilson and Omar Abousheer The Houses Portfolio had to be very creative this year. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, many traditional House events couldn’t take place but we made changes to host COVID-19 friendly events with great success. We set the tone with the Big Brag which was very exciting and a lot of fun. The Houses Portfolio alongside the Sports Portfolio host- ed the annual Inter-house Gala and adapted the event to be live-streamed to parents at home and watched in classrooms by those not participating. It was a very exciting day filled with a lot of healthy competition. The Houses Portfolio created a new event this year which turned out to be a great success: a Spelling Bee competition. We had a wonderful team to help conduct the event and livestream it, with many candidates from the different houses that participated. The House Captains also participated in a TikTok challenge and created various videos based on their themes to bring spirit to the College. The House Prefects and Service Prefects collaborated on vari- ous projects to make a difference in our community, as well as gain house points for the respective houses. We are very grateful to have hosted some events to bring back the spirit and create an exciting atmosphere after the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on us all. LEARNER AFFAIRS Morgan Gibson and Benny Zhu We started off 2021 with a bang and held the first socially dis - tanced “Buddy Connect” picnic of the year. This provided an opportunity for new learners and the matric class of 2021 to bond and connect whilst getting to know each other a bit more. We reconnected through various fun activities throughout the year. Class Representatives form a very important part of our portfolio and we thoroughly enjoyed training sessions with them. Class Representatives play a vital role in addressing any concerns of the learners and reporting back to the prefect body, ensuring that all learners feel safe and happy at the Col- lege. We loved supporting them as they honed their leader- ship skills. | E&D Youth Month Guest Speaker