Quarter 3 Newsletter September 2019b

2 3 LEARNER ACHIEVEMENTS Likhona Mbovane Congratulations to Likhona Mbovane who has been selected to take part in the National Youth Orchestra Summer Course, from 7-15 December in Johannesburg. Shreya Singh Shreya Singh won GOLD and received 4 special awards at the Eskom Regional Expo for her exceptional project on making disposable straws from kelp. As one of her prizes she received a partial scholarship to University College in Dublin from a world-renowned scientist. Shreya has also been selected as part of the team to participate in the national EXPO to be held in Johannesburg in September. Ivana Schäfer A number of our senior learners wrote the annual Afrikaans Senior Olympiad for Second Language speakers earlier in the year. Around 3000 participants had to answer questions to test comprehension, grammar and knowledge of literature. Congratulations to Ivana Schäfer who placed 8th in the Western Cape with an average of 85%. Darian Naidoo Darian was invited by Cricket South Africa, to attend a regional U17 training camp in Paarl from 24 – 25 June. A regional camp was held at all the major centres across the country but only a select few got a call up, so this is extremely exciting for Darian and the College. National selectors attended the camp with the intention of identifying talent for the national U/17 camp. This is in anticipation of the U/19 World Cup next year. We are behind Darian all the way! Jaryd Visser Jaryd obtained an impressive score In the South African Mathematics Olympiad and advanced through all rounds of the competition. Out of 100 000 learners only 100 juniors and seniors made it to the final round. Jaryd represented Western Province at the SA Mathematics Team Competition where they ended in 9th position out of 79 teams. Gianluca Gironi Congratulations to Gianluca Gironi who won both “Most Promising Senior Newcomer Grade 8-12” and the “Best Senior Solo Performance Grade 8-12” at the Cape Town Eisteddfod. Merel van der Brink Congratulations to Merel van den Brink in Grade 12, whose poem, Gender Equality, has been included in the very prestigious 2019 English Alive Anthology. ROBOTICS World Robot Olympiad Western Cape Regional Competition. On Saturday, 2 August our Robotics teams from the Secondary Faculty participated in the World Robotic Olympiad at UWC. Galaxy Bots, The Boys and I, BeastMode and the Lazy Thinkers participated in the Junior High category. BeastMode (Luca Wolvaardt & Ioannis Papadakos) was awarded Gold first place and The Galaxy Bots (Junior Nembudani, Omolemo Nage & Lethabo Nodoba) were awarded Silver, second place. Robodog (Mujaahid Salie & Noah Kemp) and The Lego Legacy (Legae Madisha & Imrah Salie) participated in Robo Soccer. Robodogs placed first in the Competition. All the best to our teams representing us at Nationals in Johannesburg during the holiday. SECONDARY FACULTY GRADES 7 - 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . From the Principal’s Office Sylvia Steyn Spring is in the air and is evident all around us. At this time of the year, one cannot resist writing about our beautiful gardens – on all three campuses. We are privileged to be surrounded by such variety and colour. As always, the Winter Quarter has been filled with a myriad of activities and events, which makes everyone look forward to this Spring break to catch our collective breath before the final stretch. We started the Winter Quarter with the triumph of CATS, The Musical and ended with the highly successful Gary Kirsten T20 challenge, sponsored by the Gary Kirsten Cricket Academy. The Matric Ball was once again a grand occasion and an unforgettable evening. Our matrics completed their preliminary examinations, while many of our learners excelled in various Olympiads. the Cape Town Eisteddfods, Trinity of London Music Examinations and the Eskom Science Expo. We thoroughly enjoyed travelling to Reddam Durbanville for the second Derby and look forward to hosting them on our campus next year. Our August Awareness Month provided everyone with the opportunity to open their hearts to our chosen charity, the Santa Shoebox Project. During the September holidays, our Robotics teams will compete in the national championships in Johannesburg, our cricket team will travel to Knysna to compete in the Oakhill Cricket Tournament and a number of our learners will travel to Europe and the USA on the Travel & Sport Academic Achievers tour. Never a dull moment! Excitement is mounting for the completion of our Innovation Centre due to open at the start of next year. Staff and learners have had the opportunity to experience some of the technology planned for the building. We look forward to inviting every member of the Parklands family to come and see, for themselves, what the future of education amounts to. Due to the drought and the renovation of our fields, we are, for the first time in the two summer seasons, able to host home games and utilise our facilities to the fullest. The Inaugural Gary Kirsten T20 cricket tournament brought many visitors to our campus and we received many compliments for our exceptional fields. We are excited for the summer sports season to commence. in full, at the start of the Spring Quarter. We wish all members of the Parklands family a refreshing break and a successful Spring Quarter. OUTREACH On behalf of the Interact Committee, I would like to thank everyone for their contributions towards August Awareness month. It was another memorable month which showed how big our Parklands hearts are. Mwenda Phiri - Interact President SANTA SHOEBOX PROJECT At the end of August Awareness Month we set up a wrapping station in the Recreation Room where, with the help of volunteers, managed to wrap 84 boxes. The committee will fill the boxes with items donated by the school and take it to The Boulevard in Woodstock, who distribute the boxes to schools, shelters and orphanages at the end of the year. ONE-TO-ONE FÈTE On Sunday, 18 August, the Interact Club members participated in a charity event, at the Cape Town Stadium, for the intellectually disabled - providing them with a fun-filled day of playing games and winning prizes! Our stall had a “Save the Environment” theme and our game was throwing a bottle into a recycling bin. We celebrated by giving the guests sweets, chocolates and knitted items. This was a wonderful eye-opening experience for all of us and we are so grateful to have had the opportunity to give back to the community. VAATJIE LITERACY PROGRAMME On Friday, 23 August, a group of eager Interact volunteers visited Vaatjie Primary School for the quarterly ‘Rotary Literacy Programme’ project. The children were divided into smaller groups and we proceeded to read to the learners. We also had time to play a few games with the little ones - something they really enjoyed. We urge anyone who would like to be a part of this initiative, to join Interact and sign up for our next visit to Vaatjie! BLISTERS FOR BREAD WALK On Sunday, 25August, a few of us attended the Blisters for Bread walk, along with 10 000 people. The walk is in aid of The Cape Peninsula Feeding Scheme, which donates food to underprivileged school children. This organisation tries to limit the number of children who go to school hungry every day. It was amazing to see so many people come together in aid of this foundation which we as a school donated R19000 to in celebration of Mandela Day. SUNFLOWER FOUNDATION The theme of this year’s campaign is: It's ordinary people who do the most extraordinary things that make a real difference. Thank you to everyone who bought a TOPE FOR HOPE and donated coins - you have made a difference in the life of someone who is fighting a blood disease. Our donations will assist in the recruitment of stem cell donors combating these diseases. INCOMING COMMITTEE As the quarter comes to a close, so does the 2018 and 2019 Interact Committee's term. Sadly, we have to move on but we had the privilege to nominate the 2020 Interact Committee - what a dynamic group! In true Interact fashion we cannot reveal their positions until the Induction Dinner on Wednesday, 16 October. Congratulations to Brooke Elliott, Bonan Benny Zhu, Thor Hambly-Nuss, Tayla Van Wyk, Milena Fieggen, Nieka Ireland, Christine Greig We trust that these seven enthusiastic young leaders will give of their very best to the club, community and College and we know that they are the perfect group for this task. SPORT The winter sports season started as early as November last year as we started preparation for our first International tour to Ireland and our now traditional trip to George to participate in the annual Southern Cape Sport Tour. Preseason festivals, such as the West Coast Festival and Bosmansdam Netball Festival, served as match preparation for our learners. All in all, 113 learners and educators from the 1st and U16 Rugby, 1st and U16 Netball and 1st and U16 Hockey toured and proudly spread the blue and white stripes. These tours enabled our learners to gel as a squad and showed their grit by playing higher level opposition and winning many matches this season. We now look forward to a successful Summer Season. Thanersen Pillay - Head of Sport CROSS COUNTRY Cross Country has gone from strength to strength, at the College, with the number of athletes competing in the weekly Western Province Northern Zone League race.. For many of our athletes, this has been the first time they have been exposed to more competitive running and it is clear that their confidence has grown throughout the season. Our top runners, Christine Greig (Gr 10) and Deon Bochnig (Gr 9), have held onto their top 10 rankings throughout the season and qualified for the Western Province trials where Deon was included in the team and Christine was a reserve. RUGBY All the rugby teams have had an amazing season which shows our growth in the sport over the past five years. Highlights for this year, an invitation by Paarl Boys High, Rondebosch and Paarl Gymnasium to play at their sports days. This shows that, although we cannot compete on numbers, we are held in high regard. We are proud of Shane Rosslind who was selected for the Western Province Academy team whilst Kelvin Sadia was selected for the U 15 Western Province team. Shane’s selection has ensured that we have had a provincial player for each of the past 5 years! NETBALL The season started with excellent news that we were invited, due to our recent results over the last couple of years, to enter Spring at the Secondary Campus Gr 9 Autumn Top Achievers Derby Soccer vs Reddam Gr 10 Autumn Top Achievers Outreach Outreach Girl's Soccer Gr 7 Autumn Top Achievers Gr 11 Autumn Top Achievers