Quarter 3 Newsletter 2022

8 Quarter Three was filled with many exciting, interesting and diverse educational experiences. And as Natalie Babbitt mentioned, “life's got to be lived,” that is exactly what our Grade Six learners did. Our Grade 6 learners and educators are looking forward to our Grade 6 camp at the start of Quarter Four. We are ready and excited to see what the last quarter has to offer. CULTURE LIBRARY What an incredibly busy quarter! August started off with two wonderful Music Concerts celebrating the various individual instruments on offer at the College. For many learners, it was the first opportunity to perform to a live adult audience and they coped extremely well. Our results from the Western Cape Virtual Eisteddfod were phenomenal. We received a total of thirty-eight Cum Laude, seventy Gold, thirty-nine Silver and seven Bronze awards across various categories in the Speech and Drama, Music and Art sections. The results from entries into the Cape Town Eisteddfod are trickling in and we shall announce those next quarter. ‘When are we going to wear our costumes?’ ‘Is my wig straight?’ ‘Gosh, the stage looks so cool!’ are phrases and questions that were heard along the Preparatory Faculty passages this quarter. Yes, ‘Between the Pages’ was being brought to life on stage with every learner represented in some way. Every Senior Preparatory class represented a scene from a well- known children's book. Coincidentally, each of these books has been turned into a musical too, so there was a song for every scene. Our learners grasped the opportunity to perform. They were excited to be learning lines and rehearsing on stage during their Drama lessons. The Class Music lessons were bursting with songs and we heard teachers humming along to 'The Bare Necessities' and 'Be our Guest'. They designed and created props during their Art and Design lessons too. One learner was overheard saying, "I feel so important. What I create will be used on stage and everyone will see it". And when spotting completed props on stage, we heard learners proudly remark, “I helped to make those” and “My granny is coming especially to see my design”. The two performances were an incredible success and we are extremely proud of every learner for participating. A showcase of this nature is so important, as our confident learners have the opportunity to hone their talents and those less confident still feel part of the team as everyone has an important role to play and each role is vital to the show. We are confident that the experience will be a fond memory for many years. Not to be outdone, the Junior Preparatory learners presented songs, poetry, dance, marimba and orchestral items at our ‘Special Person’s Day’ which was a wonderful opportunity for those who have a special place in the lives of our children to get a glimpse into their school life. ROBOTICS The Grade 3 learners excitedly developed their coding skills using the Tynker app. They developed various coding concepts through the creation of coded art, nature walks and many other exciting challenges. At the end of each lesson the learners proudly shared their creations with their peers and teacher. The Senior Prep Robotics lab has been abuzz this quarter with lots of exciting builds and coding challenges. The grade 4 learners have made excellent progress with coding in the Swift playgrounds interface, learning concepts such as conditional code, logical operators and while loop. We look forward to completing the Swift Learn to Code 1 course early next quarter, which will then lead into the learners developing the skills needed to start app development using the Apple OS on iPad. Bad libraries build collections, good libraries build services, great libraries build communities. - Prof. R David Lankes A school library is the heart of a school, a hub of knowledge and creativity that meets every reader at their unique level - to equip, encourage and ensure success for all. It is also important to share with the wider community and we started off the quarter with a highly successful book drive, thanks to the generosity of the Parklands families, collecting more than a thousand beautiful books for Kerria Primary School in Atlantis. Book Club members had great fun sorting and counting the books. August 14th is “Koop-’n-Afrikaanse-boek-dag”, and over the years we have extended this celebration to embrace isiXhosa as well. Learners of all ages enjoyed daily vocabulary competitions as they illustrated interesting and unusual words during this week-long event. September traditionally is the time when we have our Parklands Readathon. During this week we celebrate two big days: Roald Dahl Day as well as all the inspiration and dress-up fun that we associate with International Dot Day. Learners got creative with an augmented reality app to play with their created dot designs, and played some more with a Roald Dahl app based on the storyline of The Twits. Three literary Quiz events got everyone participating and showing off their story smarts. What a colourful way to end a quarter! "If you take a child to the theatre, not only will they practise empathy, they might also laugh uproariously, or come home singing about science, or want to know more about history, or tell you what happened at school today, or spend all dinner discussing music, or learn how to handle conflict, or start becoming future patrons of the arts." - Lauren Gunderson