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Home of Hope in Tableview. This is an exciting
opportunity for the children to “share the love”
on a special day such as Friendship Day.
Miss Trollip
Music
Our musicians have
settled well into their
music lessons and
ensemble groups.
We are looking
forward to many exciting
performances from our
various groups such as
the Orchestra, Marimba
bands, Brass Ensemble
and Choir. Our Senior
Preparatory Choir will be
taking part in this
year’s Tygerberg Eisteddfod as well the West
Coast Song Festival.
Drama
The Grade 5 and 6 Drama elective learners
have started working on an exciting play entitled
‘Daring Delinquents’, which will be performed in
front of the school at the end of the quarter.
Dance
The Dance Department is in full swing and
preparations have started with getting the
dancers ready for the Cape Town Eisteddfod,
which will be held in May. Many hours of fun,
hard work, concentration and effort go into
getting the dancers to work together as a team.
We would also like to congratulate all of the
dancers who participated in the RAD and ISTD
examinations at the end of 2015. Ms. Joyce
Myroff examined the ballet dancers and Ms.
Trish McKenna examined the tap and modern
dancers. Some of our dancers also participated
in the Medal Tests and across the three different
faculties we accumulated 4 Bronze, 11 Silver,
and 9 Gold Medals. We were also awarded
4 Merits and 31 Distinctions for the ISTD
examinations and in the RAD Ballet we were
awarded 2 Merits, 41 Distinctions and 6 Higher
Grade Presentations. We are very pleased and
proud of all the dancers achievements.
Art
The Grade 4 Art classes have been busy with
their Colour Theory project. They are currently
making individual fish, which will be put together
to create a massive colour wheel. In the Grade
5 classes they have been looking at Russian
architecture, in particular St Basil’s Cathedral
in The Red Square. The learners have had a
great deal of fun using 360 Cities to explore
The Red Square on their iPads. The Grade 6
classes have begun work on their ‘Under the
Sea’ Whale project, which will incorporate all the
theory that they have covered up until now.
Mrs Du Pisanie
Uxolo. Namaste. Shalom.
A must-have Xhosa word for the quarter
is
‘uxolo’
. This term may appear as just one
word, but in isiXhosa it can be a sentence
and it has five meanings. Uxolo is such a
useful word to have in the collection of your
isiXhosa vocabulary. All the students learned to
appreciate this word and it became part of their
interaction with others.
Here are the five meanings uxolo carries:
1.
Sorry - to apologise (uxolo)
2.
Excuse me - to get someone’s attention
(uxolo)
3.
I’m sorry for you - to show sympathy (oh,
shame torho uxolo)
4.
Peace - eg uxolo is important to me
(ndaluthanda uxolo)
5.
Forgiveness - to request forgiveness
(ndicela uxolo)
Many Xhosa names are derived from this
meaningful word and they carry the same
sentiment, such as
Noxolo, Xolelwa, Xola,
Xolile, Xolani, Xoliswa, Xolandile, Noxolile
and
so on. So remember to use
‘uxolo’
in your
interactions everyday. You always need this
word, this phrase and this sentence.
Mr Magini
Lego is therapy, right?!
The Robotics lab received interesting
‘presents’ at the beginning of February in the
form of Lego sets. There are two different sets.
The one is a small pneumatics kit and the
other a solar and wind energy kit. These Lego
kits work in conjunction with our existing kits.
It arrived only this week, thus if you visit me in
the next while, you might see me testing it out.
Really, just testing, I will not be having fun at
all... play date anyone? I already had a mom
eyeing out the kits and asking about a play
date for parents… we could all use a little play
therapy, right?
These new kits will have to wait their turn
though, as for now the learners have been
enjoying the robot challenges that they are
given each week to solve. The aim of each
challenge is to explore the abilities of the NXT
robot. We had a ‘Woodbridge Island’ challenge,
as well as a ‘Stop and Go’ and ‘Power up!’
challenge. These tasks stimulate thinking and
problem solving, which keeps the learners
attentive.
Most learners are getting into the routine
of taking a video of their robot executing the
task, which is then submitted onto our Google
Classroom. Do have a look; I think you will most
likely be impressed with your children!
Miss Smith
The start of the Summer Quarter delivered
an eventful sports schedule which created
numerous opportunities for all Grade 4 – 6
Parklands learners. This period guided the
large number of sports fanatics at Parklands
Senior Preparatory School into choosing their
various sporting codes and teams. Great
preparation was offered, incorporating maximum
participation and fun-filled training sessions to
ensure that our sports teams are well drilled for
their first round of inter schools matches.
The year has also started off with a number
of Parklands learners achieving outstanding
sporting success in their external sporting
involvements. We are very proud of Jack
Buchanan who was recently selected for the
Western Province Schools U/11 tennis team.
Well done to Jack on this top achievement and
we look forward to following his progress in this
field.
The Senior Preparatory Inter House
Swimming Gala was held on Friday 5 February
2016. The Inter House build up period promoted
great spirit as the houses gathered for their daily
house meetings. The captains ably planned
their swimmers’ event allocations and lead their
houses in great spirit with war cries on the day.
The build up to the gala certainly contributed
immensely towards the success and the warm
atmosphere of this event. Well done to all the
Parklands learners who participated and gave
their best for their houses. We look forward to
the top six finals of each event, which will be
held on 11 March 2016 as Parklands will be
hosting it’s first Ladder 6 internal Swimming
Gala.
Our Cricket, Softball, Running Club and
Tennis Teams produced respectable results
during the first week of inter school sports
fixtures. Our weekly Softball fixtures include the
hosting of two or sometimes three schools at
Parklands on one afternoon. With great Softball
coaches involved in this code, the popularity
levels of this sport continue to grow amongst
Parklands girls as well as learners from
surrounding schools in the area.
Our 2016 U/12 Water Polo squad really
enjoyed the privilege to be the first Parklands
Water Polo group to enjoy, experience and
learn from the competitive Water Polo fixtures
that they have engaged with while visiting
the traditional Water Polo schools from the
Southern Suburbs. These schools have an
established Water Polo tradition and it certainly
holds exciting future ventures for Parklands in
this arena.
The Saturday morning Premier League
Cricket fixtures are also well underway as our
Grade 5 & 6 invitational Cricket side played in
a fun-filled Cricket fixture at St Joseph’s Marist
Brothers in Rondebosch. It was also pleasing to
witness the warm spirit and great support from
the Parklands parent group on the side of the
field during this fixture.
Mr Badenhorst
robotics
culture
sport
isixhosa