Reaching the last of the twenties now with 23 school days to go until break-up day on Friday 20 March. One full week left of February with March now just around the corner.
SGB BY-ELECTION
Thank you to those many families who braved the weather and attended Round 1 of the By-election. Although there was a pleasing number registered to vote unfortunately the quorum was not met and our appointed Electoral Officer had to close the meeting. The meeting is now adjourned to the final set date of Tuesday 3 March at 18h00 as previously advertised. Please be present on this evening to cast your vote as the successful applicant is announced that evening.
DPHS WINS UK UNEXPECTED VOICES SPEECH COMPETITION 2019
We are ecstatic to announce that DPHS together with our UK partnering school won the Primary School Category amongst the International competition for the Unexpected Voice Speech Competition we entered in 2019. Three grade 7 boys from last year Richard Eyres, Akhil Sitharam and Jadyn Naidoo were entered in this speech competition run by the British Council in collaboration with World Speech Day. Eligibility for this competition required we partner with a local UK school, and together we needed to choose the topic of Climate Change.
Of the 3 competitors, Jayden Naidoo was chosen as the winner and his speech was sent through to our partnering school to be entered in the Connecting Classrooms Through Global Learning competition.
This is an extremely proud achievement for our school – Congratulations and well done to Mrs Muthusamy and her team of boys on this outstanding achievement. All 3 speeches will be uploaded onto YouTube by World Speech Day South Africa in March this year. A proudly Prep effort!
“SILLY DANGEROUS GAMES”
I am sure that many families have seen or heard of these ‘games’ that have been circulated recently on social media. These ‘silly pranks’ have led to serious injury and tragically, loss of life.
I am referring to games like encouraging a peer to jump up and down, to then have a person on either side to swipe the feet from underneath causing the person to fall backwards. This has resulted in the body hitting the ground with the back of the head which has had tragic outcomes. These so-called games can also be recorded as:
- kneeling behind a person so that he/she can be pushed over.
- tripping someone in front of you.
- pulling the chair away when one wishes to sit down.
- throwing of items at a person that actually strike the face when misdirected.
- setting of daring challenges eg. – holding your breath.
The list can continue with you as parents probably able to add to these dangerous and foolish activities from what you too saw or experienced in your youth.
I do not wish to be an alarmist but I have always strongly emphasized with you as families about the ‘safety’ of our boys. Please will each family treat this message with the serious attention that it deserves as I am personally visiting each class to address the school.
Those words of “sorry” or “I was just playing” stand for nothing if your son is guilty of any such silly practice.
Please note that I am not stating that these latest dangerous pranks have happened here at Prep but what our young men see or hear of, even if challenged, could result in “two seconds of madness” which will have disastrous outcomes for all partners. May our combined concern here be a ‘Lighthouse’ awareness call for safety and sensible behaviour at all times.
EXCURSIONS
Please find below a letter I recently sent home relating to the postponement of excursions for three senior grades. I share this as general information regarding the reasons for this decision.
“I write to inform you that we as the management and staff involved in the grades have made an informed decision to postpone the SP excursions for Grade 5, 6, and 7 to a later date.
We have felt that there has been a lot of concern and debate relating to the recent tragic news that took place during a school excursion in Gauteng.
This has led to in-depth discussions with staff and the respective excursion venues and the transport company whilst we as Principals have also been addressed at two KZN Department meetings held recently relating to these “school outings”. All parties involved value the importance of the excursions where further life-skills are emphasized for the boys to practice and develop.
We do not want any partner to feel uncomfortable by going on excursion ie. even the boys could be consciously aware of the media hype around excursions with parents feeling or becoming more anxious whilst their son/s are away now. I will also add that I do not wish to place any staff member under this pressure whilst they are entrusted further for caring for the boys throughout their thorough planning of the programme and presence each day on excursion.
When the time comes, later on, this year for these affected grades to go on excursion then all partners will be able to enjoy this worthwhile exercise. Even though we as Prep work closely with these service providers, it will afford that extra opportunity to again triple-check all such arrangements which also includes further checks and forms that need to be sent to the Department of Education.
Further information regarding the new dates for these postponed excursions will be sent to you in the near future by your grade leaders.
NB. Grade 3 and Grade 4 dates remain unchanged as these dates are already in the Year Planner for the latter half of the year.
If any parents have any financial queries regarding these excursions then they are to please contact our Bursar Mrs Roberts.
I do encourage all parents to support the decision for these excursions to be shifted to the later dates, as well as to ensure that their son/s are in attendance on these grade outings. There are always so many fond memories shared by staff, boys and their parents when our grades return each year, enriched by these days spent away from school. It is now when staff and boys, across the entire grade, enjoy the rapport and respect for each other outside of their normal school routine and academic day.”
END OF SEASON
- The first term closure of certain sporting codes and activities will be nearing an end soon eg. – the cricket season finishes next week with us hosting our annual Photonote DPHS Cricket Festival here next week with 1st teams visiting us from around the country. We look forward to this weekend’s fixtures against Umhlali and Highbury with many of our teams in action. The first term season has been most rewarding for Prep with the majority of our teams still unbeaten – finish strongly Prep!
- Swimming practices and training for the squads are well underway in preparation for the D & D Galas in the first week of March. The dedicated efforts of staff, coaches and boys are sure to bring the expected honours for Prep.
- Water polo is also enjoying a most successful season with the 1st Team squad ready to attend the Grey PE Tournament in early March. Here again, I call on the partners involved to bring that gold medal home.
- Tennis has also been a highlight with the Tennis Championships and individual challenges taking place this term. Please remember that our local school league takes place next term.
- Surfing and Bodyboarding Club has been in operation during this term with many of our families making use of this quality time to be with their son at our beachfront. Thank you for the positive involvement by all partners.
- It is so encouraging to see all the extra-mural clubs through all grades in the school so busy in the afternoon. We are extremely proud of the wide variety on offer for our boys to participate in besides their sports commitment.
- Well done to our Mini Cricket programme and all the organisers, coaches, players and supporters. I saw many enthusiastic boys and their parents enjoying this valuable foundation in cricket experience. I also noticed lots of talented players showing their skills at this young age which all bodes well for our future years.
- The boys were reminded recently at assembly that the code of rugby will soon commence. The message was also emphasized that no boots of colour eg. – yellow/green etc. will be allowed so please ensure that you purchase a predominantly black boot – we are aware that these are harder to find but Prep has always taken pride on our standard policy of our boys wearing uniform footwear as in the colour black. Families have also dyed the whole boot black or those coloured sections in past years – please respect this message sent well in advance.
PREP BOYS
| DON’T | DO |
| Play ‘silly, dangerous’ games. | Care about each other’s safety. |
| Purchase incorrect colour rugby boots. | Make sure that their rugby boots are predominantly black. |
| Complain about the postponement to their senior excursions. | Understand that they will still enjoy an excursion at a later date. |
| Slow down in their commitment given to all activities at term end. | Become even more committed to their activities on a daily basis. |
| Drop their appearance standards. | Continue to take pride on the Mr Prep appearance. |
MR PREP – CONGRATULATIONS
JP – Talin Naidoo – Grade 2 Everitt
SP – Blake de Bruin – Grade 4 Miloszewski
HEADMASTERS QUOTE FOR THE WEEK
“Today a reader tomorrow a leader”
B WILSON
Headmaster
