We wave goodbye to April and now today embrace the arrival of the fifth month of the year – May and the remaining 31 days of the second quarter. Yes only one full academic month of school days until the end of this term on Friday 14 June.
CONDOLENCES
We as DPHS paid our respects to Northlands Girls High School and the family of Mrs Roshni Moonsamy, the Principal of the school, who was tragically killed in a motor accident on the M4 last week. Mrs Moonsamy has been a well-respected and long serving educator/leader at the school who has always dedicated herself to her students and education in our city. I did on behalf of the DPHS community express our combined love and prayers to the school and family during this extremely sad period.
STAFF NEWS
I have written to you earlier to explain that Miss Helen Laatz ended her 7 year teaching career at DPHS on Tuesday of this week. Miss Laatz will be immigrating shortly to the United Kingdom where she will be with family and taking up a teaching position in the near future. Thank you again Miss Laatz for your loyal, dedicated and professional service that you have provided to our school throughout your teaching period here at Prep.
We welcome Mr Chad Fisher on our staff into the position of class teacher for Grade 5A where he too will confidently and passionately serve the class and school in this appointment. Mr Fisher is raring to take over the reins as he has already been spending quality time with Miss Laatz and the class, to ensure a smooth hand-over with minimum disruption to the academic programme. Congratulations Mr Fisher.
Best wishes to Miss Challis Chandler and her husband to be Mr Craig Richards, as they celebrate their wedding this coming Saturday. May you both be blessed in abundance with love and joy throughout the day and years ahead. Congratulations!
NEW – LATEST SCHOOL FACILITIES
Thank you to the many Prep parents and visitors who have expressed their appreciation and compliments to the school on the new upgraded facilities namely the Academic Learning Support Centre, The Tuckshop and the Uniform shop.
Please note that we plan to hold a special assembly to formally announce these facilities into our school and thus officially open and welcome the respective staff and management into the DPHS ‘family’ and school structures.
The programme is as follows:
Assembly – On the John Smith Field – stands
Date – Friday 10 May
Time – 07h30
This assembly will be followed by a Prep Pal meeting NB – This meeting will not be a House Dress Day but will be conducted with the boys in their full school uniform. We also look forward to the attendance of our School Governing Body, School Trust members, representative/s from the Victor Daitz Foundation and special guests who have been instrumental in the planning and development of these facilities that we now proudly enjoy. Parents are most welcome to attend this Special Assembly, to join in this celebration of these facilities.
- The Victor Daitz Academic Learning Support Centre.
- The DPHS Uniform Shop.
- The Prep Club (Refreshment Centre).
TUCKSHOP / COFFEE SHOP
You will be well aware by now that our facility here falls under the well-known the “Press Club” brand who are well respected in our city for their coffee shop and restaurant line of business.
You will also have noticed when purchasing items that many of their items are labelled ‘PC’ (Press Club). It has thus been decided by School Management and the Directors of The Press Club to look for a name that clearly identifies a ‘happy marriage’ between the business and our school ie. – to fall under one name/brand that so clearly expresses the supportive relationship between two leading brands namely DPHS (Prep) and the Press Club. Hence using the same ‘PC’ abbreviation we are both proud to announce that this facility will be referred to as: the “Prep Club” which highlights and serves both partners.
We call on you as the Prep Community to now also buy into this official name which will be hopefully ready to unveil at the Special Assembly.
The dictionary definition of ‘Club’ clearly emphasizes how appropriate this name is as it also shows the strong link/commitment of the Prep community. Definition states: “ an organisation of people with a common purpose or interest, who meet regularly and take part in shared activities.”
How true this is for all of us at Prep as staff, coaches, boys, parents and Old Boys who share that common purpose of interest ie. – our beloved school Prep!
I call on all partners now to frequently use the name the “Prep Club” when referring to this facility eg. – parents at home can say to their son that they have been given some money to purchase a treat today at the “Prep Club” in highlighting the identity of this facility in our school.
TOURING AMBASSADORS
The U11 Tennis squad comprising of the A/B & C teams departed on Tuesday this week with their staff/coaches to defend their No 1 title at the Inter Schools Tennis Tournament for schools across our country that will be held in Bethlehem until the weekend. Bring that trophy back to Prep for 2019!
The 1st XV rugby squad leave for the Trinity House Rugby Festival on Thursday this week to be joined by well-known rugby schools especially from the Gauteng area. DPHS have always performed exceptionally well here and we look forward to us, as Prep, maintaining our high standards there. I will also proudly accompany the touring party to this festival, where I will join the visiting Headmasters from the schools in attendance. Mr Phipson (Deputy) will take over the reins at Prep in my absence.
I call on all staff, coaches, boys and parents to be proudly Prep Ambassadors standing united at both touring venues, sharing positive support and appreciation for our teams, the opposition, and the respective organisers. We never drop our Prep standards on any tour – it is now that we truly repeat the words “Prep Ambassadors”.
Enjoy the tours!
CONGRATULATIONS
To our rugby teams and coaches in the respective age groups who participated across the Midlands area (Pietermaritzburg) at the tournaments held there. Our age group teams performed so admirably with our 1stt XV and 2nd XV winning their tournaments held at Merchiston on Friday afternoon/evening. Once again all teams were Proudly Prep ambassadors.
LATE ARRIVALS
I have called on all families to please ensure that their son is at school before the ringing of the first bell at 07h25. Letters are now being formally sent to families who still unfortunately have not made the necessary effort to respect this call and are still noted as arriving late on a regular basis. If you do happen to receive such a letter then I again call on you to now please respond to this formal request that your son arrives at school on time so that this matter does not become a conflict of interest between the school and the family. Your immediate and positive response is appreciated. Once again we acknowledge and appreciate the majority of our families who always ensure that they respect the school times by getting their son to school on time.
MOTHER’S DAY ASSEMBLY
We look forward to a packed hall of ladies – our Mothers/Grandmothers – who will be attending the Mother’s Day Assembly here at school on Friday. The Assembly will be presented by our Grade 6 section, who have really with the help of their teachers and our cultural pillar staff, planned to warm the hearts of our beloved “Prep Moms’. We really do call on you to please support the ‘Assembly’ as indicated below so that DPHS can express our love and appreciation to our much-loved ladies. Please excuse my attendance as due to the disruptive term of long weekends etc. there is now a clash of dates between the 1st XV tour to Johannesburg and Mother’s Day on our calendar. I have always personally looked forward to the Mother’s Day celebrations each year so I now pay my respects again to acknowledge our wonderful Moms at Prep.
Thank you ladies for always being there for your son, your family and our school – may you be spoilt on Friday here at school and at home as you fully deserve to be loved and cared for in support of being there as “Supermom”
Thank you to the Grade 6 staff, staff who have been involved in the presentation and planning, the Mothers Committee and to our Hollywood stars – our Grade 6 boys for hosting this event on behalf of our school.
Happy Mother’s Day Celebrations!
PREP BOYS
| DON’T | DO |
| Forget to wish Miss Laatz and Miss Challis Chandler. | Remember to congratulate Mr Fisher. |
| Say ‘Tuckshop’ regarding our new facility. | Proudly refer to this facility as the “Prep Club”. |
| Let ‘Mom’ miss the Mother’s Day Assembly on Friday. | Remind ‘Mom’ to attend the Mother’s Day Assembly. |
| Slip up on their role as a Prep Ambassador. | Proudly represent themselves as a ‘Prep Ambassador’ at all times. |
| Arrive late for school. | Respect the starting time for school. |
HEADMASTER’S QUOTE FOR THE WEEK
“If you hear a voice within you say “you cannot paint,”
then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced!’
B WILSON Headmaster
