N E W S L E T T E R

PARKTOWN HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS Tyrone Avenue, Parkview, Johannesburg 2193

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Issue No. 17 21 October 2016

GENERAL SCHOOL NEWS

VALEDICTION 2016 On Monday, 17 October, the school hosted the annual Valediction ceremony for the Matric Class of 2016. This year the function was held at Parktown Boys’, because our hall was unavailable. Our guest speaker was Emeritus Professor Ken Huddle. Professor Huddle was the Head of Department of Medicine at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital from 1990 to 2015. He spoke to the girls about following their ambition. Dr Cereseto spoke about various flowers, and used these flowers as metaphors of how to live happy lives as well-balanced good citizens. The recipients of the Special Awards were: DUX SCHOLARUM AND ELIZABETH HEDDING AWARD – Ifechukwu Mbajiorgu MATRIC ’98 CUP FOR ENDEAVOUR – Keziah-Joy Ringrose and Tegan Schana This award is made in recognition of endeavour and consistent effort in all subjects.

STEFANIE RÄDEL MEMORIAL AWARD – Esi Bossman

This award is made in recognition of being a motivating and enthusiastic person who is willing to help others to shine. COLLIER CUP – Thalia Naidoo This is an award for service to the school community made to a learner who is not a Representative Council of Learners' Councillor. ROTARY GOOD CITIZENSHIP AWARD – Katherine Brokensha This award is made in recognition of service to the school and good citizenship. OLD PARKTONIAN AWARD – Amaarah Garda Best All-rounder: Academic, Sports, Leadership and Service. This year 13 learners obtained their Academic Honours. Academic Honours are awarded when a learner obtains a re-award of Academic Full Colours, with an average above 80%. Congratulations to the following learners:

Ifechukwu Mbajiorgu 89% Milica Zdravkovic 88% Tasneem Seedat 86% Nabeelah Seedat 86% Urvi Patel 86% Kaylene Gounden 84% Zahraa Essa 83%

Perusha Gounder 83% Katherine Brokensha 82% Clare Rigney 81% Zakiyyah Seedat 81% Rafee’a Solomon 81% Kasia Marais 80%

AWARDS ASSEMBLY Congratulations to the following learners who received awards at the Awards Assemblies held on 11 and 12 October. FULL COLOURS Canoeing Danielle Goldschagg Choir Jade Brown Choir Pascale Naude Dance, Dramatic Arts Nicola Niehaus Dance, Dramatic Arts Tshiamo Moretlwe Dance Olivia Drummond Dramatic Arts Jéad Stehr Equestrian Zahraa Essa Hockey, Softball Meagan Gandy Hockey Sabrina Knödl Marimbas Clare Rigney Photograph Jéad Stehr Soccer Shazia Jassat Soccer Francesca Dobrovolsky Touch Rugby Ameerah Emeran Touch Rugby Rebecca Stowe Traditional Choir Mercy Mahopa Traditional Choir Kholofelo Madlala Traditional Choir Baratang Lekomanyane HALF COLOURS Academic Enrichment Ifechukwu Mbajiorgu Academic Enrichment Milica Zdravkovic Hockey Jade Willson Hockey Gontse Maphathahanyi Marimbas Mpho Makgati Soccer Zolani Shingange Soccer Zoe Peters Softball Alexandra McTaggart Theatre Technical Tasneem Seedat Traditional Choir Mpho Makgati Touch Rugby Keziah-Joy Ringrose SPORTS HONOURS Meagan Gandy – Full Colours in Softball 2015, 2016 and Hockey 2016 CULTURAL HONOURS Nicola Niehaus – Full Colours in Dance 2015, 2016, Dramatic Arts 2015, 2016 Tshiamo Moretlwe – Full Colours in Dance 2015, 2016, Dramatic Arts 2015, 2016 Jéad Stehr – Full Colours Dramatic Arts 2015, 2016, Photography 2016

STAFF NEWS We welcome the following teachers to Parktown:

Mrs Hayter the new Life Orientation Subject Head

Miss Mthethwa has joined the Consumer Studies Department

Miss Beukes will be substituting for Mrs van Leyleveld while she is on maternity leave. We wish them all a happy and fulfilling teaching experience at our school.

RCL 2016/2017 PRESIDENT Neha Prag VICE PRESIDENTS Cameron McDermott Sibongumzuzu Mkhwanazi TREASURER Natasha Gertzen SECRETARY Tamia Brown HOUSE CAPTAINS Alseids Raeesa Bulbulia Dryads Devenney Smith Hesperides Nqobile Masombuka Nereids Tintswalo Ngobeni Oreads Rachel Kiggell Pleiades Francesca Gandini PORTFOLIO HEADS Ambassadors Tayla Badenhorst Celebrations Simone de Beer Communication Suranne Thorne Culture Hannah Fleisch Discipline Razeenah Docrat Parktown Pride Cheyenne Patel Awareness Meagan Govender Sisterhood Amy Tod Sport Jenna van der Merwe

SGB REPRESENTATIVES Tayla Badenhorst Simone de Beer

HALL OUT OF BOUNDS Following specialist engineers’ investigation of the hall structure and their recommendation the hall

has been placed out of bounds with immediate effect. We are therefore unable to use this facility for any purpose. Grade 12 final examinations will be

written in other venues.

RE-REGISTRATION AND THE FEE PAYMENT PLEDGE FOR 2017 With this newsletter is a report from the AGM and Budget Meeting, the final Registration Form for 2017 and the Fee Payment Pledge. Please return the completed forms by

Tuesday, 1 November to the Grade box in the Reception Office.

2016 END OF YEAR ARRANGEMENTS The school year ends on 7 December and full attendance is required in terms of legislation until and on this day. Learners may only be absent from school for valid reasons. Going on holiday early is not a valid reason. All parents/guardians are reminded that before school reports are handed out on 7 December they should ensure that their daughters/wards have handed in a completed Clearance Form, Community Service and Work-shadowing Form.

The Clearance Form must be completed and handed to the Register teacher by 2 December.

The Community Service and Work-shadowing Forms must be completed and the ORIGINAL forms handed to the Register teacher by 08:00 on 7 December.

REPORT COLLECTION Reports will be handed to learners at 12:00 on 7 December. If, in exceptional cases, the learner is not able to collect her own report, a letter requesting that another learner or adult collect the report must be addressed to Dr Cereseto by 30 November. A “permission to collect a report” slip will be given to the learner who must give it to the person who will be collecting the report. These reports may be collected from

Barbet/Reception Office between 12:15 – 13:30 on 7 December or between 08:00 and 13:00 on Thursday 8 December. The Clearance Form, Community Service and Work-shadowing Forms should have already been handed in. If not, the representative must bring them on the collection day.

COMMUNITY SERVICE AND WORK-SHADOWING PROGRAMME This year Grade 8 and 9s will complete a minimum of 20 hours Community Service and Grade 10 and 11s a minimum 20 hours of Community Service and/or Work-shadowing between Thursday, 1 December and Tuesday, 6 December. The completed forms will be returned to learners for use when applying to universities.

ACADEMIC NEWS GREEN ENERGY COMPETITION Last Sunday, 16 October, six of our Grade 9 learners participated in the final round of a Clean Energy competition at Zwartkops raceway. In the first round they had built wind turbines and then solar panel Lego cars. The final, inter-schools’ round involved building a Lego car that ran off a Hydrogen fuel cell. Although our two teams didn’t win, they did receive prizes and special mention for their tenacity and creative innovation. The judges were also impressed by the level of understanding displayed by these future scientists. Tao-Mae van Heerden, Ciara Klinkert and Tanweer Madhi hard at work building a car of the future

Sara Vanker, Kelly Mitchell and Laylaa Varachia presenting their green energy projects

INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE FAIR

The International Science Fair took place from 5-7 October at the Birchwood Hotel and Conference Centre. This year was a momentous one with 5393 female participants versus 3564 males. Learners from South Africa, Swaziland, Mexico, Brazil, Thailand and other countries presented their projects to a panel of judges including professionals from the private sector, academics, scientists and international ministers in a bid to walk away with a medal. We are extremely proud of Skyla Bennie who was awarded a silver medal for her project titled “Rural Generator” in the Renewable energy category.

CULTURAL NEWS

INTER-HIGH DANCE COMPETITION On Thursday, 22 September, the First Team dancers entered the first round of the annual Inter-high Dance Festival which was held this year at Dainfern College. Their brilliantly choreographed theme dance “Mushrooms” and their voluntary dance “Is This Just Fantasy?”, which also included some of the hip-hop dancers, impressed the judges who commented that their inspired choreography and high standard of dance are worthy of any professional stage. Parktown was chosen as one of the five schools to go through to the finals. The final evening took place on Friday, 23 September. The dancers were victorious and won most of the awards. They won for best make-up and costume, best choreography (Nicola Niehaus), best theme dance and most promising dancer (Tshiamo Moretlwe). St Mary’s, Dainfern College, Crawford College and King David were the four other schools who made it into the finals. Parktown was the overall winner of the evening making them the 2016 Inter-high Dance champions.

DEBATING Our debating girls have the capacity to excel in a variety of platforms and last weekend was a testament to exactly that. Rheyna Pattni and Neha Prag were selected as Gauteng team trialists and attended thes e excruciating trial days recently. The ecstasy couldn't be contained on our WhatsApp debating group when it was announced that Rheyna has been selected for the 2016 Junior Gauteng Delegation and that Neha has been selected for the 2016 Senior Gauteng Delegation - a tremendous achievement for them, our debating society, and for Parktown. Well done girls.

Rheyna Pattni and Neha Prag

SPORTS NEWS

CRICKET Congratulations to Elmarie Fourie for being selected to play for the U16 Gauteng Cricket Team which will compete in a national tournament in December in Johannesburg and her further selection to the South African U15 Cricket Team.

Elmarie Fourie

DIVING Diving has started. All beginners are welcome. Please note the times for Diving; Monday 15:30 – 17:15 Wednesday 15:30 – 17:15 Saturday (Beginners) 09:00 – 10:00 Saturday (Squad) 10:00 – 12:00 Molly Roberts

SWIMMING Swimming training is well on its way. Our swimming team was to participate in the Menlo Gala, which was cancelled because too many teams were participating in the Sun City Swim. Our first gala for this term will be a friendly at St Catherine’s. Please note that all girls who would like to join the team are welcome to attend practices. The gala teams will be selected based on the time trials at practice. Social/beginners swimming has started. All are welcome to join in and learn to swim.

TENNIS Our Tennis Teams played against St Mary’s DSG Pretoria on Tuesday 11 October. St Mary’s could not side a full Second Team which resulted in them forfeiting two matches. Our First Team lost 26-37 and our Second Team won 52-11. On Saturday, 15 October, our juniors played in the Junior Inter-high at Northcliff. The Inter-high is always a great day of tennis packed with very tough opposition. Our team placed 19th out of 23 schools. Laylaa Varachia

PARKTOWN TOUCH RUGBY FESTIVAL On Saturday, 15 October, we hosted our first Touch Rugby Festival. Set-up at the Old Parks Sports Club started very early in the morning. Ten teams were to play, but unfortunately one team did not arrive on the day which left one pool of five and the other with four. Our First, Second and Third Teams participated. This meant we had a lot of depth present on the day, but also that our lower teams were also able to learn and test themselves against other first teams. Music was playing from the technical table coordinated by our theatre technical girls. Parktown First Aiders were on duty all day.

Our teams played fantastic touch rugby and represented their school with pride. Our First Team placed at the top of their pool and made it to the final with ease. The final against Crawford Sandton First Team was most definitely the highest level of touch rugby throughout the day. The head referee stated that the level played was of a provincial standard. We drew 5-5 by full time, but narrowly lost 1-2 in the drop downs. Jenna van der Merwe

Thank you to Ms Häusler for helping with the preparations and running of the festival on the

day, Miss Haus and Mr Torrani for running the technical table, Mrs Seery for making sure all injuries were taken care of and managing our first aid team, Ms Gibbons for keeping us stocked with ice for the day and Mrs Davidson for her support and guidance. We look forward to hosting an even bigger and better festival next year. Well done to all the players for their hard work and determination.

Touch Rugby First

Team

1st Crawford Sandton First Team

2nd Parktown Girls’ First Team

3rd Hatfield Christian

4th Reddam Waterfall

5th Parktown Girls’ Second Team

6th Greenside

7th Crawford Sandton Second Team

8th Parktown Girls Third Team

9th Glenvista

Dnp Wendywood

WATER POLO Our Water Polo Teams played against Fourways on Wednesday, 12 October. All our teams played exceptionally well with their performance going from strength to strength. Well done to the First Team on their first win of the season and Erica Kuhl, Kendal Cockcroft and Julia Kiggell for being chosen as Player of the Match.

Team talk - photographed by Priyanka Padayachee)

On Wednesday, 19 October we hosted the St Mary’s Second Team to play

our First Team. The team really pulled it together and played with skill. Well done for winning 9-2.

Zoe Kuhl

PARKTOWN UNIFORM SHOP HOURS DURING END OF YEAR EXAMINATIONS

31/10/2016 – 04/11/2016 Normal Hours

07/11/2016 – 11/11/2016 Normal Hours

14/11/2016 - 18/11/2016 Normal Hours

21/11/2016 - 25/11/2016 Closed

28/11/2016 – 02/12/2016 Closed

05/12/2016 – 09/12/2016 Closed

If you require assistance, please contact Miss Habana in the Finance Office.

First Team Won 7-6

Second Team Lost 3-5

U14 Team Won 5-3

COMMUNITY NEWS

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