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Volume 19 ∞ Issue 05 ∞ 22 April 2016

TWC CYCLE TOUR

FROM CAPE TOWN TO PIETERMARITZBURG

Day 1.

The finish at TWC Tuesday 12 April

at 11:30.

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Out Of The Hat Term 1 was a short and intense term and the girls coped well with all the demands placed on them. The Grade 8s have settled in well and have coped admirably with the adjustments from junior school to senior school.

I was very proud of all the girls at the annual Inter-High gala last term. The swimmers gave of their best and did exceptionally

well, winning the closely contested gala for the fourth year in a row. The spectators looked smart in their sprigs and hats and, with the help of the cheerleaders, they maintained their energetic support for the swim-mers throughout the gala. Heads of other schools commented that had there been a Spirit Trophy, TWC would have won that too. The lack of shade at the gala was cause for concern and this matter will be addressed. The Grade 9s returned from their successful Simpler Journey at the end of the term. They embraced the various challenges and found the experience worthwhile. The Grade 12 Ball was held on 12 March. The theme for the evening was Under the lights of a thousand stars, and it certainly lived up to the girls’ expectations. Many girls and staff had a busy sporting holiday, starting with the U13 netball and hockey festival held at TWC. The 1

st hockey and netball squads

travelled to Johannesburg to partici-pate in festivals and this was a great way for them to start their seasons. The U16 hockey and netball squads played in a festival at Treverton. Thank you to all the staff who were involved and thank you to the parents who supported the girls. Girls were also involved in tennis, athletics, equestrian events and swimming. Details of the events can be found in the sport section of Hat Chat.

Pam Esterhuysen took four girls to Muden during the holiday to spend the day helping in a primary school - teaching, playing music, setting up computers and distributing Easter eggs. Three girls went on a hike in the Drakensberg with Hilton College boys as part of their President’s Award adventurous journey.

E leven girls accompanied by Mr Willows and his daugh-ter, Carmen, set off their cycle tour from Cape Town

on 19 March and arrived safely back in Pietermaritzburg on 12 April. They arrived home to an emotional wel-come from family and friends. This was an incredible opportunity for the girls, with many life lessons and skills learnt along the way.

I would like to thank Mr Willows for all that he has done to make this tour possible and for being prepared to give of his time so willingly. A huge thank you to all the girls involved in the tour – for daring to take on the challenge and for being such great ambassadors for TWC. Details follow in Hat Chat.

The girls have made the most of Spirit Week, enjoying the activities organised by the Grade 12s, includ-ing a Day Girl / Boarder evening, Inter-House quiz, a talent show and dressing up as a character from a book. I was very fortunate to attend The National Coalition of Girls’ Schools Conference in New York in February. This was the largest forum ever dedi-cated to girls’ schools; 950 delegates from 23 countries attended the con-ference. There were internationally renowned speakers who certainly provided food for thought, as well as various presentations from schools around the world, including South Africa. I also had the opportunity to visit two of the top girls’ schools in New York, The Spence School and The Nightingale-Bamford School, as well as the Klingenstein Education Centre at Columbia University.

Although the American and South African education systems differ in many ways, there are also many similarities, and it was reassuring to learn that education at The Wyke-ham Collegiate is certainly up there with the top international schools. A number of books were recom-mended as good reading and I will start by recommending three books: Thrive by Arianna Huffington, Untan-gled by a clinical psychologist, Dr Lisa Damour and How girls thrive by Dr JoAnn Deak. We lead busy lives, as do our girls, with many of them rushing from one activity to the next, including activi-ties over and above all their school activities, whether it be extra aca-demic lessons, extra sport coaching or extra music lessons. Part of the focus in Arianna Huffington’s presentation at conference was about changing the equation be-tween burnout and success; slowing down and living life more fully. Below is a short extract that I have taken from her book Thrive: Hurry Sickness and Time Famine In the summer of 2013, a blog post on The Huffington Post became an unexpected overnight sensation, with more than 7 million page views and nearly 1.2 million Facebook likes. It was entitled “The Day I Stopped Saying ‘Hurry Up’,” and was written by Rachel Macy Staf-ford, a special education teacher and mother of a six-year-old girl. Rachel’s life, as she writes, was “controlled by electronic notifica-tions, ringtones, and jam-packed agendas.” But one day she painfully realised the impact she was having on her daughter – “a laid-back, care-free, stop-and-smell-the-roses type of child”: “I was a bully who pushed and pressured and hurried a small child who simply wanted to enjoy life.” The reason the post struck such a chord, beyond our guilt about the way we parent, was because so many recognized the damage we do when we constantly tell not just our children but ourselves to “hurry up.”

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Children are much more connected to the moment, and much less con-nected - yoked, actually – to the arti-ficial constructs of time that we’ve imposed on ourselves (and for which we’ve appointed our devices as rigid

enforcers). Rachel’s story was a reminder of just how much we can learn from our children when it comes to the im-portance of living in the moment.

Have a great term.

Sue Tasker - Lady Principal

Senior School RECYCLING Please remember to collect bread tags and empty ink cartridges and pop these items into the containers at our collection points. We are still col-lecting the plastic tops from bottles. These caps are used as counters in the primary school mathematics clas-ses in rural areas. The bottle top bucket is next to the bread tag buck-et in the Media Centre foyer.

BREAD BUDDIES Thank you to those girls who have embraced the Bread Buddy Cam-paign. We encourage the girls to bring left over bread from the week-end and to hand in at reception on a Monday morning. If you would like to make sandwiches this would also be acceptable. Our donation is dropped off at Youth for Christ in the after-noon and they are delighted to receive the bread and sandwiches. The food is then handed out to street children at their shelters.

KNITTED SQUARES The due date for all knitted squares is 31 May 2016. A huge thank you to Michaela Claasens, her Mum and Grandmother for the 292 squares they have knitted.

Emachulwini Primary School, Muden Mrs Mngomezulu (Principal) is very excited about the computers and our support of the school and could not stop thanking us for caring.

On 7 April, Morgan Rowland, Kirsten Moody, Moyo Lawal Solarin and Cailin Harries accompanied me and spent a day at Ema-chulwini Primary School. Five computers were set up and are working, using Open Office. I trained two groups of teachers to use the computers (switch on/off and save a document), while the girls taught Eng-lish to the Grade 7s; and then gave a very exciting art lesson making masks out of paper plates and bags. They ended off the day with a short concert, with Morgan and Kirsten playing their flutes. The school choir also sang for the girls. Easter Eggs were distribut-ed to the 430 pupils at the school. We are planning to take all the books donated from World Book Day to the school and to set up a read-ing room / library area in the schools ‘new’ computer lab. Pam Esterhuysen

Some of the blankets that have been put together by Mrs Shange and Mrs Zondi.

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Junior School Welcome back to Term Two. Our focus in assemblies this term is relat-ed to Ephesians 6: 10 – 17 where Paul speaks about putting on the armour of God. We will be relating the various parts of armour to our overall theme of the year “Being women and girls of courage”. It cer-tainly takes courage to stand up for truth, to not be influenced by all the values of society, to be peacemak-ers, to remain faithful, to accept dis-appointments etc. I have been impressed with the team of Grade 7 marketing girls who have confidently and courageously taken prospective families on tours around the Junior School on open days, showcasing all that we have to offer. We have received positive feedback about their ability.

This term is a busy one with all girls from Grades 3 - 7 being involved in hockey or netball practices and matches. Grade 1 and 2 sport continues with the girls being involved in a wonder-ful programme of dance, cricket, gymnastics, hockey, netball, stretch-ing, games and strength training. Research has shown the enormous benefits of team sport and physical exercise.

I am grateful to the Junior School staff who were involved in the U13 hockey and netball festival held at the beginning of the Easter holidays. Our girls learnt a number of skills, made new friends and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Our new out-door chess board has been put to good use and it is lovely to see the girls

playing be-fore school and during break. We are grateful to Theunis

Ferreira for constructing this.

CYCLE TOUR The whole school welcomed the cy-cle tour girls back from their Cape Town trip, but I think the most excit-ed group were the Poppets. They brought their bicycles, tricycles and scooters from home and had the honour of escorting the girls onto the astro.

For some of them, the distance around the astro was just long enough. However, we may have ignited in others the goal of cycling the 2200km from Cape Town to TWC when they get to Grade 11!

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The Grade 6s enjoyed their trip to Roselands last week. They were in-volved in a variety of educational and fun activities. They came back tired and happy to see their families.

CHOIR I am delighted that Carol Solomon will be starting a Junior Choir this week. It will be made up of Grade 2 and 3 girls. Our music continues to grow from strength to strength and we are blessed to have dedicated teachers.

CROSS-COUNTRY Early morning Cross-Country has started and I have been im-pressed by the number of girls who have enthu-siastically attend-ed the bi-weekly sessions. There is a wonderful atmosphere in the mornings with much chatter, laughter and some huffing and puff-ing! Many of the girls have set them-selves goals and work hard in the mornings to achieve them. I hope true grit will be shown and our runners will continue with their train-ing as the mornings become a little colder and darker.

GRADE 4 MOTHERS AND

DAUGHTERS MORNING The Grade 4 mums and daughters morning held recently was delightful and the owls they made together

were beautiful.

Many mums were appreciative of the uninterrupt-ed time they could spend with their daughters. We can only have quality time with our children if we make quantity time!

Last Friday, six very excited Grade 7 girls arrived for the first ever Junior School canoeing lesson. Mr Willows introduced them to the sport by having a fun time paddling in single and double canoes. Two girls also joined Mr Willows paddling the K3. The lesson ended with a “fun race” around the bridge and back.

I look forward to watching our first hockey matches this week and we know our netball girls

will do their best at the District Net-ball Trials.

DOG SHOW At the end of last term, the girls were treated to a ‘dog show’. They were amazed by how well trained the dogs

were and the tricks they could do. They also learnt that dogs can indeed be man’s best friends.

Front row: Tatum, Zara, Nhlanzeko, Thirusha, Payge. Back row: Mr Les Willows, Hayley.

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On a warm autumn morning, the Re-ception Class girls went for a long walk in Queen Elizabeth park. They enjoyed being outdoors and learnt about the surrounding nature. They crossed a wooden bridge and even discovered animal life in a little stream. Great fun was had by all!

Karen Gardner Headmistress

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LITERARY QUIZ 1

PRINT OFF THE QUIZ, FILL IN THE ANSWERS, AND HAND IN TO MRS MICHIE TO BE IN LINE TO WIN A PRIZE!

Question 1 - 5: Can you name the elephants pictured below?

6. “The elephant! The elephant will lead you there,” says the fortune-teller in the book The Magician’s Elephant by ……………………………………………………..

7. What is the name of the Mongol warrior in the book Tamburlaine’s Elephants by Geraldine

McCaughrean? ………………………………………………… 8. What is the name of the elephant in the book The Great Elephant Chase by Gillian Cross? …………………………………………………………………... 9. What is the name of the young girl, who is the main character in The Elephant’s Tale, and the rest of

this wonderful series by Lauren St John? …………………………………………………………………... 10. What is the setting for Michael Morpurgo’s book, An Elephant in the Garden? …………………………………………………………………..

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SPORT HIGHLIGHTS Junior School

Corrections

Rebecca Edwards ended 2nd

in the 100m Breast-stroke during the Midlands Swimming Trials, Satur-day 27 February.

Lexi Uys received her Midlands Colours in 50m Backstroke at the Midlands Swimming Trials, swum Saturday 27 February.

Stellar results from a very busy Easter Holiday:

SWIMMING Paige Brombacher participated in the Level 3 Gala in Port Elizabeth. This is the highest level before compet-ing at Senior Nationals. Paige qualified for 3 finals. She came 2

nd in 50m and 100m breaststroke. In the 200m

breaststroke Paige was seeded 12th before the race.

She swam courageously in a rivoting final to end 4th,

improving her personal best by 13 seconds. These re-sults mean that Paige is 2

nd and 4

th in her age group in

South Africa! Abby Daugherty and Isabella Uys swam in the Level 2 Gala hosted in Durban. At the same gala, Sophie Liver-sage qualified for four finals, having swum 5 personal best times. She won 3 gold and 1 silver medal in the relay events. Brooke Aylward qualified for 10 finals. She won 7 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze medal. Chelsea Walden qualified for 4 finals. She won 2 silver and 1 bronze medal. Lexi Uys participate in the Level 1 Gala also hosted in Durban. Grace Wardlaw was placed first in Freestyle and Frog-gie for U8’s at the Seals Gala hosted on March 12

th.

TRACK CYCLING

Georgia Dungan participated in the South African Track and paracycling Championship in Port Elizabeth. Her results: Team Time Trial: Gold 500m Time Trial: Bronze 1500m Times Trial: Bronze

TENNIS Chris Folker Easter Tennis Tournament Abby Newman and Grace Wardlaw were runners-up in their Doubles age group. Grace Wayt received a Sport-manship Award for trying her best.

EQUESTRIAN Hayley Conway competed at the Durban Shongweni Show and came first in both her Elementary tests. Diya Singh participated at the SANESA Core League qualifier competition on March 20

th. Diya rode on her

horse, Peppy Girl, in Show Jumping and was placed third with a time of 34.5 seconds.

KARATE Amirah Dhoda received her Orange belt during the holi-days.

________________________________________

2nd

Term Sport Results ______________________

TABLE TENNIS Hashmika Heeralal won Gold in Mix Doubles and Doubles and 2

nd in Singles.

BMX RACING Jasrah Hussain participated in a BMX Championship in Durban and was placed second and third.

MUDMAN Hannah Bullock participated in the Richmond Mudman and came first in the U11 girls Individual Half Race. At the Cordwalles Mudman, Georgie Henderson won the Individual Half Race for U10 girls, while Megan Horsley came first in the U11 Half Individual race.

EQUESTRIAN Hayley Conway competed at the Mount Verde Show and came 3

rd in the Novice Show Riding Pony and 1

st in both

her Elementary Dressage tests. Jeannie Strauss - Head of Sport

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ATHLETICS

Senior School

Luzaan de Wit participated in the KZN athletics champs from 12 - 13 March in Durban. She received silver for both 800m and 1 500m events for girls under 15 which meant she qualified for the SA School Athletics Champs in Bloem from 16-19 March. She ran a personal best in the 1 500m taking 12 seconds off her previous best! She also equalled the KZN record in the 800m.

At the SA Schools Champs, Luzaan reached both the 1500 and 800m finals. Her personal best times also improved in both events.

She is now offi-cially the 5th fast-est U15 girl in South Africa in 1500m and 4th fastest girl in 800m.

At the Athletics SA Champs in Germiston from 31 March to 2 April, Luzaan was placed 7

th in the 800m final and

9th in the 1500m final.

The U16 Hockey and Netball teams travelled to Treverton in the school holidays to take part in the Treverton College Festival. Both teams faced some tough opposition playing against 1

st teams from other

schools. The netball team played 5 matches, winning 2 of them. The hockey team played 8 matches, winning 4, losing 3 and drawing 1.

The 1st hockey team participated in the St Mary’s Festi-

val in Johannesburg during the school holidays. The team played excellent hockey and achieved some fan-tastic results. They played 13 matches in 4 days, win-ning 4, losing 3 and drawing 6.

At the same time the 1st netball team participated in the

St Andrew’s Festival. The girls played some tough matches, winning 5 of their 14 matches and were placed 2

nd in the Trophy Final narrowly losing to Durban Girls

College.

Kirsten Moody and Ashley Starmer travelled to Pretoria

in the school holidays to represent KZN at the Inter-

Provincial tournament. Kirsten was a member of the KZN U19A team and

Ashleigh in the KZN U15B team. The girls played singles, doubles and mixed dou-

bles, playing 18 matches in total over 4 days. The U19A team were placed 4

th out of 16 teams and the

U15B team 10th out of 16 teams.

The Wykeham Collegiate hosted yet another success-ful U13 Sports Festival. Over 270 participants from schools all over KwaZulu-Natal travelled to the heart of the Midlands to take part in what proved to be an ex-tremely positive sports festival. The festival focused on developing key basic ball skills; structure; coaching of coaches; team work and team play. The TWC first senior team members were tasked to lead one of the junior school teams by mentoring, coaching and umpiring matches.

FESTIVALS

Kirsten. Ashleigh.

TENNIS

U13 FESTIVAL

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Our riders participated in a show held at Canterbury Equestrian Yard on 19 and 20 March.

Chanel Lötter and her horse, Madeira Elana, were placed 1

st in the 80cm Equitation Class. They also

came 3rd

in the 90cm Jumping Competition.

Robin Martin and her horse, Davenport Rasputin, excelled at the show and were placed 1

st in the 1m

Accumulator as well as in the 1m Jumping Competi-tion.

Bronagh Johnson and her horse, Quinsy, were placed 1

st in the 80cm Jumping Competition.

Tyla Farina and her horse, Laddy’s Luck, came 4th in

the 80cm Accumulator and 5th

in the 80cm Jumping Competition.

Our riders have done us proud and we wish them well for the next qualifier. Congratulations to Sam Gilson and Keighley van Wyk who have been selected to play for the South African U16 Polocrosse team. They will be playing in July against Australia in Port Elizabeth.

The first match of the hockey season got underway on Thursday 14 April. Four teams travelled to Treverton while 2 teams played at TWC. The results were as follows: 1

st team won 3-0

2nd

team won 7-0 U16A team won 2-0 U16B team won 4-0 U14A team lost 0-2 U14B won 3-1

Sarah Ryan had a busy Easter holiday and her cycling results are as follows:

3rd at KZN Enduro

3rd lady in the 20km Sugar Rush Classic and

3rd in age group.

3rd in the KZN Cross-Country at St Ives

1st lady in the 20km Compendium MTB Classic and

1st in age group. Our TWC swimmers have been busy in the pool the last couple of weeks by competing at the different level ga-las, SA Youth champ, SA Senior Nationals and Olympic Qualifiers. Olivia Morrish participated at SA Level 1 Regional Age Group Champs. Her results were: 50m Breaststroke – 3

rd 50m Backstroke – 14

th

200m Breaststroke 1st

The following swimmers participated at SA Level 2 Re-gional Age Group Champs: Tara Wheeler 50m Backstroke - 1st 100m Backstroke - 2

nd

200m Backstroke - 1st 50m Freestyle - 2

nd

100m Freestyle - 3rd

Jessica Reimers 50m Freestyle - 7

th 100m Freestyle - 5

th

200m Freestyle - 2nd

50m Breaststroke - 2nd

100m Breaststroke - 1

st 200m Breaststroke - 1

st

200m IM -2nd

The following swimmers participated at SA Level 3: Catherine Royden-Turner 100m Backstoke - 3

rd 50m Backstroke 2

nd

200m Backstroke - 6th 50m Freestyle - 9

th

200m Freestyle - 12th 100m Freestyle - 12

th

Catherine’s achievements at Level 3 also moved her up from the Youth Team to the Senior Team for the SA Senior Nationals and Olympic Qualifiers in Durban. Catherine swam in six events and achieved four person-al best times in four of the six events. Casey Rip 50m Freestyle - 8

th 100m Freestyle -8

th

50m Breaststroke - 4th 50m Backstroke - 5

th

100m Backstroke - 4th 200m Backstroke - 4

th

200m IM - 4th

Casey competed at the SA Senior Nationals and Olym-pic Qualifiers and swam in four semi-finals. Emma Huxtable 50m Breaststroke - 4

th 100m Breaststroke - 7

th 200m

Breaststroke - 11th

Emma finished 2nd in the 100m breaststroke and first in the 50m breaststroke at the SA Youth Nationals. Callan Nel 50m Breaststroke -17

th 50m Butterfly - 8

th

100m Butterfly - 17th 50m Backstroke - 4

th

100m Backstroke - 11th

Callan competed at the SA Youth Nationals and swam very well in her events.

Nomvula Mjimba 50m Butterfly – 14

th 50m Freestyle – 17

th

100m Butterfly – 15th 4x 50m Freestyle Relay – 4

th

4 x 100m Freestyle Relay: 4th

50m Butterfly – 14th

Nomvula represented Zimbabwe at the SA Senior Na-tionals and Olympic Qualifiers and is currently at Cana Zone championships in Mauritius. The following TWC swimmers are congratulated for making the Midlands Swimming Team: Callan Nel, Casey Rip, Catherine Royden-Turner, Emma Huxtable, Jessica Reimers, Megan Carter, Nomvula Mjimba, Tara Wheeler

EQUESTRIAN

HOCKEY

CYCLING

SWIMMING

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The squash season got off to a good start this week with 3 TWC teams entered into the schools league. The 1

st

team narrowly lost to St Anne’s 1st team 7-11 and the

TWC 2nd

team had a great 9-8 win over St Anne’s 4th

team. A young U15 team took an experienced St Anne’s 6

th team losing 0-12.

Good luck to the A team playing in the Inter-Schools squash competition this weekend. Linda Royston - Head of Sport

Comments by Sophie Learmonth who was one of the cyclists: The cycle tour was by far the most amazing and chal-lenging thing I have ever done. Never have I imagined when flying to Cape Town on holiday that I would cycle the distance instead, but I'm glad I did. It was truly a life changing experience.

SQUASH

TWC CYCLE TOUR

We have all become grateful for the small things in life especially after cycling through some of the rural areas. This experience gave the word ‘poverty’ a meaning ra-ther than a definition. The cycle tour gave us a new perspective on how we live and what we have. We came to understand distance and hills as every uphill was not only a physical but also a mental challenge; yet we knew it was worth it. At the top we were rewarded with stunning views and never ending downhills. The tour allowed me to see the parts of South Africa that most will never see. The beautiful landscapes that were forever changing made me proud to be a South African. Early mornings blessed us with sunrises each as exquisite as the next and we realised that we have probably seen more sunrises than the av-erage person ever will. It wasn't only the cycling that made me enjoy this ex-traordinary experience but it was also the people in the towns who cheered us on; the cars that hooted as they passed; the team that I now can call my friends and the unforgettable memories we made at every food stop and sight-seeing trip. It is safe to say that this was the best and craziest thing that I have ever done in my life and I

Packing the bus.

Cowan House