Micklefield School
Term 1 2016 Newsletter
Keshma Patel at the E2 in Hungary
Keshma Patel was one of three Microsoft Innovative Educator Experts from South
Africa and Lesotho, to win a trip to Budapest, Hungary for the Microsoft Global Educator Exchange (E2) in March.
The three winning teachers demonstrated a willingness to support their peers and
share their expertise through a variety of platforms; showcased some very innovative work in the classroom using technology to enhance learning; and have continued to develop themselves through the resources available on the Microsoft Educator Community.
The Microsoft Educator Exchange E2 event brought together 300 of the most innovative educators from around the world for the opportunity to collaborate, creatand share their experiences on how to integrate technology and pedagogy in
ways that achieve 21st century learning outcomes.
It was an honour to be selected as one of three South Africans to attend this
year's Microsoft E2 Global Exchange conference in Budapest. I have come
back filled with ideas and am inspired to teach our girls to be successful
women in the 21st century. The conference focused on developing 21st century skills in the classroom. Communication, collaboration, creativity, critical
thinking and computational thinking formed the basis of our learning.
What excited me the most was that for the first time in History we are finally
starting to look at ways to restructure the education system and prepare our
learners to be globally aware citizens. Another highlight was collaborating
with teachers and realising how on par we are with the rest of the world. I
am looking forward to sharing my new knowledge with both the teachers
and girls at Micklefield!
Lit Quiz
Two weeks ago, two teams of Micklefield girls participated in the
International Lit Quiz Cape Town heat at Grove Primary school. The
girls were competing against thirty other teams to go through to
the South Africa heat in Johannesburg. The winners of that would
then go through to the world final, this year being hosted in New
Zealand. Even though we did not win, we still enjoyed it immensely. Our quiz master, Wayne Mills, tested our knowledge of books
but even more importantly we were able to express our love of
reading. We also learned about new books we had not heard about
before and got us interested to go and find some new tales and
adventures to read. We had a lot of fun and look forward to going
again next term.
Written by Sarah Irwin
Gr 7 Leadership Committee
This term started with the Grade 7s going on a leadership camp at Rocklands in Simonstown. During the camp we were able to learn more about
our strengths and weaknesses through fun games, outdoor activities and
questionnaires. One of the activities involved us being blindfolded and
entrusting our partner to take us the right way. On the camp we also were
fortunate to have Simon Hurry, a man who deals with self confidence and
personal strengths and weeknesses, come and talk to us about our
strengths, talents and abilities. On the last night we were told what committee each of us were in and were told to do a presentation about our
ideas for our committee’s first event. The committee groups are as follows:
Pastoral: Sibulele Sodayise, Sarah Gordon, Chloe Cullinan and Julia Rubin
Cultural: Carrie Murray, Aliya Bhorat, Sarah Irwin and Farah Ahmed
Kingfishers: Michaela Douglas-Jones, Samiya Bhorat, Megan Hetherington
and Emma Neill
Swallows: Georgia Briton, Caitlin Janssens, Amaara Abdulla and Jaime
McGown
Robins: Jade Horn, Sophia van der Schijff, Phoebe Kingston and Josie Andrew
Outreach: Rachel Andrew, Morganne Thom, Kimberley Makin and Jade
Stringer
All together we are the Leadership Committee of the school.
Overall the camp was full of fun, enjoyment and definitely taught us a lot
of skills, which we will carry through for the rest of our lives.
The first major class project that we did was the Valentine’s Day Bake Sale
on 12th February. We had a wonderful time selling cakes and handing out the notes that the girls made for each
other. We did a staff tea and handed the teachers their Secret Angel Gifts. The Grade 7s gave cupcakes to all the
junior girls and the Outreach Committee took cakes to the policemen at the Rondebosch Police Station. All in all we
raised over R5000 that will go towards future outreach projects and the Grade 7 present to the school.
Gr 3 outing to Kirstenbosch
The Grade 3 class enjoyed their outing to Kirstenbosch Gardens. Firstly, they completed an Amazing Race in teams,
followed by an exciting sighting of Egyptian Geese and their 8 goslings. They were later met by Catherine Browne
(Botsoc) who talked to the girls about interesting facts about the gardens and took us on a very informative walk
through the cycads and dinosaur statues in the gardens. Then we did the braille trail where we focused on listening
to the sounds of nature and then enjoyed our breaks rolling down the hill and playing in the river.
The whole class had a great time and we all enjoyed getting to know each other during our first excursion.
Gr 5 outing to the Titanic Exhibition
On 16 February the Grade 5 girls enjoyed an outing
to the Titanic Exhibition at the V&A Waterfront. It
was a great opportunity to bring to life the story
that had fascinated the class. Knowing that the
artifacts were real and had been preserved under
the ocean all this time, made for a very interesting
outing.
Happy Days in Grade 00
The Grade 00s have enjoyed a busy and fun-filled first term settling in to school life at Micklefield. Highlights of the
term have included exploring colours during our colour theme week, the Grade 4 girls coming to read to us and
when the Grade 7 girls arranged a Princess Tea one break. Everyone dressed up, the Gr 7s supplied all the treats
and fun was had by all!
Blended Learning in Grade 6 - A day of History
On a Wednesday in February, the Grade 6s had their day of history. We
were given our project brief – to create a virtual tour of the main voyage of
either Bartholomew Dias or Vasco Da Gama. Mrs Patel explained what was
expected and what tools to use, and then we got working.
Our first task was to write a script, based on textbook information and our
own research. We had to find out what route the explorer of our choice
followed on their voyage, and choose five stops to present further information on. We then went onto Google Earth, and created POI’s (Points of
Interest) on each stop. We added a few key points and a small picture, so
that when we click on the POI, it brought up our information. When we had
completed this, we created an audio tour on Google Earth, narrating our
tour. It really felt like we were tour guides! We then uploaded our tour to a
folder on Google Drive.
While we were working on this project, our parents came in to visit, and for
one hour, worked with us. This was really exciting and an amazing experience for all of us. It was such fun to show our parents the awesome technology that we work with. They were gobsmacked to see what we were
doing and thought it was really cool. They were also (I think) quite impressed with how we were using technology to learn about history.
I’m sure that everyone who was part of this Blended Learning project loved it, I know I did!
Written by Juliette Roux
Micklefield Past Pupils recognised as Top Learners
Micklefield Past Pupils, Emma Alfeld and Helen Acton did Micklefield proud at the Western
Cape NSC 2015 Awards Ceremony at Leeuwenhof earlier this year. They were both recognised as Top Learners in the Western Cape. Micklefield also extends congratulations to the
Micklefield Gr 7 class of 2010 for their outstanding matric results.
Success is based on the firm foundations laid by teachers at Primary School and we would
also like to acknowledge all our Micklefield teachers for their contribution and hard work
over the years.
Micklefield has musical talent!
As Head of Music at Micklefield, and as 90% of
our girls play a musical instrument, Barbara
Smith is well known amongst parents. In welcoming Barbara as a full-time staff member this
year, we celebrate her musical talent. This term,
Barbara was invited to present a masters class at
the Rustenburg Girls High School Recorder Symposium on Saturday 5 March. She has also been
invited to adjudicate the Recorder Section of the
Kaapse Afrikaanse Eisteddfod in August.
Sport
SPORTS DAY
A successful Sports Day was held on Saturday, 27 February. The Inter-House Cross Country was run on Friday, 26
February for Grade 3 – 7. This event was won by Swallows, the Kingfishers were second and the Robins were third.
The Fancy Hat Parade saw the most amazing styles of hats being produced! The official Sports Day was won by Robins, with the Kingfishers in second place and the Swallows in third.
INTER-SCHOOLS TENNIS
Congratulations to Grace Goodwin, Amelie de la Harpe, Emma Foster
and Ashley Mc Lagan who played in the Inter-Schools Tennis Tournament, held at the San Souci High School Courts on Wednesday, 24 February. The tournament takes the form of a round robin with the couples playing doubles only. Both our pairs finished 2nd in each of their
sections.
OPEN A:
1 Herschel
OPEN B:
1 St Cyprians
(Grace & Amelie) 2 Micklefield
(Emma & Ashley) 2 Micklefield
3 St Cyprians
3 RGJS
4 RGJS
4 Herschel
5 Springfield
5 Greenfield
6 Springfield
Oakhurst and Wynberg did not enter and Greenfield only entered in the B section.
INTER-SCHOOLS SWIMMING
Well done to our Gala Swimming team who took part in the InterSchools Swimming Gala held at WGJS on Tuesday 8 March. We
are so proud of our swimmers who have put in many hours of
training. We finished 6th, which is a fantastic feat for the smallest
girls’ school with no pool of our own: 1 Springfield
2 Herschel
3 WGJS
4 Rustenburg
5 St Cyprians
6 Micklefield
7 Oakhurst
8 Greenfield
Summer Picnic
Micklefield’s Summer Picnic is unique - it is a happy and relaxed Micklefield Family event - one of the best on the
school calendar. The musical entertainment was wonderful, with The Woodstock Darlings giving a vibrant performance, adding a wonderful Cape Town flair to the evening, and Out of the Blue performing the ideal music for a
laidback summer’s evening. Thank you to Wayne van der Vent for being our MC for the evening, to Belinda Gordon
for the beautiful Cape Town bunting and to everyone that supported this event. A fabulous amount of R36 000 was
raised, which will go towards the completion of our new IT Lab!
MySchool - a brilliant fundraiser!
The MySchool Card Fundraiser raised R68 000 for Micklefield
School in 2015! All you need to do is swipe your card every time
you shop at any MySchool partners.
Lost or misplaced your card? Application forms can be found on
the School Communicator, as well as at reception. Please encourage aunties, uncles, grandparents to nominate Micklefield
nominated Micklefield School. Every Swipe Counts!
‘Be yourself” by Past Pupil, Meg Brown
Meg Brown, a Micklefield Past Pupil was invited to speak to the girls at the Intermediate Phase Awards at the end
of 2015. Here are her words of wisdom:
Good evening Mrs Welgemoed, staff, parents and girls
Thank you for inviting me here today – I feel very honoured and humbled. It doesn’t feel like that long ago that I
myself was sitting here in this hall, in my pink dress, as a Micklefield girl – listening to someone standing up at the
front and speaking to me – so it feels a little surreal to be speaking to you this time. I forget, though, how much
time has passed since I was here. The other day, I was speaking to a Grade 4 girl that I help coach tennis to, and I
mentioned that I had gone to Micklefield, too. I said that I had been in Grade 4 in 2006 – to which she replied that
that was the year after she was born! That did make me feel a little old.
I finished high school last year, and I have just finished my first year of university. When people asked me what I
wanted to study after school, I told them that I wanted to study English and History. Lots of people asked me questions like, “But why aren’t you doing medicine?” or, “Have you considered engineering?”. I understood their questions, because many others would love to follow these paths, but struggle to get the marks to get into those degrees. These people assumed that, because I had the marks to get into those subjects, I should do them. But they
did not realise, for example, that medicine would maybe not be a good idea for me, because I don’t like the sight
of blood; or that I would not be a good engineer, because I’m not very good at thinking practically. More than that,
these people had not thought about my unique talents and about what things really matter to me. They had not
realised that my school marks could tell them something about me; but not everything about me. What I really
love is books and words. I love reading, I love writing and I love sharing my love of language with other people.
That is a passion of mine, and I have always worked hard at it because it really matters to me. I even remember
how, in Grade 3, my friend and I would make sure that every day, after we had finished our school work, we would
sit in the corner of the classroom and write poems together. By the end of the year, we had a whole Flipfile full of
poems. They weren’t very good, but we loved coming up with them, and they got better the more that we practised. That was what I loved doing and was prepared to spend time at perfecting – I had never been interested in
doing medicine or engineering or the other things that people suggested I should do because I had the marks for
them.
I know that that example might seem very distant, and I’m certainly not suggesting that you need to be worrying
about what university degree you might want to do one day. But that experience of people asking me what I wanted to do at university made me realise that everyone is unique and that differences between people are valuable.
Everyone is good at doing different things, and, what’s more, enjoys doing different things. I have never been much
of an athlete, but some people are amazing at dancing or swimming or running; some people can sing beautifully
or play a musical instrument; some people are good at working in a group, or solving maths problems, or telling
stories; other people are good at listening, or at caring for the people around them, or at never giving up. If you
look at the people around you, you can probably think of someone who is good at each one of those things, and
they will be different people – not just one person who is good at everything. It is important to find the things that
you love doing and follow these passions, whatever they are, as long as you get excited about them. One of the
things that I loved about Micklefield was that there are so many opportunities and extra murals that you can get
involved in; and so I would encourage you to make the most of it, and try out the activities that look interesting,
even if you’re not 100% sure if you will continue with them. But do something because you want to, not because
it’s something that you feel like you should do.
It’s also important to work hard at these things. One of the things that I found strange when I went to high school
was that some people simply didn’t work. At Micklefield, I was used to everyone working and doing their best – if
there was a test, people studied. At high school, some people just wouldn’t prepare for tests, or wouldn’t care
about handing in assignments late. I’m so grateful that Micklefield taught me to work hard, and I’m sure that you
know that working hard is important – but it’s not just important for your school work. Working hard academically
is important, but so is working hard on anything that makes you happy and helps you realise your full potential –
working hard on your friendships so that you stay close to your friends, or practicing your favourite sport in your
spare time, or learning to play a musical instrument you’ve always wanted to play. It’s important that you put in
the time and effort for the things and people that matter to you.
The last thing I’d like to encourage you to do is to persevere: to keep trying. Often, there are things that we love to
do, or that matter to us, but which we find really hard – I’m sure you can all remember a time when you’ve really
struggled with something. The things that matter to you, or that you want to be really good at, are not always your
strengths at the beginning – but that doesn’t mean that they can’t become your strengths if you keep trying. The
first example I can think of is me standing here right now, talking to you. When I went to high school, I wasn’t a
very good public speaker and I got very nervous – but I watched a group of girls debating, and really wanted to be
able to speak like them. So I joined debating, and practised speaking – it was terrifying at first, but it meant that I
got more used to public speaking, and so I can now do things like speak to you today. I certainly don’t have all the
answers; but if I have one piece of advice, it is to never give up on the things that are important to you.
Finally, I would like to congratulate all of you girls tonight. I am sure that you have all worked hard this year, and
that in itself is worthy of a prize. Regardless of who wins awards tonight, I hope you know that every single one of
you has unique talents, strengths and passions. Some of these talents are easier for other people to see or to
measure, but they are all valuable, regardless of whether they are recognised by other people or not. Working
hard at the things that matter to you, and doing the best at becoming the person that you would like to be, are
successes in themselves. I wish you all everything of the best for the rest of your time as a girl in pink, and for
whatever unique journey you choose to embark on after that. I hope that it is happy, meaningful and exciting. And,
in an evening where you can all be very proud of what you have accomplished this year, I’d like to leave you with
the words of the writer Ralph Waldo Emerson:
“To be yourself, in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else, is the greatest accomplishment.”
Somerset House Choir Evening
At the end of a very energetic term, choir girls, teachers and parents of Micklefield embarked on a journey. A journey along the N2 to the most beautiful
campus in Somerset West: Somerset House Preparatory School.
Our three choirs: (Traditional, Senior and Vocal Ensemble: Shocking Pink)
were welcomed and launched straight into a collaborative rehearsal of two
upbeat songs, with full band and sound backing!
After a short picnic break on lush green fields we were ready for our evening
concert.
The programme was a true celebration of our love for music and singing.
By the light of the moon, we left with a lilt in our step, collecting acorns for
squirrels under the watchful eye of the beautiful owl: the school mascot.
Wishing everyone a safe and happy Term Break
and to all our Christian families a Blessed Easter!