Last week we said goodbye to the 2015 Matrics and their examinations now lie ahead. Clearly marks are now the major focus. It is however an interesting time to reflect on what the journey has been all about. Clearly there have been many challenges for them along the way. If it were possible, would it have been best if we, the staff and parents could have taken the challenges away? I think not! Growing up is a journey! It is about developing wisdom! It is about developing self awareness, character and resilience. SA is extremely focused on marks, certificates and badges.

Examinations are very important for quality control. To set standards. But they can encourage the taking of short cuts. Children need to learn skills and their education must be structured to put obstacles in their path. A curriculum should be designed to provide problems.

Children who find things easy don't necessarily learn to overcome problems, so when problems come, they avoid them. Smartness may see you very well through Primary School, but when problems come in the High School they must be properly prepared.  At a recent Heads Conference I attended a talk given by a fellow ISASA school Principal. He said "Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but the growth comes while you are climbing it."

Hopefully we have challenged our pupils at Thomas More College. This is a small High School and in the area of competition we often find ourselves up against bigger and stronger teams. We expect much of our pupils in terms of participation and with our small numbers everyone must pull their weight.

As the Matrics have come to the end of their journey through Thomas More College we trust that they have grown in their path to wisdom. This is now the time to consolidate. To put in the hard work and to apply the determination and persistence skills. This is the time for the Matrics to put their heads down and to tackle the final hurdle with determination.  

 

While we have had a hectic start to the term, I personally am feeling buoyed up and exhilarated by events, and results which have all been so positive this past week. We had a delightful SPCA assembly which the children loved and to which they related very positively, thanks to Mrs Grant and the outreach team for setting this up.

The Grade 3s had a wonderful sleepover on Friday night and thoroughly enjoyed themselves- thanks to the teachers for making it so much fun and to the parents for your support- good preparation for their Grade 4 year when they sleep away for two nights.

The Matric Prizegiving was most rewarding to attend and it was superb to see that the bulk of the achievers came through our Primary School and, in fact, were well remembered from their Grade 7 year with us. We are very proud of them all and wish them every success in their exams which commence this week, where we trust they will do themselves, and us, proud. The Matric tunnel which is formed with the Primary School is also one of those heartwarming moments that stay etched in our memories! How fantastically special it is to be a part of one whole school and to follow the progress of the youngsters who stay in our hearts forever.

Please remember the Cultural Showcase tomorrow evening at 18:00 in the Hall, with those participating needing to be here at 17:30. It should be over by 19:30 at the latest. Our choirs, marimba teams, and a number of Grade 7 pupils are involved in addition to various individual items. We would also like to pay tribute to a special lady, Mrs Röttcher who retires at year end and to thank her for her sterling contribution to Afrikaans and sport at TMC. We would value parental and pupil support.

Our Public speaking finalists in each grade from 4 to 7 speak at our competition on Thursday morning from 07:30 to 10:00. This is always most inspiring and rewarding to see the progress made and how confident our pupils are to speak in public. Thank you to the teachers and to Mrs Purdon, Mr Balarin and Mrs Ramasamy for organizing.

Our Grade 6 and 7 pupils will also be attending the High School Culture Shock performance after break next Friday- in the hall. This is a good opportunity for them to see the standards the High School children have been able to attain and will hopefully inspire them.

Lastly- please to remember the sports clothing for the SP sports photographs in the Hall tomorrow morning. 

Wishing you all the best for another busy week ahead. 

 

Weekly Achievers  - Sponsored by Debonairs & Steers – Kloof

Will resume next week.

International Maths Competition

Well done to Faran Steenkamp, Brendon O'Loughlin and Saien Moodley who competed in the International Maths competition in China.  All 3 were awarded punctuality awards, Brendan and Saien received participation awards, whilst Faran was awarded a Merit Certificate and Medal (this was a first for a South African competitor).  Well done to all three boys.

Modern Dancing

Congratulations to Tamryn Harland who participated in the annual Modern dance show with Dance Academy last weekend. She was awarded the annual Junior Dedication Award. Well done Tamryn.

Irish Dancing

Congratulations to Stephanie de Moor who competed at the South African Irish Dance Championships in JHB during the recent school holidays.  She was awarded 7th place for her light jig, 4th place for her PC and 3rd for her U10 4-hand group dance (bronze medal).  Well done Stephanie.

HS Girls' Top 10 Water Polo Tournament

1^st TMC – 2^nd Overall

1^st TMC 5 1^st DGHS 1

1^st TMC 8 1^st Westville 2

1^st TMC 4 1^st St. Mary’s 2

1^st TMC 5 1^st St. Henry’s 1

1^st TMC 5 1^st Kingsway 2 (Semi’s)

1^st TMC 1 1^st DGC 9 (Final)

TMC U16A – 4^th Overall

TMC U16A 5 Kingsway U16A 0

TMC U16A 3 Danville U16A 2

TMC U16A 14 Kloof U16A 0

TMC U16A 0 DGC U16A 12

TMC U16A 1 DGHS U16A 8 (Semi’s)

TMC U16A 1 Danville U16A 2 (3^rd & 4^th playoff)

TMC U14A – 5^th Overall

TMC U14A 1 Maris Stella U14A 7

TMC U14A 2 Danville U14A 6

TMC U14A 15 Westville U14A 0

TMC U14A 1 St. Mary’s U14A 5

TMC U14A 0 DGC U14A 7

TMC U14A 5 DGHS U14A 2 (5^th & 6^th playoff)

HS Boys' Top 10 Water Polo Tournament

1^st TMC – 10^th Overall

TMC U15A – 9^th Overall

TMC U14A – 10^th Overall

HS Girls' Water Polo at St. Mary’s

1^st TMC 8 1^st St. Mary’s 7

TMC U16A 6 St. Mary’s U16A 1

TMC U14A 5 St. Mary’s U14A 3

HS Boys' Water Polo at TMC

1^st TMC 4 2^nd Clifton 6

2^nd TMC 2 3^rd Clifton 6

TMC U14 1 Clifton U14 6

HS Boys' Cricket

1^st TMC 202/8, 2^nd Michaelhouse 130 all out

TMC won by 72 runs

TMC U15A 60 all out (Lütz 31*), Michaelhouse 61/5

MHS won by 5 wickets

TMC U14A 81 all out, Michaelhouse 82/3

MHS won by 7 wickets 

KZN Girls' Cricket

Congratulations to Caitlin Downes who has been selected for the U19 KZN Girls’ Cricket Squad and Lola Lee who has been selected for the U13 Girls' Cricket Squad.  Both girls will be competeing in the IPT in Pretoria in the December holidays.  Well done girls.

KZN Girls' Softball

Congratulations to Carmen Vicent who has been selected for the KZN U15A Girls’ Softball team amd Kayleigh du Toit who has been selected for the KZN U15B Girls’ Softball Squad.

Road cycling

Well done to all the TMC children, parents & teachers who took part in the Amashova Cycle classic this past weekend. Competing in either the 35km, 65km or the 105 km is a great achievement.  Congratulations to Cian Leveridge who won the U16 category in the 105km Classic. 

Track Cycling

Congratulations to Courtney Smith and Devon Smith who recently competed in the KZN Schools Track Series, where they achieved great results and placed TMC as the top school in the event.

Mountain Biking

Congratulations to Cian Leveridge and Tiffany Keep who were chosen for the KZN High Schools team who competed at the Spur High Schools Final held at Bekkers Skool in Magaliesberg. This is a big event with 7 different regions represented, including teams from Namibia, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

Equestrian

Equitation Team (A):

Ashley Kenton won the PR Novice class for Equitation.

Kyra Blakeway won the Junior Intermediate class for Equitation.

Tatum Olivier won the Junior Open class for Equitation.

Rachel Kerdachi was the reserve for the Equitation A team.

The above team won the overall schools Equitation.

Equitation Team (B):

Tyler Jelf won PR Intermediate class for Equitation.

Paige Haarhoff won the Welcome Stakes class for Equitation.

Katie Legg came third in her Equitation class.

Savanna Daubinet was the reserve for the Equitation B team.

The above team came third overall for Equitation.

The Thomas More dressage team came third overall. Cayla van Der Walt won her class and Kyra Blakeway came third in her class.

The Thomas More Jumping A team came 2nd overall. The team consisted of:

Tatum Olivier

Rachel kerdachi

Paige Haarhoff

Kyra blakeway

Individual Results:

Katie Legg placed 5th for Speed and precision.

Congratulations to Thomas Gouirley who came 1st in the ESP championship on 26 September, he also took part in the SANESA Nationals competition in Pretoria during the school holidays and placed 6th in the accumulator competition our of 43 competitors. 

Well done to all who took part.

KZN Water polo

Congratulations to Dale Harper and Mini Dlamini who have both been selected for the KZN U13 Water polo team.  They will participate in the IPT in Cape Town during the December holidays.  Well done girls. 

All of these calendars start out with basic information and then details are added as we find them out. E.g. at the start of a term, a subject test will be booked for a later date. As the time draws closer, the teacher is able to determine more fully what syllabus the class has managed to cover thus far, and will fill in details of what will be in the test at that stage.

It is important to note that this information is “live” and needs to be checked regularly. We have links to the different calendars available inside our website, found under the different Phase sections. We also have links to the same calendars inside the Parent Portal. The calendars that apply can be found under each of your child’s subheadings.

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The Horse’s Mouth Newsletter has all calendar links available to be able to easily find whichever calendars you need to.

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How to use the Google Calendar:

After you have clicked on the relevant calendar link, it will show you the default monthly view of the calendar:

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There are navigation buttons at the top left to change dates easily to look back or to future events:

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You are able to change the view of the calendar using the buttons at the top right to show only a week at a time, the default monthly view, or if you click on “Agenda” then you will see a list of events scheduled:

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Please note – it is not a good idea to print the calendar out, as the information might get updated and you will not realize this if you are referring to a print out of a calendar at a certain point in time.

To see more details about a heading in the calendar, you need to click on that heading – it will pop-up a small window giving you what details have been filled in already. This is where we have information such as which teams are playing and times, and also what material will be covered in a test/examination:

It is important to note here that it is also not a good idea to click on the bottom option “Copy to my calendar” here, for the same reason as printing, you will not receive updated information if anything changes in the live calendar.