News from the Horse's Mouth
09 February 2015
Newsletter 04
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Letter from the Editor |
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Please find the Scripture for the week here.
Some points of particular interest in the expanded sections below include:
2015 SP & HS Family Camping Weekend Venue : Glengarry Date : 27 Feb to 2 March (Term 1 Half Term break) Bookings : info@glengarry.co.za Phone: 033 2677 225 Fax: 033 2677 392
Thomas More College
Coffee Shoppe
Stock Shop - PS Hockey Bags Limited stock of Primary School Hockey Bags - first-come-first-served!
Congratulations Congratulations to Mrs Marie Steyn on the birth of her grandson, Preston Wayne Kotze, born on 23 January weighing a healthy 4.35kg, and 55cm.
Midmar Mile - Well done to all our Midmar Mile swimmers.
Have a great week, |
Google Calendars for parents
We plan ahead as far as possible for test dates and sporting fixtures, and so information gets added into these areas often. For this reason, we have set up a number of different Google Calendars to allow parents and students to access information as soon as it is available, so that they may also plan ahead. We have a separate calendar for each Grade’s academic deadlines starting from Grade 5 onwards. This allows teachers to make sure that a grade is not getting overloaded with deadlines bunching up. We also have separate sporting calendars for each Phase of the school. We have included a section at the end of the newsletter to
explain google calendars in more detail. Your login details for the portal have been included in the email sent to you for this newsletter – please note the easy to use address for the portal: http://parents.thomasmore.co.za
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| Achievements | Extra-mural Calendars | Academic Calendars | ||
| Week Ahead | Quick Links | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 This scripture is one of the hardest to put into practice. For in difficult times and times of tragedy it is so hard to thank God. For example the current load shedding which we are all experiencing we have to re-adjust our life styles in order to cope and of course we all moan and groan about the disruption to our lives. However, last night after the lights had gone out, I sat outside and just listened to the sounds of the night besides a passing of an odd car, I could hear the natural sounds of the night: the crickets chirping, insects buzzing. There was very little artificial sound -TVs , radios, the electronic hum of machines just the quietness of the night. I began to really enjoy the silence when all of a sudden it seemed that someone had switched on a spotlight behind me and as I turned around I saw emerging from behind a cloud the moon. It made the world around me to be bathed in moon light. I began to thank God for His creative powers and ask for His forgiveness for not fully appreciating the wonders of His creation. For in the darkness both figuratively and literally, God’s love, truth and grace truly shines through the darkness as Jesus said “I am the Light of the World” John 8:12 Shalom (peace) |
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Thomas More College has now been awarded the status of Eco-School for five consecutive years and we have thus qualified for the International Flag Award. Eco-Schools is the largest sustainable schools programme in the world and is operated by the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE). FEE currently has 83 member organisations in 68 countries worldwide. In South Africa the programme is administered by WESSA, the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa. The project explores many avenues of environmental awareness through assemblies, classroom teaching, anti-litter campaigns, indigenous planting, recycling etc. The Thomas More College project has been driven by Senior Primary HOD, Leanne Grant assisted by many other staff members. We are indeed grateful for their efforts and very proud of this award. The CURRO organisation has been through a torrid time in the past week after accusations of racism at a school in Roodeplaat Pretoria. I remain very proud of Thomas More College’s record in this area where we have a wonderful record of integration. We belong to ISASA, the Independent Schools Association of Southern Africa. ISASA has a very strong stance against racism in any of it’s schools. ISASA executive director Lebogang Montjane said nearly 50 percent of the 161 000 pupils in their schools are black. He said the organisation could share its transformation lessons with other schools. “Beyond embracing diversity, in 2008 ISASA established a transformation and diversity committee, which is a sub-committee of the ISASA council. The work of this committee is to assist schools with their transformation and diversity initiatives,” Montjane explained. He said that in 2012, ISASA produced a transformation and diversity toolkit for schools, and last year, added it to its list of workshops for member schools.
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This week I would like to share with you a part of my prize giving address: Finally, I would like to pay tribute to the staff. The press and media have made a meal about incompetent and unprofessional teachers. This is a gross generalisation, and the majority of South African educators are dedicated, committed and professional, no less the staff at Thomas More College, and the matric results that I referred to earlier are in no small measure due to their efforts. It saddens me that, at times, teachers do not receive the traditional respect that they so richly deserve; their vocation and calling is so important to society as a whole. I was given a lovely cartoon the other day that puts a teacher’s life in some perspective.
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Thank you very much to our class reps for attending a meeting at school on Friday to inform you of the duties of a class rep and to talk about the forthcoming year. Minutes will be sent out so that those who were unable to be there can be kept up to speed. All parents should also receive the request letter for R100 for the class kitty for the year which covers various functions for the children as well as pastoral matters. We would appreciate your supporting this initiative. Fortunately we have been able to keep the amount the same for a number of years now. Well done to all those who completed the midmar mile swim this past week-end. It was amazing to see how many pupils in both phases of the Primary School actually took part. With Valentine’s Day imminent, it has been fitting to look at caring for/ loving others. This week, Friday 13 February, the day prior to Valentine’s Day, we have given our children the option of wearing red / pink and white civvies to school, at a cost of R8.00, which will be debited to your account. The proceeds will go to a very worthy cause, Khululeka, which means ”freedom”, a project which helps to give young women the dignity to attend work and school without embarrassment or humiliation. In keeping with our ethos, we persist in encouraging our children to continue showing love, kindness and care for each other as we are all part of our big Thomas More family as well as to our greater community. Love also encompasses loving and caring for oneself. We thus strongly request once again that your child/ren are correctly attired for all school, sport and cultural activities and that hairstyles and accessories are compliant with school regulations. We ask your co-operation in this regard so that our pupils may make us proud, whether at school or in the public eye. Please this appeal is especially in the afternoons after sport, when we sometimes see them in part of their uniform, but not all of it – often minus the shoes, or in just a bathing costume. Our Foundation Phase will be embracing this theme next week for a fortnight- “Presentation” (Pride in yourself and your work) in their “Beary Fruitful Hearts” initiative. Slightly earlier closing on a Friday: To assist the flow of traffic, we shall be closing just under ten minutes earlier on a Friday. Our children will return to their class teachers at the end of the day (13:45) and will then be dismissed by their class teachers shortly thereafter. Hopefully this slightly earlier time will alleviate the traffic with High School, as it will widen the gap to their closing to 20-25 minutes. We value your support for this. Wishing you all the best for the week ahead.  |
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Weekly Achievers - Sponsored by Debonairs & steers – Kloof
Mathletics Congratulations to Zoë Bratos who has achieved her Gold certificate in Mathletics. Well done.
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Ballet Congratulations to Savannah Agar who has been selected
to dance for the KZN Academy of Dance this year. Well done Savannah. |
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HS Cricket TMC won by 25 runs Kearsney won by 216 runs
TMC U15B 116 All out, Kearsney U15D 120/1 Kearsney won by 9 wkts Kearsney U14D 94/5, TMC U14B 100/4 TMC won by 6 wickets 1st TMC 1 1st Crawford La Lucia 4 2nd TMC 1 2nd Maris Stella 4 U16A TMC 3 Danville U16A 2 U16B TMC 14 U16 Port Natal 0 U14A TMC 26 U14B St. Mary's 2 TMC U14B 4 U14A Grosvenor 1 TMC U14B 1 U14 Kingsway 1
1st TMC 16 1st Kingsway 2 2nd TMC 0 1st Kingsway 1 2nd TMC 6 1st Amanzimtoti 3 2nd TMC 5 1st Queens College 9 U14 TMC 0 U16 Queens College 14 U14 TMC 0 U16 Kingsway 8
Cycling Congratulations to the following Thomas More students
who excelled in Cycling events over the past week:
Grade 3 Gala- Kloof Our Grade 3s swam in their 1st gala of the term. There was stiff competition and we had the following results: 1st place – 2 2nd place – 5 3rd place – 6 4th place – 6 5th place – 4 6th place – 1 7th place – 4
Grade 2 Mini Cricket Our Grade 2s played in their 1st mini cricket match on Saturday. There was much excitement and loads of fun had by both the children and the parents. We had the following results: TMC won against Highbury TMC lost to Curro HCA
Grade 3 Mini Cricket Our Grade 3s played in their 1st mini cricket match for the term. Much excitement and fun was had, but we unfortunately lost narrowly to Atholl Heights. Well tried boys.
SP Action Netball U12 vs Glenwood U12B won 7-9 U13 vs Glenwood U13A lost 19-10
SP Cricket 5ths vs Northdene 4th Team TMPS won by 5 wickets.
4ths vs Glenwood Prep TMPS batted 1st scoring 38/5. Glenwood Prep won 39/4
3rds vs Glenwood Prep Glenwood batted first, scored 59 runs for 4 in 20 overs. TMPS batted second, scored 29 for 10 in 12 overs TMPS lost by 30 runs
2nds vs Glenwood Prep Glenwood Prep 81/7 Lola Lee 3 – 17 TMPS 2nd 72/6 TMPS 2nd lost by 9 Runs
1sts vs Glenwood Prep TMPS 58 all out Glenwood 61/3 Ross Savage 22; Rory Camp 2/14 TMPS lost by 7 wickets
U11A vs Sarnia TMPS batted first and scored 193/6 Tyrell Reddy 48; James Bartman 47 not out; Jason Brien 27; Cade Gamble 27 not out
Well done to our HS swimmers who took part in the Inter House Gala last week, albeit rained out.
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| Google Calendars for parents | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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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.
The Horse’s Mouth Newsletter has all calendar links available to be able to easily find whichever calendars you need to.
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:
There are navigation buttons at the top left to change dates easily to look back or to future events:
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:
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. |
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