Behold He that keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your guardian. Psalm 121:3

Last Sunday after church I began to doze off outside on the patio and just before I fell into the land of Nod, I heard the door open and my youngest daughter asked me “Dad look at this”. With resentment in my heart I turned my head to observe what was so important (recognise that attitude within you). There in her hands were two softserve ice creams. By now she had my full attention! “Is one for me?’ I asked, “No” came the reply “they're both for me!!!” “Just kidding” she pipes up. Well we spent the next 20 minutes consuming the delights of an ice cream and each others company which including my daughters antics ”Look Dad, Pinocchio” and proceeds to put the cone onto the end of her nose and gets ‘nose freeze’. After she had left I felt decidedly guilty as I had resented my daughter’s intrusion into my siesta, my selfishness got the better of me. Thankfully, our Lord God has no such problem, as He neither slumbers nor sleeps. He is always at hand to listen and to help and once again it was a lesson I needed to learn!

Intrinsic to the ethos of Thomas More College is the fact that all pupils are of equal rank. There are no prefects or pupil authority structures at Thomas More College. We believe that a system which is hierarchical and where some students are made to feel superior to others is not a system which has a place in this society.

Prefectship as it stands in many schools can lead to feelings of rejection and massive disappointment for those who are not included. This inevitably leads to negativity and reduced commitment and sense of belonging. Having to spend the last year of one’s school life being branded as an inferior person can have very negative consequences!

Our system is carefully structured to keep loyalty high and self-esteem intact. Our matrics are servant leaders and belong to various portfolio committees. These combine together to make up the Matric Leadership Council. These are groups such as Public Relations, First Aid, Peer Support, Esprit de Corps, Outreach, Cultural Activities etc. We even have a group of monitors who greet the younger pupils in the car park in the mornings and take them down to class. This structure allows the matrics to have responsibility in their areas of interest. It allows for a much better atmosphere in the school. There is no “them and us” situation.

Our matrics remain committed to the end. At the time of “changing of the guard”, it is so rewarding to see the old Grade 12 portfolios meeting with the incoming grade 11 groups and sharing their passion. The 2016 matric portfolios are now in full swing and there is a lovely vibe in the school.

Albert Einstein said: “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live it’s whole life believing that it is stupid.” 

 

As the Chinese proverb asserts, “Be not afraid of moving slowly; be only afraid of standing still.”

Term 2 is well under way now.

It is imperative that our pupils are encouraged to put an exam preparation plan together now. If this is done timeously, they will be able to move slowly and steadily according to a plan towards the looming mid-year examinations with confidence, instead of being overwhelmed into inactivity if they start too late.

I encourage pupils to make short, piqued study notes daily from now so that when the exams are around the corner, the study notes are ready. Making these notes is a timeous exercise if left to the last minute. As Jake White said when pressed about his secret to winning the 2007 RWC, “My secret is the 4 P’s: Preparation, Preparation, Preparation and Preparation.”

Given the wonderful energy permeating campus during this our “winter sports season”, it becomes even more appropriate for our kiddies to be a step ahead with regards to the examinations. Thus, if your child/ren put 20 minutes aside daily to summarise the day’s content, it will make a significant chunk of time available for actual studying when the time comes.

In closing, I take this opportunity to remind the High School family that winter uniform is compulsory as of 3 May. Thus, please ensure that your child’s/children’s blazer/s is/are clearly labelled with his/her/their name/s (gosh, what a grammatical mouthful!). 

 

Thank you to those parents who supported the Academic Merit Assembly and our inter-house cross country last week. With the U13 soccer trials, 1^st team PADSSA rugby trials, the netball festival we hosted over the weekend, cultural events and the selection of sport teams, I thought it would be fitting to speak to our pupils in this week’s assembly about disappointment. This is an emotion all of us have experienced at some time or other in our lives, whether we are adults or children. If this were converted to an equation, we would write it as “expectations minus reality”. It is an uncomfortable complex feeling which includes anger, hurt, sadness and frustration. What matters however, is how we deal with our disappointment and putting it into perspective. We should try not to withdraw, blame others or wallow in self-pity. Struggling and being disappointed is a part of life, but on the positive side, it can help us to grow and can build character.

We are delighted to have Ted Brien (Taya’s grandfather) and Sandy Carroll motivate our pupils with their music at this Thursday’s Cultural Assembly. Saturday morning sees our netball in matches against Felixton while our boys play rugby and our 1^st team forms the curtain raiser to the HS game against them.

We are taking part in the Kids' Expo at the Watercrest Mall’s 1^st birthday celebrations at the weekend. Should you know of parents interested in applying to our school, do encourage them to put in an application as there are a number of families emigrating in the near future, with openings emerging in some grades.

I hope you all have a wonderful extended long weekend with Thursday 28 and Friday 29 now also being school holiday times. All the best for a great week ahead! 

 

What a privilege it is to be a proud new Granny to a beautiful little girl, Grace (pictured right). It is hard to believe that the love one feels for one’s own children can so easily be extended to a grandchild. I was so pleased to be able to spend some time with my daughter Kirsten and this new little arrival last week and found it very hard to return to reality. Wow! What an amazing experience it was.

We welcome new Foundation Phase Computer specialist Ninette Alberts to our family on 16^th May as our creative, hardworking Kim Nicholas takes up new challenges in the Senior Primary taking the place of Jean Vairy who leaves Thomas More College to travel and explore her passion in photography. Not only, has Kim taken our Computer department to great heights but she has also been responsible for staff training and has managed to train and guide many staff through their ICDL. Kim will be sorely missed by us all but we sincerely wish her well as she embarks on a new adventure. Thank you Kim for all you have done for our Foundation Phase.

Ninette has been teaching for 15 years and has experience at a few schools teaching Computers from Grade 0 to Grade 7. She has a little girl Julia, who is 4 years old.  

 

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Weekly Achievers

None to report this week.

FP Swimming

Congratulations to Dalberg for winning the JP Interhouse Gala last week.

Cross Country

Well done to all the JP and SP children for participating in the Inter House Cross Country last week. You all did so well!

SP Hockey

Congratulations to the following boys who have been selected to represent PADSSA at the KZN Hockey trials on Thursday 12^th May:

U13 – Hayden Brimelow and Michael Sim

U12 – Buhlali Mlhanzi, Tré Imani Motsaohae, Nathan Riddle

Cycling

This past weekend saw the 3rd race in the KZN XCO mountain bike series taking place at St Ives in the Midlands.  TMC cyclist excelled again with some good results on a fast flattish course.

Sprogs (U12) Liam Theunissen (Gr 5) = 6th after having some unfortunate bike problems chased hard to make up positions

Sub Junior (U14) Travis Stedman (Gr 8) = 1st lead from the start with Mitchel Potgieter (Gr 8) = 2nd and Dean Gregson (Gr 8) = 5th

Youth (U16) Girls' Courtney Smith (Gr 10) = 1st - was a great reward for some good riding

Youth (U16) Boys' Cian Leveridge (Gr10) = 1st with Joshua Clipstone (Gr 9) = 2nd in a fast paced race.

Well done to all our riders.

HS 1st Team Boys' Hockey

1^st Team Boys' Hockey played out of their socks this weekend at the KZN Schools Top 8 Tournament!

We were the only Co-ed School at the Tournament and had the likes of Westville in our pool who are currently ranked #1 in the country.

With at times no real bench, some boys played every minute of the tournament with every boy playing with unbelievable heart, putting their bodies on the line and throwing themselves at everything.

Our boys were spoken of highly by many opposition parents, coaches and players as our conduct was outstanding and our performances just got better and better.

It was unbelievable to watch our boys punch well above their weight against some of the top boys schools in country and they did us, as a school SO proud!

Lost 8-0 to Clifton

Lost 8-0 to Westville

Lost 2-0 to St. Charles

Lost 3-2 to Hilton College

Lost 3-2 to DHS

The boys are aware that this was just a warm-up for our ‘Big Tournament’ in Jhb next weekend and that not many schools can say they played the likes of Westville, Hilton and Clifton as pre-season warm ups ahead of the ‘REAL’ hockey.  Well done guys.

Rock Climbing Nationals

Six TMC climbers went down to Cape Town this weekend to climb in the National Boulder Series Championships. They were:

Daniel Bentley

Jenna Bentley

Kim Dawson

Brendan Kuhnert

Joshua Munstermann

Zunaid Valodia

Jenna, Brendan, Kim and Zunaid made it through to the finals on Sunday.

Jenna, Brendan and Zunaid then made the National Team, as they came in the top 5 in their age groups. They are eligible to go to China in November. The competition was very tough but our TMC climbers did very well.  Well done to all our climbers.

HS Boys’ Tennis

TMC 1^st Team 20 Port Natal 13

HS Girls’ Hockey

TMC 2^nd Team 1 WGHS 1

TMC 1^st Team 1 WGHS 4

TMC U14A 0 Fatima U14A 2

TMC U16B 2 Fatima U16B 2

TMC U16A 2 Fatima U16A 0

TMC 2^nd 1  Fatima 2^nd Team 3

TMC 1^st  1 Fatima 1^st Team 3

HS Boys’ Hockey

TMC U14A 5 DHS U14A 0

TMC U16B 0 DHS U16B 3

TMC U16A 3 DHS U16A 2

TMC 1^st Team 0 DHS 1^st Team 5

TMC U14A 3 Howick U14A 2

TMC U16A 2 Howick U16A 3

TMC 2^nd Team 1 Howick 1^st Team 5

HS Netball

TMC 1^st Team 8 Port Natal 6

TMC 1^st Team 1 Danville GHS 20

TMC 1^st Team 7 DGHS 6

TMC U14B 2 St. Mary’s U14B 16

TMC U14A 7 St. Mary’s U14A 8

TMC U15B 3 St. Mary’s U15B 13

TMC U15A 17 St. Mary’s U15A 11

TMC U16B 5 St. Mary’s U16B 7

TMC U16A 5 St. Mary’s U16A 15

TMC 2^nd Team 4 St. Mary’s 2^nd Team 23

TMC 1^st Team 10 St. Mary’s 1^st Team 37

HS Rugby

TMC U14A 7 Kloof U14A 26

TMC U15A 31 Kloof U15A 7

TMC 2^nd Team 8 Kloof 2^nd Team 22

TMC 1^st Team 0 Kloof 1^st Team 62

SP Athletics 

Congratulations to Brad Ballack, Nathan Riddle and Stephanie Tshuma on being awarded their school colours for District Athletics.

Life Saving

Bridget Theunissen competed in SA Nippers Champs held in Durban over 3 days during the holidays. She had a very successful tournament and represented KZN on day # 1. KZN won the overall provincial title. She competed for her club, Suncoast Pirates with her most commendable events being: 1^st (gold medal) in beach run and 5^th overall in Iron-nipper finals, which involves a run, swim and ,Malibu board paddle. Competition was tough and she had to make it past 2 heats of 16 competitors and a semi to make it to the finals. She was ladies captain for Suncoast Pirates u13/14 team which won the overall age group title for the tournament.