Then Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan. He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where he was being tempted by the devil for forty days. During those days he ate nothing at all, and when they were over he was hungry. Luke 4:1-2

I can’t quite believe that this Wednesday is Ash Wednesday the beginning of Lent, the 40 day period before Easter; we were celebrating Christmas just the other day, where has the time gone!

Lent of course is not mentioned in the Bible. It is though, a great church tradition which focusses our attention on how is our spiritual journey going? Are we fulfilling the purposes in which God has placed us here on earth? We are also reminded of Jesus fast in the desert for 40 days and confronting the temptations of the devil.

It is a time for reflection and for repentance, a time to ‘set our faces towards the cross’ and the impact of that statement upon our lives. For what does Jesus' cross mean for us today? Does it mean the power of God’s love towards us and our response or is it something to hang around our neck as some sort of talisman? As we approach Easter maybe it’s time to reflect on what does Jesus death and resurrection mean to us today?

The telephone poles around the Upper Highway area have been adorned with vast numbers of Open Day posters in the last few weeks. We are certainly spoilt for choice when it comes to schools. Our unique "whole" Christian co-educational school on one campus is very appealing and we had excellent attendance at our Open Days on Friday and Saturday. Our own pupils and parents are our best ambassadors and they played a big part. The pupils performed choirs and Marimba bands and guided the tours and loyal parents were present to answer questions. A new innovation saw High School pupils form a panel that were interviewed by the Head Boy Dominic King. The pupils commented on their personal experiences of Thomas More College and their love for the school was very apparent. It was good to hear things from "the Horse's Mouth". It certainly was a very successful initiative.

The High School hosted a two day water polo festival on Friday and Saturday. This was attended by co-educational schools from Gauteng and KZN. In our own province we are the strongest co-ed by a considerable margin and play most of our fixtures against the monastic schools. This has raised our level of performance and we very comfortably won both the boys and girls sections of the festival.  Congratulations to both our 1st Team boys and girls who competed in this tournament.

The 2018 school terms calendar will be released in the next few weeks. I attended a meeting with the heads of Kearsney, Highbury and St. Mary's last week and we are hoping to keep our holidays as similar as possible.

 

We hosted our annual Open Day this past Saturday. The campus was its characteristically busy self, awash with an array of activity and sound. Yet, preparing for an Open Day demands of the school’s leadership team to put the school under a microscope and seek out a sustainable, weighty response to the question: “Why should we send our child/ren to Thomas More College.”

Let’s be frank here – parents in the Upper Highway area have a plethora of choice of school. But instead of making comparisons with our many neighbouring schools, I looked deeply into the essence of what makes Thomas More a unique, compelling lifestyle choice for children and, by association, their parents. I was significantly buoyed by the outcomes of my microscopic exercise.

Thomas More does not rely on winning sports matches to keep its reputation intact. We do not require reams of public accolades to bolster or maintain a particular expectation. Whilst our campus is magnificently picturesque and our facilities comprehensive, many schools have said facilities. So, it can’t be that either. In our case, these characteristics and achievements are added bonuses.

And so, I share with you what I shared with the visiting parents and pupils on Saturday: at the very heart of Thomas More College is LOVE. This love is kind, tough, concerned with integrity and dignity, and endeavours earnestly to permeate a space in which every pupil thrives. So, quite liberating is that Thomas More’s success relies on something which the world needs in bucket loads, and not simply on a reputation.  

 

Thank you to those parents who assisted us with our Primary School Open Day- it is much appreciated! We trust our Grade 6 and 7s had an awesome time with their parents at our HS Open Day on Saturday. I was blown away by the panel discussion and delighted to see how happy our TMC children whether they are new to the school or those who have come up from the Primary School. I firmly believe that our inter-personal relationships are one of our many strengths.

We welcome Mrs Jane Leppan who will be doing a locum for us in the library, working every alternate week for a three week period to enable Mrs Sewchuran to be with Sahil as he goes in to hospital a week at a time for further chemotherapy. We will be praying and trusting this all goes well.

As mentioned to you at our parent information evening, we are very sad to be saying farewell to Mrs Candice Mordecai- Jones who has been with us for two and a quarter years, as she leaves us to join her husband in Adelaide, Australia. We thank her for her dedicated work in Music and Drama, as well as with the marimbas, recorders and choir. We have appointed Mr Sherwin Ganasen in her place. He will be around the school at different times in the next few weeks as part of a handover period prior to his start with us at the beginning of the second term. At present he is the Grade 1-7 Music Teacher at Berea Primary, as well as the Music Director at Newlife Christian Centre where he also composes music and handles the sound engineering. His strengths are theory, vocal and piano. His Berea Primary choir came second recently in a regional competition in which numerous choirs participated and go to Johannesburg to compete in nationals in the April holidays. We welcome him to TMC and trust he will be happy with us and continue the excellent work started by Mrs Ramasamy, Mrs Chiles and Mrs Mordecai-Jones. Culture is alive and well at TMC and we look forward to seeing it continue to flourish.

We wish all our swimmers and coaches well for the D & D gala this afternoon at Kings Park Stadium and trust they will give of their very best, parents are most welcome- and encouraged- to support where possible. We also welcome support for the Interschool’s friendly gala we are hosting at our own pool this Friday afternoon from 14:30 to 16:30. This will give our swimmers further exposure prior to the Highway “A” Zone gala next week Tuesday at Westville.

Wishing you all the best for yet another full week ahead.  

 

Weekly Achievers 

Kindly sponsored by Wetrock Adventures - visit www.wetrockadventuresco.za for further info.

Dance League

The High School dance league has been running for a few weeks now. Our girls took part in three fixtures and we received 1st and 2nd placings in the U16 girls age group for three weeks running. First fixture - Thando Dlamuka 1st and Kailin Wiggett 2nd. The next two fixtures Thando placed 2nd and Kailin 1st.  So well done to these young ladies who give of their best every Friday afternoon. We also had a few 4th places. Our first fixture took place at Pinetown Prep, the second was at Thomas More College on 17th February and the third on Friday 24th Feb at Westville Girls' High School.  Well done to all our enthusiastic dancers.

Cricket SP U10A vs Hillcrest

TMC 82/3

Brunton Bigalke - 36

Tristan White - 14

Hillcrest 73

Connor Mackinnon 4 overs, 17 runs and 4 wickets

James Evans 4 overs, 7 runs and 2 wickets.

TMPS won by 9 runs.  

SP Cricket U10B vs Hillcrest

TMPS went into bat first and scored 99/1 after 20 overs. Top batsmen were; Aiden Smith - 18 not out and retired.  Adam Essey - 13 not out and retired.  James Harrison - 15 not out.  Hillcrest went into bat needing 99 to win after 20 overs, they managed to score 65/3 after 20 overs.  TMC won by 34 runs.

SP Cricket U11A vs Parklands

Thomas More batted first and scored 157 all out in 30 overs

Ryan Browning 32, Braydan Doran 31, Phila Nkosi 23, Max Buchan 15

Parklands scored 153 for 6 in 30 overs

Max Buchan 6 overs 18/1; Ryan Browning 6 overs 37/2; Braydan Doran 3 overs 13/1 ;

Adam Gray 4 overs 14/1; Bryan Ireland 2 overs 7/0; Jason Reed 3 overs 11/0

Thomas More won by 4 runs 

Cricket SP U11A vs Hillcrest

Thomas More scored 175 / 8

Max Buchan 69 ; Ross Hoffman 28 ; Ryan 18 not out

Hillcrest scored 146/6

Braydan Doran 4 overs 20/2; Ryan Browning 6 overs 21/1; Phila Nkosi 6 overs 21/1; Max Buchan 5 0vers 22/1; Jason Reed 1 over 5/0

Thomas More won by 29 runs

SP 2nd Team Cricket vs St Henry's

TMC 120 for 4 after 20 overs

St Henrys 45 for 5 after 20 overs

TMC Won by 75 runs

Kgaogelo Mashiloane 32 runs

Sanele Pryce Lewis 20 runs

Matthew Gray 3 overs, 3 runs, 2 wickets

Nick Butler 4 overs, 8 runs, 1 wicket

BMX

Congratulations to Bryce Fuchs (Grade 1) and Levi Smith (Grade 1) who both competed in the BMX Club Championships on the weekend at Lahee Park.  Bryce placed 2nd in the U7/U8 Novice class, and Levi placed 2nd in the U7/U8 Expert class.  Well done boys.

KZN League Shooting

Congratulations to Matthew Reinecke who achieved a silver medal and Kyle Howat who was awarded a bronze medal. Both boys have been selected to take part in the South African Championships during the year.  Well done boys.

HS Girls' Indoor Hockey

TMC U14B vs Danville U14B - lost 3 - 0

TMC U14B vs Crawford NC U14A - lost 2 - 0

TMC U14A vs St. Mary’s U14A - lost 6 - 1

TMC U16A vs Danville U16A - lost 0 - 3

TMC 2nds vs Curro Hillcrest 1^st Team - lost 1 - 4

TMC 1^st Team vs Ashton 1^st Team - won 7 - 1

HS Boys’ Water Polo

TMC 1^st Team vs Amanzimtoti - won 18 - 1

TMC 1^st Team vs Kloof - won 17 - 1

TMC 1^st Team vs Krugersdorp - won 32 - 0

TMC 1^st Team vs Kingsway - won 21 - 0

TMC 1^st Team vs Beaulieu College - won 27 - 0

Final TMC 1st Team vs Beaulieu - won 21 - 0

HS Girls’ Water Polo

TMC 1^st Team vs Amanzimtoti - won 11 - 2

TMC 1^st Team vs Treverton - won 20 - 1

TMC 1^st Team vs Krugersdorp - won 26 - 1

TMC 1^st Team vs Kloof - won 14 - 0

TMC 1^st Team vs Beaulieu College - won 8 - 0

TMC 1^st Team vs Kingsway - won 18 - 0

Final TMC 1st team vs Beaulieu College - won 7 - 2

HS Cricket

Ashton 1sts 125/7. (Davies 4/24) TMC 1sts 120/3 (Meikle 50*) Ashton won by 5 runs.

TMC U14A 237/4 (Sim 90, Van Zyl 60, Coombs 40*) Grantleigh U15B 93. (Sim 4/5 Coombs 3/8). TMC won by 143 runs.

Grantleigh U15A 206/4 TMC U15A 120 (Hooper 32). Grantleigh won by 86 runs.

TMC 1sts 206/7 (Blythen 103* Heads 48)

Grantleigh 1sts 163/9 (Murugan 3/29)

TMC won by 43 runs.

Swimming

Congratulations to Simeï Bekker who did very well at The KZN School district gala. She placed 1st with the 50m, 100m and 200m breaststroke and also had the fastest times out of all the age groups for her breaststroke races.

She also came 1st in the 50m freestyle and 2nd in the 50m backstroke and 50m butterfly. Well done Simeï.

KZN Indoor Hockey

Congratulations to Brandon Davies and Shaun Alborough who have been selected to represent KZN Boys' U19 Indoor Hockey Teams in the upcoming Invitational Tournament which will take place in Durban from Friday 10^th March to Sunday 12^th March 2017. Well done boys.

Cycling

Congratulations to Anvia Bredenkamp who is taking part in the KZN Cross country mountain bike series. The first event took place in Hilton on Saturday. She finished 2^nd in her age group. There are 2 more events and then the KZN championships taking place on 24^th June. Well done and good luck Anvia.

Karate

Congratulations to Liam Harris who competed in the JKA Provincial Championships for karate on Sunday and achieved a bronze medal for kata and a gold medal for kumite (fighting).  Liam will be representing JKA KZN at the National Championships to be held in Johannesburg on 19/20 May. Well done Liam.