Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: Give thanks to Him, and bless His name. For Lord is good; His loving kindness endures for ever, and His faithfulness to all generations. Psalm 100:4-5

I think as a school we are very privileged in this day and age to have a Christian Arts Festival week like we enjoyed last week. There again I am biased! This week I just want to thank everyone for their support not only here at school but all the various churches and youth teams which helped us and forgive us if we made a bit of a hash of things! Keeps us humble! We just have to remind ourselves that it is for God’s glory not ours and therefore we give Him the praise and honour which is due to Him “Give thanks to Him, and bless His name”.

The children who are currently present in our High Schools are generally referred to as being part of Generation Z. Although there are no clearly defined dates this generally refers to children born since the mid 1990’s. They do not know a time without social media and place a priority on how fast you can find the right information rather than on whether or not you know the right information. They are growing up in a world that is very different to the one that their parents experienced as children. This is a world of technology and social interconnection. One of the biggest challenges will be that almost all information will be accessible. Much of this sort of information would in the past have been withheld from children who were seen to be not yet ready. We can no longer shelter our children. We cannot wrap them up and protect them from influences that are bad for them. While this may now seem to be a time for technology education to improve in schools, the focus now needs to shift more and more to moral and values based education. It will be about teaching our children to be moral people and to make the right decisions for themselves. The value of Christian Education will become more and not less important in the world of the future.

Last week we celebrated a very successful Christian Arts Festival. It was very encouraging to see how positively the pupils responded to the events. Thursday’s Christian music evening was one of the highlights. The choirs and Marimba bands from the different phases performed to a huge audience under starlight in the High School quadrangle. The turnout was very encouraging and it was certainly reassuring to see just how committed this community is to Christian activities. 

 

To date we have considered Composure (the art and skill of suffering consequence with resilience) and Citizenship (the art and skill of exercising your rights and responsibilities). This week, let us consider what many industry leaders are extolling as one of the quintessential dispositions and skills for success in today’s economy: COLLABORATION.

Simply put, the act of collaborating effectively involves sharing, developing, exploring and solving in a range of contexts and across a variety of media with others.

Our traditional education paradigm speaks to the antithesis of Collaboration: the pinnacle of academic achievement is measured by a solo, silent engagement with an examination. Now, moms and dads – particularly those of you who run your own businesses – you will know that much of your success stems from your ability to collaborate with others. Some call it networking, others call it out-sourcing, whilst others yet refer to it as partnering – either way, our capacity to work effectively with others is of paramount importance, particularly given the relentless manner in which the world is decreasing in size.

Yet, being able to “work with others” is not the cliché of old; the groups of people with whom we need to share, develop, explore and solve is becoming increasingly heterogeneous. Thus, in a world of severe intolerance – even within the world’s so-called ‘greatest’ democracies – collaboration becomes significantly challenging. Our children will be markedly advantaged if they are able to collaborate with those who fall without their day-to-day reality. Thus, we can see clearly how the dispositions of Citizenship and Collaboration complement each other in as much as being able to collaborate on a project/task effectively with anyone, no matter how different they may be, and to do so with comfort, will be a compelling boon.

Very few endeavours after school allow for working in complete isolation, and actuaries tell us that this will be even less so in the next decade. Therefore, while we must remain fully cognisant of the reality of matric examinations in their current “fly-solo” format, schools must consciously seek out opportunities for young people to engage in tasks which depend on collaborative skills to achieve success. This is our challenge as educators, and it is one we intend to meet at Thomas More College.

In closing, I would like to wish all the cast and crew of Noises Off, the high school’s 2017 production, everything of the very best as they perform this week. The countless hours and commitment demanded by such a complex piece of comedic theatre is worthy of the highest praise. So too, I want to thank Mrs Logan and Mrs Conradie for the courage to tackle this play with our youngsters. It is a credit to them that we have been able to present this production. I also thank Mrs Lanz and Mrs van Wyk for their selfless assistance. 

 

Last week was a wonderfully exciting spiritual week with our Christian Arts Festival. All of our assemblies, whether combined as a whole school or in our separate phases, and PE lessons have been meaningful and have been supportive of our ethos and what we stand for as a school. Thank you too to our choirs who sang on Thursday evening and to those who supported the evening to give praise to our awesome Father God.

This week we have the IQAA (Independent Quality Assurance Assessment agents) at our school on Thursday 1 June. They will be assisting us to quality assess ourselves very stringently. The results of the IQAA survey you completed earlier this year in March came back very positively. We look forward to celebrating areas of strength and working on those areas where we need to put further impetus. Thank you again to you, our parents, for filling in the forms honestly, and to the staff for their input and support. We believe it will be a worthwhile and effective form of appraisal. It will also enable us, where possible, to put further systems/ support in place or make adaptations to improve what we offer further. Should you personally wish to discuss anything with me in this regard please do feel free to make an appointment to do so. Obviously the surveys were anonymous so it is difficult to respond to some individual queries.

Parent child relationships can be a minefield and so I wanted to share these words written in 2007 by George Irvine, who directed the Institute for Spirituality, in which he speaks as children might want to do, to their parents or the care givers in their lives.

"Let me feel secure in your love for things change quickly and appear frightening at times. Don't expect me to fulfill the dreams you didn't achieve. See me as a unique person even though I remind you of yourself as a child. Speak to me with your heart and hands because sometimes I don't understand your words. Surround me in our family circle with good people so that I may have peace in which to grow. Believe me when I tell you that someone is bad even though you think that that person is good. Don't tell me I am lying just because something I tell you frightens you. If there is space, give me a corner in the home I can call my own. Let me question and give me as honest an answer as you know. Let me experiment so that I can find out things for myself, but show me when something I want to do could harm me. Teach me to be sensitive to beauty and to enjoy reading like I see you do. Encourage my efforts to do things, even when I don't do them very well. Let me share responsibility by giving me things to do that are right for my size. Allow me time to tell you how I am trying to work out my problems. Don't get scared when I ask you about things you think I shouldn't know. When you tell me to do this or that please tell me why. Let me feel I am wanted and important to you. Include me in our family plans. Be loyal to me and keep your promises to me. I don't want to be your baby all the time because I really want to feel grown up. Don't implant your own fears in me and when I tell you mine, don't tell me not to be stupid. Help me not to do silly stuff when I am angry, but don't make me feel bad about being angry as I don't want to lose my ability to feel strongly about things. Help me to know there is nothing I can tell you that would make you lose your love for me. Show me the way to accept people who are different so I may learn how to feel okay about myself. Tell me about a God who loves me and who is not waiting to catch me out. Don't protect me from pain and difficulty. Don't try to sort things out for me, let me work at sorting them out for myself.”

We will be screening prospective pupils for placement in 2018 this Saturday morning at school. Should you have any friends or family considering TMC please encourage them to make application so as to be included in the screenings on Saturday.

Wishing you all the best for the week ahead.  

 

Weekly Achievers 

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

Please send us photographs of your children enjoying their Weekly Achiever vouchers at Wetrock to tmc@thomasmore.co.za.

Debating

The Senior debaters (Nic Leisegang, Jordan Pieters and Reece Jeacocks) remain unbeaten as they won their last league debate against St Henry’s and Nic was awarded Best Speaker. They have therefore made it through to the League Quarter Finals. Well done chaps!

FP Gymnastics

Congratulations to Liam Lotter and Sam Boyd who made the KZN Union Gymnastics team on Saturday.  Well done!

FP Soccer

Congratulations to Riordan Govender who played for his Euro Soccer School in a soccer tournament on Sunday and made it into the finals.  Well done Riordan.

Congratulations also to Josh Chetty and Daniel de Freitas who both received 'Man of the Match' at this Friday and Sunday's soccer matches respectively whilst playing for their club, Forest Hills Soccer Club.  Well done boys.  

KZN Hockey (SP)

Congratulations to the following children for being selected to represent KZN Coastals Hockey at the upcoming IPTs in the July holidays:

U12 A Kaelah Balarin, Kgaogelo Mashiloane

U12 B Jarred Christie

U13 A Buhlali Mhlanzi

U13 C Jorja Robertson, T’re Imani Motsaohae

KZN Hockey (HS)

Congratulations to following pupils who have been selected for KZN Hockey in their respective age groups

U18C Team: Brandon Davies

U16A Team: Carmen Vicent, Lola Lee, Cassy Balarin, Kayleigh Du Toit

U16B Team: Courtney Du Toit, Gemma Weeder, Nicole Phipps

U16C Team: Alex Hanger, Andani Mashige, Alexa Vicent

U14 Elite Team: Stephanie Tshuma

U14A Coastal Team: Ilé Bothma

U14B Coastal Team: Chelsea Layden and Danielle Rockey

SP Soccer vs St Marys

3^rd – 1 - 0 to TMC

2^nd – 1 - 0 to TMC

1^st – 3 – 1 to TMC

SP Soccer vs Hillcrest Primary

3^rd – 0 - 0 Draw

2^nd – 1 - 0 to TMC

3^rd –0 - 0 Draw

SP Soccer vs Kloof

3^rd – 2 - 0 to Kloof

2^nd – 1 - 0 to TMC

1^st – 1 - 0 to TMC

SP Rugby vs Kloof

U10A won 50 - 0

U11A won 24 - 12

2nds lost 0 - 35

1st XV lost 5 - 12

HS Rock Climbing

The lead climbing season has ended and our best individual results are as follows:

U19 Girls' A League - Amy Freeman 2^nd

U17 Boys' A league - Keshav Gounden 1^st, Josh Munstermann 3^rd and Brendan Kuhnert 5^th

U17 Boys' B League - Joel Robb 1^st, Ben Robbins 3^rd

U15 Girls' B League - Arabella Balidis 4^th

U15 Boys' A League - Faran Steenkamp 2^nd

U15 Boys' B League - Rory Camp 3rd

HS Boys’ Tennis

TMC 2^nd Team vs St. Henry’s 1^st Team – Lost 14-18

TMC 1^st Team vs Gelofte – Won 24-11

HS Rugby

TMC U15A vs Curro Hillcrest – Won 24-14

TMC 1^st Team vs Curro Hillcrest – Won 15-5

TMC U14A vs Howick – Won 48-7

TMC U15A vs Howick – Won 26-0

TMC 1^st Team vs Howick – Lost 0-36

HS Netball

TMC U14B vs Pinetown GHS – Won 9-2

TMC U14A vs Pinetown GHS – Won 15-1

TMC U15B vs Pinetown GHS – Won 23-6

TMC U15A vs Pinetown GHS – Won 19-5

TMC U16B vs Pinetown GHS – Lost 0-23

TMC U16A vs Pinetown GHS – Drew 10-10

TMC 2nds vs Pinetown GHS – Won 11-10

TMC 1^st Team vs Pinetown GHS – Won 24-21

TMC U14A vs Gelofte – Lost 10-11

TMC U15B vs Gelofte – Won 16-6

TMC U15A vs Gelofte – Lost 11-13

TMC U16A vs Gelofte – Won 16-2

TMC 2nds vs Gelofte – Lost 14-16

TMC 1^st Team vs Gelofte – Lost 14-51

TMC U15A vs George Campbell – Won 27-2

TMC 2nds vs George Campbell – Won 28-3

TMC 1^st Team vs George Campbell – Won 39-3

HS Boys’ Hockey

TMC U16B vs New Forest U16A – Won 2-0

TMC 2nds vs New Forest 1^st Team – Won 1-0

TMC U14A vs Ashton – Won 3-0

TMC U16A vs Ashton – Won 3-0

TMC 1^st Team vs Ashton – Won 2-0

TMC U14A vs Howick – Won 2-1

TMC U16A vs Howick – Lost 0-1

TMC 2nds vs Howick – Won 3-1

TMC 1^st Team vs Howick – Won 5-1

HS Girls’ Hockey

TMC U14B vs Westville GHS – Lost 0-1

TMC U14A vs Westville GHS – Won 2-0

TMC U16B vs Westville GHS – Won 1-0

TMC U16A vs Westville GHS – Drew 0-0

TMC 2nds vs Westville GHS – Won 4-0

TMC 1^st Team vs Westville GHS – Drew 0-0