This is the day which the LORD has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24. 

Welcome back to everyone and I hope and pray you all had a safe and peaceful July holiday. The above scripture is one I use most often in my prayers as it proclaims the truth that each day should be seen as a blessing from God, be it a day that we anticipate with fear or joy. Each day we are given on this earth is a day to be grateful to God for giving it to us. The Bible tells us “Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” Psalm 139:16. God has given us life and we need to trust Him with it as Jesus reminds us in Matthew 10:30-31 “Indeed, even the hairs on your head have all been counted! So stop being afraid”.

Welcome back to another exciting term at Thomas More College. Winter in Durban is certainly a real treat and we were once again blessed with excellent weather these holidays. I trust that the pupils and staff are fully rested and ready to face the challenges that lie ahead. Thank you to those who represented the school at the Grahamstown Festival or in provincial or school sports festivals.

Two exciting campus projects commenced during the holidays. The High School "B Block" extension is already well underway. This will unfortunately have an impact on traffic flow over the next two terms as 4 prefabs have been erected in the High School car park. Exiting from the lower campus will thus only be possible via the road alongside the Astro. The uphill lane alongside Pickering Field will be closed. The Insala Road Gate may be used on special occasions only.

Alterations to the Great House foyer are also underway. We are creating a new Reception area, which is certainly long overdue.

It is just two weeks from Country Fair and there is already an air of excitement. We are constantly looking to improve and this year will be no exception. Look out particularly for a number of new arena events, changes in the hall area and an expanded tea garden. 

 

I wish you all a very warm welcome back to school after what I hope has been a refreshing, revitalising and blessed break.

Term 2 ended with a flurry, a significant part of which was our inaugural Homegrown experience. I was overwhelmed by the manner in which our children and our mentors responded to this initiative. The high school campus buzzed with conversation during the programme. Children engaged with folk at the pitface of the economy in their respective areas of work. Similarly, our older children also enjoyed chatting with alumni who are currently studying at various universities.

The information shared during Homegrown simply cannot be garnered in a classroom. Parents, both past and present, and alumni have a critical role to play if we are to enhance the overall learning process of our young people. Homegrown proved this unequivocally. I am deeply grateful to all the mentors who volunteered this year. We are a significantly dynamic TMC community and it would be irresponsible and negligent of us all not to innovate and initiate opportunities for our children to engage directly with this compelling mentorship resource. We hope to grow the Homegrown Programme to include overt networking, regular campus visits and presentations by mentors, and off-site, sustained mentoring for our young people in the coming years.

We will welcome our seven visitors from the International English School from South Korea this coming Sunday. They will spend two weeks with us at TMC. I thank all the families who responded so quickly last term to host, but the group is smaller than anticipated; however, it looks as though another group will visit in January next year, so more hosting opportunities will present themselves.

In closing, I don't need to remind you that Term 3 is a busy one, particularly for our Grade 12s as they prepare to write their prelims later this term. I know you join me in wishing them and their educators strength, a sense of calmness and every blessing as they face this pending challenge. 

 

A very warm welcome back after our mid year holidays and an extra special welcome to those families who are new to Thomas More this term as well as to our Gr. 7 Exchange student from Korea, who arrives this coming weekend and will be with us for two weeks. We do trust that you will all soon feel at home, and part of our family. Congratulations too, to Miss Logan on her marriage during the holiday, and a warm welcome back to Mrs de Leeuw. To our Thomas More family, all the best for the third term of 2017! I trust you and your family had a relaxing and enjoyable holiday.

If you have not yet returned your Country Fair raffle form, this is due in by next Wednesday 2 August at the latest. There certainly are some wonderful prizes to be won! There are also prizes for each phase for the most raffle sheets sold as well as superb prizes for the fifteenth and sixteenth ticket raffles for those who get the 2 free tickets for the full raffle sheet sold. Our Country Fair promises to be better than ever before and takes place next Saturday, 5 August. A reminder - this is a compulsory school day.

The grocery items are due next Tuesday, 1 August, as per the item which will be relayed to the pupils via the class teacher. This is a civvies day to thank you for this donation. Tombola items, books etc may still be sent in if you have not already done so and still are able to contribute.

SP sport does start this week, from tomorrow (by prior arrangement only). We start the term with a bang, with our Senior Primary Inter-house field events this Friday morning and the track events on the Saturday morning, as per the diary card which you can download on the communicator. We look forward to parental support for these events.

Next Wednesday morning, 2 August, during assembly time, from 07:30 to about 08:15, there will be an award ceremony for all those S.P. children who have earned a merit for effort, progress or academic attainments last term. Parents are welcome to attend

Please continue to send in on a Wednesday any unwanted clothing, shoes, sandwiches and anything else which can be used to assist the 1000 Hills community whom we strive to support.

Wishing you all the best for the week ahead and a successful, happy and healthy third term.  

 

Yesterday marked the beginning of our third term. Welcome back. It was lovely to see so many excited faces with much to share about their holiday. We welcome new Pre Primary and Junior Primary families this term and hope that our relationship will be long and fruitful.

This term promises to be no less busy than usual and so I encourage you to find islands of time with your children where your focus is entirely on them in a mindfully quiet “together time”. During the course of this term we encourage children to become more independent in academic tasks, as well as in personal/ lifeskills areas, as we begin the preparation for the next grade.

We look forward to another happy term together.

 

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.

Weekly achievers from last week of 2nd Term.

Mathletics

Congratulations to Holly Ahlschlager who has earned her Gold Mathletics certficate.

Congratulations to Tristan Steenkamp who has earned the 1st Gold Mathletics certificate in Grade 2.

Debating

Towards the end of last term our senior debating team (Jordan Pieters, Reece Jeacocks and Sarah Gonggryp) won their debate against Westville Girls’ High and Jordan was awarded Best Speaker.

BMX

Congratulations to Levi Smith who received 2nd place (U7) at the National Age Group Series (Leg 4 and 5) and 3rd place (Leg 6) during the holidays.

Karate

Congratulations to Tristan Steenkamp for achieving his yellow belt grading for Karate.