05 December 2012 Dear Parents, Guardians, boys and girls I recently read a disturbing article written by Greg Nicolson in the Daily Maverick. The title of the article was 2012 The year of educating dangerously. Nicolson makes reference to: - the Limpopo textbook debacle - 16 000 learners and 400 teachers forced out of school due to poor infrastructure - 2400 schools have no water supply - 3600 schools have no electricity - 1000 school have no ablution facilities - 7% of schools have libraries - 5% have stocked science laboratories - and just 1 % of schools have Internet access in South Africa Reflecting on the past year, PEPPS Preparatory School can say that we are blessed because we have more than what many others do not have. It is with grateful hearts that we can say that 2012 was a year of progress and development. Thank you to all my teachers for a successful year and making winners out of ordinary people. I am filled with gratitude and joy at what has been achieved this year. Thank you to Mrs du Plessis and the Finance Department, Mrs Cole and the Administrative staff, Mrs Naidoo in the Clothing Shop, Mr Davies and the Estate workers, the NPCC cleaning ladies and gardeners for the role you have played in the smooth running of the school. Thank you to our Parents Association for serving the school in a selfless manner. You were always willing to get involved to raise money for projects for the school. I am indebted to you for baking hundreds of pancakes at the Top Ten Primary School Swimming Gala. Miss de Beer Thank you for being my armour bearer this year. Your integrity and work ethic is commendable. Your sense of humour, support and the many mugs of coffee always came at the right time. May the Lord bless and keep you during the festive season. Travel safely and we will see each other again in 2013. It is time to say goodbye to Mr Reuben Twala who has worked for PEPPS as Estate Manager s Assistant since 1994. It is our prayer that Reuben will have a well-deserved rest during his retirement. We also bid Renè Annandale, Debra Marais, Khatija Abdulla and Mpho Moretsele goodbye and wish them well. We are grateful for the time they spent with us and we will miss them.
GENERAL INFORMATION PEPPS Polokwane Preparatory School and College The first week of school Grade R and 1 pupils are to wear their formal school uniform. Grade 2-7 must wear their sports uniform, as we will be doing sports activities for the most part of the week. Please make sure to pack sun block, a bottle of water as well as a healthy packed lunch. It is compulsory for the pupils to wear their school hats. Pupils must bring their suitcases to school as there will be time slots when they will be in the classrooms. On Friday 11 January 2013, the inter house teams will be announced. From 14-22 January 2013, there will be compulsory athletics training sessions for the teams on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Please make the necessary arrangements for your child to attend these training sessions, as they are important. Official school hours Grade R 3 Monday - Friday: 07:25 13:00 Grade 4 7 Monday - Friday: 07:25 13:30 Parent Information Meeting on 29 January 2013 Please make every effort to attend this important meeting. We will be handing out the new Information Booklet at this meeting. Assessment Calendar The 1 st Term s Assessment calendar will be included in your communication pack. You will notice that assessments start reasonably early. Please assist your child to manage their time wisely so as to prevent last minute studying. Support at events and matches Thank you for the increase in parental involvement and support at matches and events this past year. Your children love having you there. Our Inter house athletics is on 22 January 2013, please come along and enjoy the day with us. Extra mural activities As from next year, it will be compulsory for our grade 4 7 learners to take part in an extra mural activity per term. Parents Association Our Parents Association always needs additional hands to help at events. We encourage our Prep parents to get involved by joining the Parents Association. The more the merrier! Electronic Communications To help us be more efficient when communicating with our parents, please make sure that your email address and cellphone numbers are correct on the Re-registration form. Please note that this will be the last time that we are sending the newsletters and calendars in hard copy. Congratulations Laura Lennox Congratulations to Laura who received two silver medals at the Limpopo Championships for the 50m breast stroke and 100m breast stroke events. Calendar 2013 The 2013 calendar will be emailed to all our parents. Please note that dates and events could change during the year but you will be notified timeously to prevent any inconvenience.
Financial News Thank you to all parents for prioritising the payment of school fees. The amount of fees outstanding is significantly less than it was at this time last year. As of December 2012, the school has taken on the services of Legal City to assist with the management of debt. In future credit checks will be done on all prospective parents before admission to the school and all issues of nonpayment of school fees according to the Parent Contract will be handed over to Legal City. Please be informed that the 2013 annual Infrastructure Levy will increase to R750.00 and as always will be added to June school fees to be paid in full by 1 December 2013. Parents who make use of the PEPPS school bus, also be reminded that the monthly charge from January to December 2013 will increase from R275 to R300 per month. Any cancellations must be done in writing. 2013 School fees and the discount structures are given below. GRADE MONTHLY FEE BI ANNUAL FEE ANNUAL FEE (to be paid IN ADVANCE on or before first day of each month) (Jan-Jun: to be pd by 31 Jan) (Jul-Dec: to be pd by 30 June) (to be paid by 31 Jan) Grade R R 1,500.00 R 8,550.00 R 16,200.00 Grade 1 R 1,940.00 R 11,058.00 R 20,952.00 Grade 2 R 1,940.00 R 11,058.00 R 20,952.00 Grade 3 R 2,000.00 R 11,400.00 R 21,600.00 Grade 4 R 2,015.00 R 11,485.50 R 21,762.00 Grade 5 R 2,060.00 R 11,742.00 R 22,248.00 Grade 6 R 2,110.00 R 12,027.00 R 22,788.00 Grade 7 R 2,170.00 R 12,369.00 R 23,436.00 School fees must be paid by means of a Stop Order or EFT into our bank account Bank: Nedbank Polokwane Account Name: PEPPS Polokwane School Account Type: Cheque Account Account No: 1411 406 419 Branch code: 141148 Please ensure you use your child s name, surname and grade as a reference on all payments and correspondence. Proof of payment must be either faxed to 015 263 6345 or emailed to nadine@peppscollege.co.za Correspondence We are endeavouring to ensure that all correspondence reaches parents. In 2013 most newsletters and all school fees statements will be sent via e-mail. It is therefore of the utmost importance that the school is kept informed of any changes to parents personal information.
E-mail addresses and cell phone numbers especially must be correct and up-to-date. Please refer to the Re- Registration Form included in the envelope and amend any information as required, initial next to each change that is made. Please print your e-mail address clearly to ensure that all letters are legible. Dates for 2013 3 January 2013 January school fees due School Fees office, Uniform Shop and Admin. office open. (The Uniform Shop will be open from 07h30 to 12h00 from 3 9 January 2013. We will use a number system to ensure that parents are served in the order in which they arrive.) 7 January 2013 Teachers return to school 9 January 2013 Learners return to school 14 January 2013 Parents Association AGM and election of new Chairperson 18h00 School Auditorium What must I send back to school with my child on 9 January 2013? Ammended Re-Registration Form please ensure that you initial where changes are made. Completed 2013 Indemnity Form. Completed 2013 Bus Indemnity Form (If applicable). Completed nomination form for PA Chairperson. Credit Check permission slip. Grade 7 Entrepreneur s Day 19 th of October 2012 The big day arrived with a lot of excitement from all the grade 7 s and fellow pupils. The day was highlighted with not one or two good stalls, but with everyone having excellent stalls, from boerewors rolls to pizza, from spicy chicken and chips to lots of sweet things and of course the jumping castles, slippery slide and the music that kept everyone moving a bit quicker! The day certainly showed that we have a lot of entrepreneurs among us, with bright futures ahead of them. Learner of the month September Kamalan Naidoo Kamalan shows excellent sportsmanship. He has done exceptionally well in swimming and hockey. Kamalan has also been in the Top Ten Academic Achievers in all three terms this year. October Thalia Pereira Thalia performed exceptionally well in swimming. She also took part in hockey. Thalia has also taken music as an extra subject. Thalia was in the Top Ten Academic Achievers for two terms in a row this year. November Emma Melville Emma performs well in sport. She is academically strong. Emma has been in the Top Ten Academic Achievers for three terms this year. Emma has also taken music as an extra subject. Cycling Club The following children received medals for participation in the 10km The Ranch Mountain Bike race and 20km Magoebaskloof Mountain Bike race during September 2012: - Emma Melville - Thalia Pereira (and was the Category Winner for u/11 girls in The Ranch Mountain Bike race) - Warwick Melville - Kaela Goate
Science Expo The Science Expo was held in a hotel in Boksburg. Everyone got their own hotel room. When we arrived there the first day we had to put our projects up. When that was done we went outside, got into groups and played a few games. While we played games the judges judged our projects. The next day we stayed in the conference room while the judges came around and judged us. The next day it was an open day and lots of children from other schools came. It was a very fun experience. Laura Lennox made a lot of friends from all-over Africa and she learnt a lot. Girls u/13 Cricket Even though our cricket girls didn t play any matches, twelve of the u/13 girls made it to the final round of trials which was held on the 17 th of October at the Polokwane Cricket Club. There were 25 girls altogether from around Limpopo, proving to the selectors that they were worthy of being in the Limpopo Cricket team. It must have been very difficult for the selectors as they were all very good players. Five girls from PEPPS received their Limpopo Colours, they are: Thabi Mothapo, Kelebogile Ramasodi, Manopo Sekhitla, Kay-Lee Jacobs and Manoke Marolane. They will be representing Limpopo at the Cricket Tournament in Pretoria from the 7 th of December till the 11 th of December. We would like to wish them all the best for the tournament. Limpopo Cricket match against the Northern Titans The u/13 Limpopo Cricket Team played against the Northern Titans on Saturday the 3 rd of November at Capricorn High School. This was the first time they played or even trained together as a team, since the final selection. They did not win their match but there were no push over either for the other team. Keep it up girls, we are very proud of you. Swimming Chocolate Gala Our Annual Chocolate Swimming Gala was held at PEPPS on the 11 th of October. We had 25m races for intermediate swimmers and 50m races for advanced swimmers. The fact that many of the swimmers came to the training swimming camp in the second week of the holidays, was evident by the amount of records that were broken at the Chocolate Gala. We are so proud of all the swimmers, whether you swam 25m or 50m, you are all winners. Clans Swimming Gala PEPPS hosted the Clans Swimming Gala this year that was held on the 18 th of October. We participated against PEMPS and Mitchell House. There was lots of excitement on that day as all the advanced swimmers participated, from u/8 to u/14 swimmers all swam 50m races. Last year, Mitchell House beat us by far, but this year we surprised them all by beating them. We are very proud of each and every one of our swimmers. We are looking forward to next year s Clans Swimming Gala. Christmas boxes Thank you to the two hundred and eighty children and parents who were so generous in their donations towards our Christmas boxes. We were able to fill forty boxes to the brim. A special word of thanks to the parents of Grade 1 N and Grade R where every child made a donation. Top Ten Gala On the 3 rd of November we had our Top Ten Gala which was hosted by all the Independent Schools. The Top Ten Gala consists of the top ten schools in Limpopo that participate in this gala. Thirteen of our swimmers made the Top Ten Independent Swimming Team and participated in 38 events, they brought in loads of medals. The swimmers were: Euan van Whye, Abigail van Niekerk, Jessica Dos Ramso (who couldn t make it), Matthew van Niekerk, Tawanda Gopo, Dylan Catto, Laura Lennox, Kamalan Naidoo, Christopher de Jager, Dawit Negussie, Kay-Lee Jacobs, Lidia Bezuneh, Chantell Fritz and the reserves were: Trent Bannell and Beniam Negussie. We would also like to thank Mrs Werner for helping to hand out the medals on this day and Mr Loots for helping the P.A. ladies with the pancakes. Thank you once again to all our swimmers and their parents for supporting us on this day. Keep it up PEPPS swimmers, you made us proud.
Camp Discovery On the 12 th of October, Mr Loots, all of the grade 6 s and myself (Ms Stemmett) set off bright and early to Camp Discovery. Our trip started with a HOOHAH shouting competition at Steers. When we arrived at Camp Discovery, the weather was miserable and rainy. The rainy weather led to some learners running to take cover from the rain. This is what led to the first of many injuries, as Venicio cut his head open and had to be taken to hospital. We were blessed to have really fantastic camp leaders, leaders who shared the word of God, who encouraged the learners and who made us laugh. Luckily the weather improved as we learnt how to shoot a bow and arrow, the learners learnt how to handle different kinds of situations and some even learnt how to drive (push karts, that is!). The learners had tons of fun completing obstacles courses and dancing to the latest musical hits at dinner time. Many animals were spotted and a Kudu bull even chased one of our learners. The highlight of the trip was when all of the learners had to completely cover themselves, from head to toe, in MUD! Music Evening 1 st of November All 27 music pupils performed at our music evening, playing the recorder or piano. Many parents attended the event they were very proud of their children. Even though the performers were nervous, they enjoyed themselves. The last item on the programme, which was the grade 5 music pupils dancing the can-can and playing the xylophone, rhythm sticks, tambourine and jembe drums, was enjoyed very much. I must congratulate the music pupils on a successful evening and good progress in their skills. Clans Choir 7 th of November The junior and senior choirs both took part in the Clans Choir Event, at PCS. PCS hosted the event. The theme was musicals and all the choirs enjoyed themselves while using colour, accessories like umbrellas, hats and dancers to entertain the parents and other guests, including members of our staff. The choir members were spoilt with cupcakes and juice. The guests had a lovely tea before the programme started. Our children looked very impressive with their white shirts and red bow ties. Art Exhibition On the evening of the last day of school this year, I was privileged to co-host the PEPPS Preparatory School first ever art exhibition with Ms Catherine Willetts. The evening was so successful and we were overwhelmed and thankful for the support of the parents. The Grade 7 prefects of 2012 were on top form and spent the evening serving the guests with snacks while the young artists stood ready to chat with the prospective buyers and to answer any questions regarding the art, even the newspaper folk were there to take photos and enjoy the evening! We look forward to making this an annual event and aim to have even more art on display next year and for a longer period. I am so excited to see what all our talented students will create for us next year! Kind regards Mrs J. Werner Head Preparatory School