Thursday, January 22, 2009

CBHS Focus on 3 Big Ideas - Jan '09

We are focusing on three big ideas for this year:

1. Camps Bay really goes GREEN
We will be investigating ways of raising our environmental awareness. This will be more than just recycling. In all our subjects we will be creating material that focuses on these issues. A start will be the Grade 8 EMS pupils who will sell organic food at the Westerford Derby Day in March.

2. Proudly Camps Bay
The Prefects and RCL will continue to grow the ideas around what it means to be ‘Proudly Camps Bay’. This will include War Cries and organizing supporters for our different sporting and cultural events.

3. Measuring how well we are actually doing
We may have this feeling that we are doing very well as a school, but we don’t really know how well in areas other than academic, where we can look at the marks. We are going to find ways to measure how well we are doing in other areas, like growing the moral values of our pupils, improving our pupils health and increasing pupil involvement in the extra-mural programme to mention a few.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

CBHS Commencing Newsletter 1 - Jan '09

Welcome back to the start of a new school year. We are excited about the school programme that stretches out for 2009. Your children have been allocated to most of their classes and work has begun. There are skills they need to master and content they need to understand and remember in all their subjects and learning areas. On this mighty task we have made a start. Pupils will be getting homework from today.

MATRIC RESULTS 2008
We had 79 Matrics who wrote the final exam. Of these 78 passed and one failed due to failing Afrikaans. Of the 78 who passed 82% qualified to go to University. We had 19 pupils who achieved above 70%, and 3 with As. I am extremely happy with the performance of the Matrics. We had 11 Maths pupils who got A’s, and more than half the Drama class got an A and most subjects had a number of As. Well done to all our Matrics, their hard work has been rewarded.

NEW TEACHERS
We welcome 4 new teachers this year. Mrs Hotchkiss (Maths), Ms Herbert (Life Orientation), Ms Kawalsky (Drama) and Ms Ahrens (English). We are very fortunate to have the services of a wonderful group of teachers. There are 40 teachers, 37 full-time and 3 part-time. Our enrolment for 2009 is 559 pupils, 60 up on last year. This gives us an average class size of 14. However, I only teach one class, the counselors have non-teaching periods for one on one counseling. The Deputy Principal has a period set aside for administration and each teacher has non teaching periods for preparation, so in reality our class sizes are an average of 25 pupils per class.

MR COLLIER'S FAREWELLWe will be saying farewell to Mr Collier on Friday 23rd January 2009. We will start in Assembly on Friday where the pupils will have an opportunity to bid him farewell and also for Mr Collier to address the school. In the late afternoon (5 – 7 pm), the staff and parents will have a function also to say goodbye and thank you. If you still want to attend, please RSVP to Vivienne Ashcroft at the school (021-438-1507).

Mr Collier has been the Deputy Principal at Camps Bay High since 2001. During this time he has established himself as a master teacher of History. Among History teachers in the Province he is widely respected as a recognized leader. During his time at our school, Mr Collier has been Head of Discipline and Academics. He has always performed any task to his personal high standards, giving it a touch of class and professionalism. Mr Collier was a strong leader on the staff, always ready to step in when needed. He enjoyed the respect and affection of colleagues and pupils alike. We are really going to miss him. However, since he has moved to run the Primary School, we feel he hasn’t really left us. Our best wishes and warmest regards go with him on his new venture.

WALKWAY TO VICTORIA ROAD
We are extremely grateful to the City of Cape Town for upgrading the bottom ‘stop and drop’ parking area in front of the school. They have tastefully fenced the area and laid a formal path from the school down to the bus stop in Victoria Road. They have cleared the bushes, picked up the litter and opened up the area. This will help our pupils be safe as they walk down this path with excellent visibility. A special thanks to Mrs Harvey (Governor) and Bernard Shafer (Past pupil) who each played a vital part in securing the funding from the Council for this project. However, the biggest thanks must go to the council for seeing this as a priority in the area and doing such a great job.

KEEPING THE SCHOOL DRIVEWAY OPEN FOR PUPILS
We will again be asking parents to respect our wish to keep the driveway open for half-an-hour before and half-an-hour after school. At this time our children are walking in this area, and it is unsafe if parents drive through at this time. Please drop and meet your children at the two parking areas we have above and below the school. Thank you for your help in this regard. We expect the prefects to enforce this in the mornings at the motor gate.

VALENTINES BALL
The Valentine’s Ball will be held on 14th February 2009 in the school hall. Please watch this space for further details.

GRADE 8 CAMP
All our Grade 8s will be going to Hermanus on 30th January (Friday) to Sunday 1st February 2009.

My staff and I are excited about the year that lies ahead. My hope is that your child enthusiastically embraces the adventure we are on in 2009.

Yours sincerely

DAVID DE KORTE
PRINCIPAL


ADVERTISEMENTS

CLOTHING SHOP
Please note the new times for the Clothing Shop:
Monday: 13h00 – 17h30 (1pm – 5:30pm)
Tuesday to Friday: 12h00 to 15h30 (12 – 3:30pm)

WALMER ESTATE LIFT CLUB
Looking for a lift to school and back. Please contact Zainub Sydney on 084-585-6926 or 021-448-2523

EXTRA SCIENCE LESSONS
Please contact Karen Judge on 021-438-1611 or 082-468-6044

MATHS TUTORING
Please phone Garth on 021-790-2310 or 084-624-9803