WYNBERG GIRLS’ HIGH SCHOOL

NEWSLETTER Also available on our website : www.wynghs.co.za

AUGUST 2012

AMY BIEHL YOUTH SPIRIT AWARD

It was with a sense of dejavu that the Wynberg contingent listened to the words: ”. .and the Winner of the Amy Biehl Youth Spirit Award is.....” Except this time the winner was Kiara Ramklass! When Kiara, one of six finalists, was asked to tell the audience a little about the work that she has done, she spoke about Marimba Jam and her reasons forstarting it. Kiara firstly founded the Marimba Society at WGHS which embraces all who want to play, especially those who are not a member of one of the ‘official’ bands. Then shereached out to students outside WGHS, teaching them to play Marimbas, and organising a Benefit Concert to provide them with a platform to perform on. All of

The funds raised by the concert will be used to buy Marimbas for the project.

In the true spirit of Service, Kiara has always operated out of the limelight. It is fitting, then, that she has received this wonderful award and the recognition she deserves.

the organisation of the workshops, was done by Kiara.

Kiara Ramklass with Meghan Daniels

HELEN SLATER IN THE NATIONAL YOUTH ORCHESTRA

Huge congratulations to Helen Slater who has been selected for the South African National Youth Orchestra.

The significance of this is that out of all of the young musicians (between the ages of 14 and 30) in the whole of South Africa who auditioned for a place, Helen was selected for one of the two positions available as Clarinet player. In addition to this, Helen has just been awarded a distinction in her Grade Eight Music Exam.

Dear Parents

We have recently announced the new school leaders for 2013. Congratulations to those girls who will serve the school in the various portfolios during the next twelve months.

However, as we celebrate with these girls, we are keenly aware of those who are disappointed and we know there are more leaders than have been recognized. Although we have a leadership system with a large number of leaders, it still does not allow every Wynberg girl to wear one of those badges. We also know that some of these young women will go on to be great leaders of society, proving that having a badge or position is not the way to greatness in the long journey of life after school ends.

Robert Kiyosake said: The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire; the size of your dream; and how you handle disappointment along the way.

The manifestos of our Grade 11's highlighted so many exciting ideas to take our school forward. All the aspiring leaders spent some time as part of a learner leadership group tackling a project which could have long-term benefits for the school. Some of these projects can be accomplished by the recently appointed leaders. However, some of the fantastic ideas do not fit into the "box" of a more rigid portfolio. We hope that those girls who have worked on these projects will take the opportunity to lead and continue with these projects, perfect them, bring them to fruition and show the special leadership talent they have in that particular field.

To the recently appointed leaders, we wish you a wonderful year as we watch your projects grow in the various houses and pillars. We are equally excited to watch many other ideas become part of the Wynberg way of life next year.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in you sails. Explore. Dream. Discover"

Good luck to all our Grade 11's as they take us into the new year of the history of Wynberg Girls' High School.

RegardsShirley Harding

The Wynberg Girls' High School 2013 leaders were annouced on Friday 24 August. A formal induction of these new leaders will take place later this term.

WGHS LEADERS 2013

Head of School: Lauren GildenhuysHead of Academic Pillar: Kate Bell

Head of Cultural Pillar: Kelly-Beth OliphantHead of Service Pillar: Laeeqa Allie

Head of Sports Pillar: Chelsea Lassen

APSLEY

SILVERLEA

WATERLOO

WELLESLEY

CAVANAGH

CONSTANTIA

COPENHAGEN

KIRSTEN

Head of Apsley House: Aqeelah IdasMatric Leaders: Demi Hermanus, Alexandra Kausch, Carly Roberts,

Lizelle Ervens

Head of Cavanagh House: Carly KatzefMatric Leaders: Taahira Abrahams,

Sharna Alexander, Lorin Fagan, Kerri Young

Head of Constantia: Eden LyonsMatric Leaders: Samantha de Jager,

Andra Hoole, Zoe Woodman, Zahra Dollie

Head of Copenhagen: Carryn PeregrinoMatric Leaders: Chante Beck, Donne

Daniels, Gabrielle Jacobs, Lauren Turner

Head of Kirsten: Sarah MeshamMatric Leaders: Emma Blencowe, Stephanie Edge, Kristen van Beek,

Kim Cornelius

Head of Silverlea: Catherine-Jane PaulseMatric Leaders: Ayesha Arend, Jasmine Claase,

Monique Ewen, Natalie van der Merwe

Head of Waterloo: Kelly PhiriMatric Leaders: Tiffany Hager, Alaisha Naidu, Juanita Nunes, Lindsay Powell

Head of Wellesley: Claudia HarrisonMatric Leaders: Rugaya Gabier, Jana

Nefdt, Zinzi Simayile, Amber Williams

Grade 8: Christine Abrahamse, Chelsea Manoek, Lara PollecuttGrade 9: Tamsyn Gaynor , Gabriella Schiava, Nabeelah ValleyGrade 10: Christin Sands, Kate Shaw, Tegan Welz (Gov Body Rep)Grade 11: Ayesha Arend (Gov Body Rep), Ferial Fortune (Chair), Kristen van Beek (Vice-chair)

(secretary)

2013 REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL of LEARNERS

Tarryn Petersen, Nabeelah Valley, Mr A Hunter, Delia Ruthford-Jones, Zaayan Stegmann

ESKOM ENTREPRENEUR AWARD WINNERS

A team of four Wynberg girls - Tarryn Petersen, Nabeelah Valley and Zayaan Stegmann - entered the Eskom Simama Ranta (empowering the SA economy) Entrepreneurship competition. It is adjudicated by “a panel representing the Department of Education, the private sector and experts in entrepreneurship education. These schools operate in different regions, have differing socio-economic backgrounds and an assortment of grade levels.” A delighted school heard that Wynberg has been chosen as the top school in the Western Cape and will represent the province in the National Finals in Johannesburg in September where they will be part of the “Business Opportunities and Franchise Expo.” The team has won R10 000 to put towards the small businesses they have started. We are immensely proud of them.

Delia Rutherfoord-Jones,

SCIENCE EXPO

The Each contestant was interviewed by three different judges and had no idea when their interviews would take place or who would be judging them. The WGHS learners did very well: Anjali Kooverjee received a special award in the Senior Engineering category, and both Sarah Curry and Lindsay Powell received bronze medals for their individual projects –“MagnetoReception” and “Water Purification at Intaka Island” respectively. Very well done, girls!

Eskom Science Expo was held at the Good Hope Centre on 22 August.

ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE AWARD

Lauren Mitchell, Carla Stokes, Elsa Nel, Lindsay Powell (Bronze medal winner), Michelle Lee, Sarah Curry (Bronze medal winner), Storm Homan, Azrah Ismail & Anjali Kooverjee (Special Award winner).

INTERACT INDUCTION HARMONY GOLD SA MATHS OLYMPIAD

called to the stage to receive the shield for Wynberg. Congratulations Wynberg!

Wynberg congratulates Khadija Brey, Grade 12, who has qualified for the final round of the Harmony Gold SA Maths Olympiad. Get-ting this far is no easy feat as only 100 participants are admit-ted to the prestigious

final round. Khadija has performed very well to get to this level of competition and we wish her well for the final round.

We were delighted that Wynberg girls were again winners in the recent Royal Society of SA National School Science Essay Competition. The Trophy was awarded to Wynberg and prizes to Katrina Lehmann-Grube and Tarryn Beattie for their imaginative and carefully-researched essays. Katrina won 1st prize (R2000) in her category with her essay about turning the tide against tuberculosis (TB) in South Africa, and Tarryn won a Merit Prize (R250) with her essay on fracking in the Karoo. Professor E.D. Sturrock, Professor of Medical Biochemistry, Institute of Infectious Disease & Molecular Medicine at UCT, presented the trophy to the school and prizes to Tarryn and Katrina during school assembly. We are extremely proud of Tarryn and Katrina!

Prof. Sturrock, Tarryn, Katrina & Mrs Harding

On 21 August, Wynberg Boys' hosted the Interact Induction for the schools which fall under the Wynberg Rotaract District. Eight schools are included in this district, all of which introduced their new committees. It was announced that Lisa Abrahams will be sponsored by Wynberg Rotaract to go on RYLA, a leadership camp taking place in September. The highlight of the evening was the announcement of the 2011/2012 Interact Shield winner - the school deemed to be the greatest asset in this Wynberg Rotaract District. There was much celebration when Jade Marx, outgoing President of WGHS Interact, was

On 7 August, the Grade 11 Life Sciences girls visited the Two Oceans Aquarium. There we learned about some of the animals & fish in the aquarium, including starfish, sea urchins and anemones. After that we walked around the aquarium, finding answers to the questions on our worksheet, taking in the beauty and variety in each tank, and abusing the free photo-graph machine! The Aquarium is always an adventure, no matter how old who are and a wonderful day was had by all!

The Wynberg Boys' and Girls' High major production closed to rave reviews and received a richly deserved standing ovation at the end of their last performance. Huge congratulations to Keenan Oliphant, Kathryn Luyt, Daphne Jubber and Justin Wardle who have worked tirelessly on the production for nine months. Congratulations to all involved.

The Ubuntu Society was invited to participate in the WBHS 'Vuca Sizwe' evening: a 'celebration of our Nation' in music, words and dance. The line-up organised by Boys' High was very impressive: with a personal message from Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, a welcome in Xhosa by Mr Richardson, addresses by Curriculum Advisor, Mrs Nosisa Beyile, and a keynote address by Dr Mamphela Ramphele. Participating schools included Christel House, Rhenish, Springfield, Rustenburg, Bishops, the Wynberg Boys' African Society and our Ubuntu Society.

LIFE SCIENCES OUTING HOW TO SUCCEED AT BUSINESSWITHOUT REALLY TRYING!

Georgia Bailey, Kelly-Beth Oliphant & Anna Jacobs

UBUNTU PERFORMS AT WBHS CULTURAL EVENING

MATRICS CELEBRATE 30 DAYS!

Rachel Hurry

On 22 August, the 2012 Matrics had only 30 days of school . They celebrated this milestone in style by dressing up

in all sorts of crazy outfits. A song and dance routine before roll call, tulle skirts, black refuse bags, devil horns and

fairy wings at first break, pizzas and enormous gatsbys during second break. Sadly, the bell at the end of break

left

signalled a return to normality.

The countdown continues until the informal assembly, where

the Matrics will have their

last chance to dress up and

party!

VOCAL ENSEMBLE

Congratulations to our Vocal Ensemble, which excelled on Friday 3 August by scoring 94% & 96% (average 95%) for their performance at the Tygerberg International Eisteddfod. They competed against 5 other vocal groups in that section, some of them amongst the very best - which puts out Vocal Ensemble right up there as well!

When we started handing over the jerseys and beanies to community organisations,

jerseys and 2200 beanies had been knitted! We extend huge thanks to everyone at

2950 WOOL FOR WONDERS

Wynberg - girls, teachers, mums, grannies - and to all of the general public who read about our challenge and arrived at school

with bags and bags of jerseys! We hope everyone keeps knitting during the warmer months, as we intend repeating this

challenge next year. Some of the organisations which received jerseys were: Mater Domini, Friends of Red Cross, St Anne’s

Home, Izandla Zethembe, the Mowbray Maternity Hospital and Nazareth House.

GRADE 8's MAKE MOVIES

board describing thethe action is made.Then sets are construct-ed and peopled, oftenin very ingenious ways! Then it’s camera time, and painstakingly props are photographed, moved, photographed,until the story is filmedframe by frame.Lastly, all the photos are put together, in sequence to make a movie![Some of SA’s futurefilm-makers - current Grade 8's - can be seen on the left.]

WALT WHITMAN EXCHANGE

“I never thought I’d be given the opportunity of experiencing school in another country. I leave at the beginning of October to spend two months at the Walt Whitman High School, in the

Anjali and Mrs Freed, Head of History

USA. I want to learn as much as I can and make the aboslute most out of this amazing opportunity. Thank you, Mrs Freed and Wynberg for your support and for making this exchange possible.” Anjali Kooverjee

The Grade 8's and 9's have been learning to make ‘stop-motion’ animation movies during their computer lessons. First, a story-

GOEMA GETS WYNBERG’S FEET TAPPINGGoema music is ‘Proudly South African’ in every sense of the word and mexperience a presentation of Goema music from a group which offers their knowledge and experiences with this music. The presentation was started with Calum asking us what the words on our country’s Coat of Arms mean. They are in Khoi San and the answer is: Diverse People Unite. And that is the essence of Goema music. It is contemporary and composed of many different styles of music including Jazz, Pop, Rock, Classical, Latin and Gospel, and is typically sung in Kaaps, Afrikaans or English. What makes it so unmistakable is the Goema Drum which is made with a wine cask and goat or ox skin, and is traced back to the time

usic students from Grades 10–12 were privileged to

Goema performers, Music students & teachers

The Grade 12 Consumer Studies students did their final practical exams this term. Their exam comprised of three tests, one of which they drew on the day of the exam. The tests included Vanilla Cupcakes, with butter cream icing, or white chocolate icing or sour cream icing and either cherry galettes, pithiviers or frangipane tarts. The dishes were not only beautiful to look at, they were delicious too. Well done, girls!

CONSUMER STUDIES PRAC EXAM

MSA IFTAAR

The MSA hosted their annual Iftaar programme on Tuesday 14 August. Since August is Women's month, our guest speaker, Mrs Bagus-du Toit, Principal of Darun-Naim, focused on women's values. Without doubt, though, the highlight of the evening was the attention given to our guests, the children from Beitun–Nur, who received clothes, toiletry packs and snacks from the Wynberg MSA. The third best thing about the evening was the delicious food supplied in abundance! The evening was a great success - thoroughly enjoyed by all.

when slave trading was common in the Cape and India. Today we have Goema choirs, bands and orchestras that perform regularly. As it forms part of the music syllabus, it was wonderful to experience Goema music and musicians in this way. Many thanks to them for enriching our musical experience.

On the 25 August, 23 Interactors participated in the ‘Stop Hunger Now’ packathon, which was held at Herschel Girls' School. We were able to be a part of the packathon because of our successful civvies day, where we raised double the target amount. Although it was a lot of work and instructions were quite specific, our girls found a way of bringing in the spirit and have a lot fun. The afternoon was a quite enjoyable and highly successful, as we finished two hours earlier than expected!

STOP THE HUNGER NOW

DEBATING

The Senior Debating Team participated in the quarter finals of the Rotary Inter-school Debating Competition on Monday 6 August. It was an impromptu debate and the “toss” determined that we had to propose the motion: “This house regrets The Spear” – very topical! It was a top-quality debate but unfortunately Wynberg lost to Westerford. They should be congratulated on getting this far in the tournament.

Earlier this term, while the senior debating team was at Bishops taking part in the debating provincial competition which determines which students should go on to further provincial trials. This experience provided us with new skills and debating tactics and the opportunity to get to know several other schools and to unify the debaters as a team.

others were relaxing over the long weekend,

Lisa Abrahams, Melandri Naidoo, Thaakiyah Wentzel–Ryklief and Natashia Young during

their break between debates.

Kristen van Beek, Fatima Conrad & Saleehah Domingo working with a

smile!

MATRIC MUSIC CONCERT

Following the Wynberg tradition, the matric music students performed their exam pieces in their final concert at school, on Tuesday night. Their formal dance dresses added to the splendour of the evening, as their beautiful music held the audience spellbound!

The U19 PGSGU Interschools' Netball Tournament was moved

to Herschel's sports centre when poor weather forced the

tournament indoors. Unfortunately this meant that the U14

and the U16 tournaments had to be cancelled.

Wynberg vs Springfield: 2nd Team:The Wynberg /Springfield squash match that took place on 24 August was a great challenge. The first to play was Robynne Samuels who, despite losing lost her match 3-0, played very well – especially in the last game. Alex Steyn also lost her match 3-1 but showed the kind of spirit one takes for granted at Wynberg. Her encouragement and vocal support for Wynberg became our inspiration as she cheered all of us on. Kayleigh played her very first match for Wynberg and won 3-1. She has an incredible back hand and was able to get to every ball – no matter how difficult. In the last game, Amy Peacock lost 3-0, but also put up a good fight. Despite our loss to Springfield, it was a lovely afternoon and everybody enjoyed the matches and the good spirit.

SPORTS’ RESULTS CATCH-UP

Wynberg vs Fairburn: 1st Team:Zeleah de Sousa won 3-1, Carly Katzef won 3-1, Demi Steenkamp lost 3-2 and Lizl Everts won 3-0. Wynberg beat Fairburn 3-1.

NETBALL HOCKEY

SQUASH

CROSS-COUNTRY

The PGSGU Interschools' Cross Country race was hosted by St

Cyprians and run in De Waal Park on Friday 24 August.

Congratulations to our two brilliant young cross-country runners, Lauren Jonathan (right) and Kirsten Roodman (left), who were both selected for the WP and Western Cape cross- country teams.

On Saturday 25 August, Wynberg played St Cyprians at Hartleyvale. Fortunately, the rain stayed away for the duration of the match but the teams still played in chilly conditions. St Cyprians certainly came out with guns blazing and were determined to give Wynberg a run for their money. Although Wynberg dominated the first half - possession and territory - they failed to convert any chances they had at scoring. Then, shortly before half time, St Cyprians' went on the attack, caught Wynberg's defence napping, and scored their first goal. Score at half time 1-0 to St Cyprians. A stern talking to from coach, Ryan Pillay, seemed to do the trick but St Cyprians, perhaps with a point to prove, scored again. Score at this point 2-0 to St Cyprians. 5 minutes before the end of the match, Wynberg scored a great penalty corner goal and then, quick thinking and a beautiful pass up to Micaela Diedericks in the dying seconds of the game had the spectators on their feet. One on one with the goalkeeper, Micaela drew her out of the box, sidestepped her and rolled the ball across the goal line. The final whistle blew shortly after that - score 2-2! A great performance from St Cyprians and an even better comeback by

U14 runners: Annika Wium, Jamie Southgate, Joanne Currie, Kirsten Roodman, Kathryn Ross.

Kate Bell, nna Jacobs,

Berzilee Pipes, A

Wynberg vs Rustenburg: 1st Team:On Friday 24th August, Wynberg played Rustenburg. As we had two courts, the games finished considerably quickly. Although both players were strong, our number 1, Lizl Everts, beat her opponent 3-0 in a very quick game. Carly Katzef, number 3, lost her match 3-0 in three very close games. Number 4, Zeleah De Sousa won the first game easily but lost the next 3: 1-3 down. Number 2, Demi Steenkamp played yet another close match. After being 2-1 up in games, Demi eventually won the final game 15-13, winning the match. However, the point difference resulted in Rustenburg winning overall.

BADMINTON

The Badminton team suffered their first defeat this term, against Fairmont High School. Our three singles players were defeated 21-7, 21-17 and 22-20, and the doubles lost 21-13. Better luck next time, girls.

The results were that WGHS was placed 5th overall. Kirsten Roodman 1st in the U14 age group and Lauren Jonathan 3rd in the U15 age group. Well done, girls!

Back: Olivia Adams, Anelisa May, Natalie Zeelie, Caitlin Coetzee, Micheala Clifford, Landela Goxo

Front: Anita Myeki, Anna Jacobs, Bevlyn Velensky, Taylor Chick, Shavonna Sadie