Senior School
Wednesday 9 June 2021
The Pink Slip
Should pupils have an unavoidable appointment during school hours, kindly notify the school using the Edana App. Click here for the link to the Parent Portal.
Parents are requested to report to the Senior School office and collect their daughter, along with the pink permission/security slip and hand in to the Security Guard on duty on the way out at the Convent Road gate.
No pupil may leave the premises during school hours without this permission/security slip.
Senior School Contact details: Tel: +27 (0)21 797 6169
Social Work Department
Dear Parents
With the World Health Organization and UNICEF putting a spotlight on adolescent mental health, it’s important to strengthen your relationship with your child. As we welcome the holidays I encourage you to use this time to connect with each other. The following are some guidelines on the UNICEF website on how you can approach ‘check-in’ conversations with your teen:
1. Encourage them to share their feelings
Look for ways to check in with your teen. Ask them how their day has been and what they have been doing. It could be by inviting them to join you in a task, such as preparing dinner, so you can use the time to chat about their day.
Remind them that you are there for them, no matter what, and that you want to hear how they are feeling and what they are thinking. A few simple words of encouragement can help them feel comfortable sharing their feelings with you.
It is important to acknowledge and understand emotions they might be experiencing, even if it feels uncomfortable. When they open up to you, you can respond with “I understand”, “it sounds like a difficult situation” or “that makes sense”.
It can be easy to notice the things your teen is doing that you do not like. But also try to notice and praise them for something they are doing well — even something simple like cleaning up after themselves.
2. Take the time to support them
Work together on setting up new routines and achievable daily goals. You could fit in home chores around school work or set a target like getting homework done before dinner.
Adolescence means independence! Try to give your teen the appropriate time and space to be on their own. Needing space is a normal part of growing up.
Find a few ways you can support and encourage your teen to take breaks (from schoolwork, housework, or other activities they may be working on) to do things they enjoy. If your teen feels frustrated, work with themto brainstorm some solutions to problems. Try not to take over and tell them what to do.
3. Work through conflict together
Listen to your teen’s views and try to sort out conflict calmly. Remember: everyone gets stressed!
Never discuss an issue while you are angry. Walk away, take a breath and calm down — you can talk with your teen about it later.
Avoid power struggles. With the world feeling unpredictable and options looking limited right now, teens might be struggling to be in control. As difficult as it can be in the moment, empathize with their desire to assert control in a scary time, rather than attempting to fight back or overpower it.
Be honest and transparent with your teen: you can let them know that you are experiencing extra stress as well. Showing them how you deal with your own difficult feelings can help them know their feelings are okay.
When there is conflict, take some time to reflect on how you and your teen can resolve it. You can discuss these reflections with your teen, so they see how you are processing ideas.
4. Care for yourself
Caregivers have a lot to deal with. You also need care and support for yourself. Showing self-care is also a good way of modelling the practice to your teen.
Don’t wait to ask others for help if you are feeling overwhelmed. It is normal and okay to feel this way. Find a family member or someone you can talk to.
Make time for your own relationships. Try to find a few people that you can share feelings and experiences with. Set aside some time with them each day, to check in on how you are feeling.
Make time in your day to do the things that help you cope with and manage stress. Whether your day is busy or slow, we know that making time to look after yourself is essential for your wellbeing. Doing the things you like or simply taking a few minutes off from your day can help you feel relaxed and re-energized.
Try different positive coping strategies that work for you. Some ideas include: exercising, talking with friends, making to-do lists or planning ahead, maintaining routines and structures, reflecting on what you are grateful for or proud of, and doing things you enjoy like music, art, dancing and keeping a journal.
Best wishes
Hilda Katito
Senior school counselor
Academic News
UCT Maths Competition
This term the prestigious, annual UCT Maths competition was held. Due to the current restrictions it did not take place at UCT as usual but was run at each school. We had 50 participants from Springfield who took part.
With thousands of entries, it is always a great achievement to be ranked and to receive a merit word. The following pupils were ranked in the top 20 of their Grades and received a merit award - Anna Lumby, Seonghyun Heo and Sua Sung. Further merit award were awarded to Kate Ferreira, Sienna Marais, Maryam Abrahams, Georgia Walsh, Jordan Heuvel, Sammy Hughes, Ayesha Allie, Zoe Hugo, Sohyun Lee, Nusayba Mohamed, Sarah-Anne Kleinschmidt, Sophia McLeod, Emma Suter, Alexandra Bouch and Hyeongyeong Son. The Oxford Prize for the best performing pupil at the school went to Sua Sung.
Well done to everyone who took part!
Jessica Ballantyne
SACEE SPELLCHECK 2021
Well done to our Grade 8s who participated in the SACEE Spellcheck Competition on March 17, 2021. The aim of this annual competition is to both widen vocabulary and achieve correct spelling. Thirteen schools from across the province entered with a total of 1785 pupils writing and our Grade 8s can be commended for their results.
Congratulations to those who achieved one error only. Well done to Maxine Boise, Jessica Burrell, Zaynab Ebrahim- Ahmed, Kayla Kessow, Abby Macdonald, Tanyaradzwa Madziwa, Luné Odendaal, Tasmiya Padia, Holly Shepherd, Sadie Strydom, Gemma Willard, Summer Willoughby-Williams and Helena Zartov-Andreasen.
Kate Zimmermann
Special mention must be made of the pupils who achieved 100% accuracy: Isabella Amm, Imaan Cader, Cara Johnston, Erin Johnston, Sienna Lumb, Mazvitaishe Macheke, Khanya Moore, Zoey Thompson and Catherine Von Holdt. Well done!
Debating
Springfield Debating has been going strong this term, with social debating being run ably by Cara Ronan and Kath Ward, and team debating happening every week. The debaters have learned a lot about current affairs, structuring an argument, and how to do public speaking and work in a team. A special well done to the senior and junior teams who have participated in online Rotary Debating this term.
Dominque Ducray
Allan Gray Entrepreneurship Challenge
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Allan Gray Facebook Page
I am so incredibly proud of our 2021 AGEC Brand Ambassador. Well done!
Kirsty Tromp
Sports News
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
Well done to our Springfield Surfing team that has entered into the High School Surfing Competition. They are currently 4th on the leaderboard and we are proud of their enthusiasm and effort.
The Second Term of 2021 commenced with a bang as we launched ourselves fully into Winter Sport. With participation levels at their highest for a number of years, we managed to field 13 Netball Teams, 2 Soccer teams, 7 hockey teams and had a huge number of participants in cross country runs two early mornings per week. Provincial Netball and Hockey trials commenced as did netball, hockey and soccer leagues and it was all systems go! We had hit the ground running and were managing all the additional Covid19 Protocols, hosting a few amazing days of sport as well as being heavily into planning for Herschfield as well as other exciting Derby Days. Our players were motivated and enjoying their sports so much and it was so gratifying to see our learners back to some semblance of normality and participating in sport, getting some much-needed physical exercise, almost-forgotten down time and opportunities for socialising and fun, all within the confines of Covid19 Protocols. I had some very interesting conversations with our players about the fact that spectators were not permitted at matches or practices, with the overwhelming majority of players verbalising their thoughts clearly and with a sense of humour. Whilst they love their parents, sisters, cousins, aunties, grannies and grandpas dearly the majority felt much less pressure to perform and said that they were able to concentrate more on their teams without spectators being present.
The DBE media release that school leagues were suspended was a heavy blow, soon exacerbated by statements issued by various national and provincial sporting bodies that blanket-banned the use of sticks and balls. Whilst our players were shocked and felt demotivated, our coaches managed to pull them back into training and were inventive with drills and games that motivated most of our learners to attend practices. The onset of three weeks of assessments lessened our participation numbers, but there were some extremely keen beans who persevered and attended all the training on offer. If we were able to help some of these individuals through this tough period, we are more than happy.
I would like to thank all of our coaches who, of necessity, were forced to be innovative, creative, enthusiastic and energetic in front of our players, regardless of their own frustrations and disappointment at all the devastation that Covid19, once again, wrought on Sport at Springfield. They did a wonderful job. I would also like to extend a very huge thank you to our teaching staff who so very willingly and extremely ably supported Extra-mural Sport and our coaches this term. Special mention must go to Lushinka Nash (Netball), Ziyaad Ismael (Outdoor Hockey), Geoff Quinn (Cross Country) and Rameez Behardien (Soccer) for their support and efforts.
We are planning for Term Three as if Extra-Mural Sport will continue in all its forms, Covid19 willing. We will continue strictly enforcing all Covid19 Protocols. We hope that all of our players return early in Term 3 to recommence their training.
Colleen Reed
HEAD OF SPORT
SPRINGFIELD SENIOR SCHOOL
