We say goodbye and thank you to some members of the Senior School staff who have served Springfield well.

With the Grade 8 - 11 yearend assessments having wrapped up, a very challenging academic year is coming to an end at Springfield and indeed, at schools around the country. The final reports for the year are due to be released via the parent portal on Ed-admin on Friday, so I thought it might be useful to share some insights into the calculations of the marks, which have been regulated by the Department of Education in an amended format for this year.

In Grades 8 and 9, the school-based assessment completed during the year counts for 80% of the final result, with the year-end assessments counting 20% of the mark. In Grades 10 and 11, the ratio is 60% for the school-based assessment and 40% for the year-end assessments. As you can see, there is less of an emphasis in the weighting on what would traditionally have been called examinations in a normal school year, with a greater emphasis on the learning completed during the year.

Pupils who have been absent for valid reasons will have had marks estimated according to the school policy we have in place for instances like these. A class average is not used; rather, the estimate is based on the work actually completed by the pupils themselves during the year

Tomorrow, we will hold the formal promotion and progression meetings to discuss the pupils’ movement into their next grades, as well as the support they might need in 2021 to achieve their level best after the very welcome rest this December holiday promises.

The Grade 12s remain on campus to complete their exams through 15 December. We wish them every success over their final papers.

See you all next year, and may this festive season be a blessed one for you all!

DAVID FICK

Head of Academics

Grade 9

On Wednesday and Thursday last week, Grade 9's enjoyed an English Department outing to Simonstown, based on their setwork "The Girl from Simon's Bay". The novel is set in Simonstown and tells the story of a young coloured woman and her struggles to find love and advance her career as a nurse, against the background of World War 2, Apartheid and the forced removals in Simonstown.

The girls were given a guided tour of the Simonstown Naval Base Museum, where they were able to see the impact of war on Simonstown, climb inside a replica submarine and see models of many of the ships described in the novel. According to many of the girls, their most memorable experience was of "the bomb room" where the sounds of being shelled are replicated with terrifying accuracy.

The girls were also very blessed to have a guided tour of Almay House (bulit in 1858). Almay House (also called the Simonstown Heritage Museum) was the family home of Mrs Davidson (nee Almay), who was born in the house. She was married here and spent the first few years of her married life in the house, before her husband and whole family were forcibly removed. Mr Davidson interrupted his 88th birthday celebrations to talk to the girls about his experiences of growing up in Simonstown during the war and then Apartheid and the forced removals of the 1950s. According to the girls, Mr Davidson't talk was "very moving" and “the Amlay House talk was emotive and eye opening. It was a huge privilege to listen to first-hand stories from someone who experienced the events they described." Mr Kahn also told the girls a great deal about Simonstown's history, and the history of Apartheid.

The girls then met in St Francis of Assissi church (the oldest Anglican church in South Africa) where Reverend Rodney Uren and members of the Church Council told them about the history of the church and explained the origin of the beautiful stained glass windows, installed in memory of the 10 000 people (out of a population of only 12 000) that were forcibly removed from Simonstown. Reverend Uren also prayed with them for the victims of the removals, of GBV and those who have fallen ill or died during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We rounded the outing off with a brisk walk to a gelato ice-cream shop and Watersedge and Seaforth beaches, where many of the girls swam and paddled. The girls said that they had enjoyed a perfect mixture of "fun and learning interesting stuff".

English Department

English Alive is a National publication that receives thousands of entries and selects very few, so to be published is a huge achievement - and it is not the first time for Claire, as her work was also published last year.

YET AGAIN

there’s a whisper

as the blade hits its new victim

perpetuating our patriarchal system

slicing away something deemed unnatural

but seen on men is completely rational

men should be men

and women, girls yet again

there’s a murmur

as hot wax rips out robust hair

leaving behind something all too bare

wincing at the pain it inflicts

but ignoring the women it restricts

all to ensure our femininity is kept in check

only if society knew its effect

men should be men

and women, girls yet again

there’s a voice

as legs untouched peak out

waiting without a doubt

for judgement

shame

scrutiny

knowing their ignorance will hit brutally

because hair is not beauty

rather removal is my duty

and somehow femininity is tied to hairlessness

all due to society’s stupidity, even carelessness

men should be men

and women, girls yet again

there’s a shout

as overgrown underarms

sound society’s alarms

because somehow body hair has grown into an identifier

as if I owed a clarifier

but my hair isn’t reflective of class or gender

and I won’t stop until they surrender

because this hairless ideal

is completely unreal

calling for women to conceal

what was theirs to reveal

hair needs to be normalised

and society r e o r g a n i s e d

a new form of education

to lead to the creation

of women’s emancipation

that cries for our liberation

and as I begin to stray

from the things of yesterday

they continue to say

men should be men

and women, girls yet again

now there’s a scream

then another

and another

many more yet to uncover

it echoes in my head

and like fire, it spreads

they shriek

men should be men

and women,

girls yet again

Claire Campbell

Grade 11

Mikaela Hughes (Grade 12) has also written a piece "Self Love" to be published in next year's edition of English Alive. Congratulations, girls!

Self Love

When the self-help guru on Instagram

posts a story about self-love

and puts a diet on the next slide -

I have to laugh.

Because her very existence is a contradiction.

But then again,

I frequently find myself commuting

between the island of self-love

and the pits of self destruction –

never quite reaching the destination

because I exist in the in between.

Always ready to validate another’s body

but never ready to validate my own –

because the idea

of accepting the earth of my body

means accepting all her seven wonders

but also

her faults.

It means recognizing the scars

and knowing that they can form valleys

that can give life to others

as long as I continue

to nourish and grow.

When I was eight years old,

that was the first time I learnt

that bodies had price tags.

Sitting in the playground

comparing the size of our wrists –

saying that smaller meant that

you would actually get kissed

Someday.

That life is just one big rat race

where we’re constantly scrambling on

trying to fit in

trying to be thin

trying to match the Miss South Africa size model on the runway

as though our bodies

weren’t designed for

food.

We live in a world of shrinking women –

told to speak out

but to stay small.

Because what good is an angry woman if she isn’t good to look at?

Why is it

That the only people whose stories hold any weight

Are the same ones

Who weigh nothing?

It’s learnt behaviour.

Hereditary,

like how our mothers were told to slim down

to fit inside

their wedding gown –

they give us a smaller plate.

How am I meant to love

the expanse of this body

when every blemish, every cut, every scar,

every ounce of cellulite

that clings onto my body

I have been programmed to hate

since I first left my mother’s womb.

The internet taught me

my first words

that

Ladies don’t eat a lot.

No one

will love you if you’re unattractive

so please

don’t finish your plate.

Mikaela Hughes

Grade 12

It seems like yesterday that I arrived at Springfield filled with excitement and high hopes for 2020 Sport! Sadly, our sport was hit hard by COVID19 and the year has been disappointing, to say the least. But whilst it has been a most difficult year for sport, it has also brought to the fore the fact that our girls need the outlet of sport for social connections as much as for their physical and general well-being. To a team player, not being part of a team for a whole season has created a vacuum that has been hard to fill. The fact that so many of our students have told me how much they have really missed their sport and their team has been heart-breaking. Hopefully, next year will be kinder to Springfield sport and we will be able to launch with alacrity in January 2021. A huge thank you to those of our girls who signed up for term four, 2020 Sport. They were really quite keen beans and it has been wonderful to watch their improvement, especially in Diving and Indoor Hockey.

Sign up forms for Sport 2021 have been sent out to all of our learners. We need to plan in advance in order to assess numbers so that we can be sure to engage the services of sufficient coaches to ensure that everyone who signs up can participate. The deadline for signups is 7th December 2020.

Wishing all of our girls a holiday filled with fun and physical activity. I hope that you return to Springfield next year physically and emotionally stronger and ready to embrace your Sport in 2021.

Please see below the letter that went out to our community recently. We would really appreciate your assistance.

COLLEEN REED

Head of Sport