Dear Parents

“From Excellence to Influence”.  This was the topic of the most recent conference that I attended together with about 50 principals from schools nationally. We had been invited by the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation, which annually selects scholars and fellows as bursary holders from their funding.  At this conference we were challenged to run up the “down” escalator and to unlearn ways of teaching and organisation that were no longer relevant to the youth of today. With that in mind, the management team will re-assess the introduction of other subjects for 2013, and realign the criteria for awards and colours in all spheres of school life for 2012. All these matters will be clarified at the beginning of 2012 until which time the status quo remains. The excellence that is being exhibited by the girls in the school is extremely affirming of the hard work by both staff and girls. There have been Ballroom bar tests, a Grade Twelve music concert, model UN debating, the play competition, sports matches, a Derby day with Clarendon, the first cultural exhibition, Eisteddfods and even prefects vs staff netball. What an amazing culture of participation this is. Thank you to all the parents who support these and other events.Finally, we would like to wish the matrics all the best for their trial examinations.

MRS M BAGSHAW
PRINCIPAL

Congratulations to the following girls for being selected to the EP teams: 

Congratulations to our six girls who took on the strong opposition of the Afrikaans schools at the Afrikaans Kunstefees last week.They all performed exceptionally well in the poetry recital section, and we are very proud of them. 

Well done!

Red pencil case with stationery
Hockey socks
PE Technikon silver travel mug
Verbatim blank CD case
Black pencil case (‘kimmidoll’ brand), with stationery
Spec Savers glasses case
School shoes (Size S) and hairbrush
School tracksuit pants (Size XL)
School Rain Jacket (Size M)
New summer uniform gym (Size 15)
White school rain jacket (Size M)
School warm-up top (Size M)
Winter uniform belt
School shoes with tippex on the sole
Casual black waterfall hooded caridgan
(Size L)
School jersey (Size M) 

The winter season has been jam-packed and full of excitement for all at Collegiate. Who can forget our weekend trip to pit our skills against Oranje? What a fun weekend we all had — from the thrill of standing on the Gariep Dam Wall to building the tiniest of little snowmen as well as to playing hard in order to keep the Collegiate flag flying high.
Players, parents, staff and coaches have to be complimented on their commitment and enthusiasm throughout the season. Nothing was ever too difficult for them to tackle and the support, camaraderie and friendliness were constant features of this season. Thank you to all concerned for your positive input.
It is change of season once again and we hope that you will encourage your daughter to participate in at least one summer sport. Our 1st and u/16 water polo teams are already hard at work in preparing themselves for the ever exciting water polo season part of which involves participating in the pre-season winter league at the Newton Park Pool.
NEWS FLASH! If your daughter is involved in any sport not offered at Collegiate please forward any results or achievements to Mrs West at the sports office (e-mail marceillew@cghs.co.za).
Any queries or unresolved sports issues should also be directed to this e-mail address.
We are looking forward to an equally busy and successful summer sports season. Don't forget the sun screen and plenty of fluids!

Next Issue 23 September

On Saturday 20 August Grade Eleven girls, Abi Butcher and Alex Ayerst, represented our school at a model UN debate in Bhisho.  Collegiate sponsored two inexperienced debaters from Sakesizwe Secondary School who then formed the other half of the team.UN debates are very unlike the usual school debates in that they are based on the debates held in parliament.  Our team represented the United Arab Emirates and had to defend the idea of the UN’s role in internet censorship.  The debate took place in the Legislature building in Bhisho, and 28 countries were represented.Alex and Abi acquitted themselves very well and looked and sounded for all the world like real delegates of the UN. It was very exciting when the document put forward by our team was voted in as UN policy!  However, the standard was extremely high, and we did not get as far as the top three.  The adjudicators did say that the debate was extremely close, and I like to think that we were one of the teams that lost out by one point.Well done to our delegates!

Pictured in action are: Alex Ayerst and Abigail Butcher with Sakesizwe learners.

Collegiate has always nurtured creativity and cultural pursuits. However, apart from the music arena, we have not always had the opportunity to celebrate the creativity of the girls and for all to share in it. A desire to do just this sparked the conception of the Cultural Exhibition of art work, creative writing, photography, fashion design and speech and elocution in both English and Afrikaans. This led to the 2011 Cultural Exhibition held in the Ivy Leaf last week. 
The official opening by Mrs Bagshaw took place on the Tuesday evening which saw Grade Twelve Drama pupil, Donna de Jongh, doing a superb job as Master of Ceremonies. The String Quintet comprising Grade Ten to Twelve girls under Mrs Davis’s guidance, established a fitting ambience with their accomplished chamber music, while the Fashion Show involving the Grade Ten to Twelve Consumer Studies girls parading their personally made outfits was arguably the highlight of the evening. Considering many of our girls have enjoyed success in the world of fashion design after having left school, this is certainly an area to be celebrated. The winners of the Charles Kayser and Natalie Stear Speech and Elocution competitions, Amy Annear and Kirsti Limbert respectively, delivered their poetry interpretations and Trudi van Olm and Brittney Butler proved that Afrikaans gedig is alive and well at Collegiate.
The art work bears testimony to the expert teaching of Mrs Rugheimer who has the gift of bringing forth creativity from each girl who pursues Art at school. We look forward to many more inspirational works from the art girls. The photography club has also proved to be an incubator of creative talent and it was indeed a privilege to see the world through the camera lens of these girls. Finally, one was able to mull over poetry and essays produced by girl at the literary society as well as by girls in the English and Xhosa class rooms. 
Congratulations to all the girls and teachers involved. We certainly plan to make this an annual highlight of Collegiate’s  calendar of cultural activities.

On the 15 August four Collegiate thespians, Donna de longh, Amy Annear, Caitlin Wiggill and Hildegarde Malan performed a work-shopped play entitled, "Disturbances of the Feminine Kind" at Pemads Little Theatre for the Alexander Playhouse Provincial Play Festival for High Schools. The play has been selected to compete in the second round of the competition which will take place on 10 and 11 October in East London. The top three plays will perform at a gala evening on 12 October where the best actress will win a R35 000 bursary to study Drama at a university, and the best play will receive R10 000 for their school. Congratulations to our four dedicated and passionate thespians! Collegiate is proud of you! 

We would like to congratulate the first team on their phenomenal performance this season: they remain undefeated in Port Elizabeth, having beaten schools such as Framesby, Pearson, Westering and many more.

A big thank you goes to their coach, Mrs Charmaine Roos, and the first team players who have given up so much of their time and made so much effort with practices and match days. Natalie Collier and Thalitha Tsangela will be sorely missed next year as they are matriculating. We look forward to the next season.

Back row: Jessica Okere, Esona Mangcaka, Caroline Collier, Sinethemba Foley, Zinzi Ntshanyana, Luthokcai Veleko, Ashley Bull, Phaphama Mdodana

Kneeling: Thalitho Tshangela, Natalie Collier, Charis Goosen Coach: Mrs Charmaine Roos

Congratulations to Candice Hobbs and Shannon Stoltz on being selected for the Metro team. This team will compete on Saturday 27 August in Aliwal North at the Eastern Cape trials, We wish them all the best!