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Updates from the Principal
06 December 2021 - Weekly Update from the Principal
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Campus News
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Senior Primary Recognition Ceremony
Friday morning saw our 2021 Senior Primary Recognition Ceremony take place. This year’s event required significant adaptation, at short notice, in order to ensure that all boys were able to be a part of the event, even if they were needing to isolate.
Our Grade 7 Class of 2021 lived up to their reputation of excellence and presented accounts of their memories gathered over their time in the Preparatory School.
The 2021 Recognition Ceremony will be remembered for the feelings of pride that rippled through our school and further afield. – Mr Brett Sliedrecht (Head of Senior Primary)
New Scrummies Playground
As I am writing this, there is much activity and digging in an additional playground space right in front of Scrummies. Very soon we will be opening and using this new area, where every bit of equipment has a developmental purpose. Our playscape brings back natural elements for our lads, reminiscent of the “wild” areas that children used to explore. Boulders and rocks, tree trunks and logs for climbing and balancing, interesting tunnels, hills to climb and roll down, a windmill for some heavy work and a little waterway, and lots and lots of sand to play in. There are some other amazing features – but – I don’t want to give it all away. I would much rather invite you to come visit us, to see and experience it for yourself!
We are so grateful to be part of a College that leads the way and has every child’s needs at the centre of its existence. We are popping with excitement to let our boys loose in this amazing facility – let the adventure begin! – Mrs Liesl Meter (Head of Pre-Primary)
Click here to read the full article on our blog!
Grade 0 "Night of the Stars"
The learning and development that happens during the sixth year of a child’s life is humbling. To teach a group of Grade 0 boys is therefore extremely rewarding and exhilarating. The boys of Grade 0 2021 are a passionate group of livewires with inquisitive minds. They have embraced whatever has come their way and made the most of it. It has been a crazy year filled with potential obstacles like Covid and unrest, but our boys never faltered. They worked hard, played hard and genuinely seized every moment.
We felt that the boys deserved to be recognised for being such shining stars, with a special evening to celebrate each one of them. We are fortunate to have a beautiful playground at Scrummies, which lends itself to magical outdoor events and we had a lot of fun planning this evening.
The red carpet was rolled out for our lads, as they arrived in their finest outfits for their “awards ceremony”. Our parent community supported the theme by dressing up and looking amazing! Camera flashes were working overtime as each proud boy had a turn to walk up the carpet and receive his certificate on stage. (A few shirt buttons possibly popped off some of the dads’ shirts as they watched their sons with pride!)
We were blessed to have this beautiful balmy evening on which to recognise our young lads as they get ready to tackle the next school which forms part of St Charles College – Our Junior Primary. – Mrs Liesl Meter (Head of Pre-Primary)
Saints Sport Support
As we reach the end of 2021, there is much to celebrate. Yes, celebrate and to be thankful for. We as St Charles College have been privileged to share in many outstanding achievements in the Sports Arena. Despite the many challenges we have faced, today we can celebrate that our boys have excelled in various sporting codes.
A total of thirty-one of our boys achieved provincial colours in the various sporting codes, with the majority representing St Charles College on the Rugby and Cricket field, Hockey astro and the Basketball court. Nkosinathi Dlamini is currently representing the South Africa Junior basketball team and we will all remember how Matthew Sates debuted at the Olympic Games and broke record after record in the pool at this year’s World Cup events.
Four of our recent Matric boys have signed provincial contracts at various rugby unions, others are pursuing their rugby dreams at universities in South Africa, whilst some make use of our world-renowned Cambridge education they received, to continue their sporting journey at the University of British Columbia, London Irish RC and another finds himself on a pathway to success in Sydney, Australia.
The most recent success was the announcement of the Zimbabwe U19 Team who will participate in the U19 Cricket World Cup – Saints Grade 10 pupil Panashe Taruvinga, still 15 years old, is heading to the international showpiece in the West Indies next month.
Our sporting teams continuously enjoy top rankings in the province and the country, and we are truly blessed with wonderful facilities, as well as highly capable and motivated sports specialists and coaches, working with all our boys.
All the above is possible because of the dedication of our boys, coaches and the continued support we enjoy from our Saints families. We honour and thank our Old Boys, Friends of the College and all the community members, it is because of your incredible support that our boys can confidentially continue to follow their sporting dreams at St Charles College and beyond. – Mr Divan van Wyk (Sports Marketing and Recruitment)
A special word of thanks and gratitude to the following families and companies.
CRICKET: Brendon and Ninette Raw, Timber Solutions
HOCKEY: Grant and Brigitte Jacobs, HelloChoice
BASKETBALL: The Schwulst Family, Tyre Magic
RUGBY: Sean and Louise Scott, Ryan Bruwer, Georgie’s Pork
WATER POLO: The Hess Family
WINTER SPORTS PROGRAMME: ER Browne
There are a number of incredibly exciting projects in the pipeline at Saints, if you’d like to find out more as to how to get involved in our sports programme, please contact Divan van Wyk at school or via email at sportsmarketing@scc.co.za.
Basketball News
Nkosinathi Dlamini, our outgoing basketball captain, has been flying the flag for Saints and South Africa this week in the Youth Games. We congratulate him and look forward to following the next steps of his career. – Mr Rowan Irons (Director of Sport)
Cricket News
We congratulate Panashe Taruvinga, who has just completed Grade 10 and following excellent performances during term 4 and at the final national trials, he has been selected for the Zimbabwe U19 cricket team.
Panashe, still only 15 years of age, will fly the Saints and Zimbabwe flag at the U19 Cricket World Cup which is due to be hosted in the West Indies at the beginning of 2022. This achievement means that Saints will have representation at the junior Cricket World Cup for the fourth consecutive occasion – a remarkable achievement! We wish Panashe all the best as he prepares for the international showpiece. – Mr Rowan Irons (Director of Sport)
Grade 6 Open Weekend
This year saw another amazing team effort both welcome and host the much anticipated and highly enjoyable Grade 6 Open Weekend 2021.
Although in the grips of the Covid 4th wave, some ninety keen and very energetic Grade 6 boys enjoyed a jam-packed schedule on the SCC campus for a busy, yet meaningful, twenty-four hour experience for those considering St Charles College for Grade 8 in 2023.
Young men from far and wide got to experience science experiments, our music department, menti-maths and even paper-folding with our principal. The weekend concluded with a series of skills-based activities on our main rugby field hosted by our sports department. Our staff play an invaluable part in the weekend offering up their time and departmental expertise.
At the commencement of the weekend, I had requested a number of objectives, and touching base with our amazing school and its incredible staff certainly ranked very highly however from the many smiling faces I saw depart on the Saturday, I knew another key objective had also been met.
Incredible people and timing are the secret to this successful event. I extend my sincere thanks to the Grade 11 Prefects and Campus Staff who so willingly assisted in this event. From Boarding to Academics, Culture to the Sports fields, our visitors were royally entertained and should have been thoroughly impressed with our facilities, hospitality and calibre of staff. – Mr Dean Riley (Marketing Manager)
Saints Prep Cricket Wrap Up
On Thursday morning all our boys from Grade 2 to Grade 7 gathered in morning line up to close off the cricket season by recognising and celebrating excellent individual performances, showing gratitude to all the staff and coaches for their hard work throughout the season, bidding farewell to our current Grade 7s who have continued the very proud cricket tradition here at SCC and welcoming the Grade 2s who will now play hard ball cricket in the new year. - Mr Gregg Cole-Edwardes (Head of Prep Sport)
We congratulate the following for performances:
Rory Woodroffe: 101 runs
Thandanani Zuma: 6-16
Matthew Hardman 5-15
Prep School Ironman Challenge
There is a famous quote, “A triathlon does not build character, it reveals it”. This week our SCC Prep boys revealed who they really are – determined, courageous, respectful, humble and young men who put the side before self.
We all witnessed incredible individual acts as boys overcame their fears, pushed themselves past their limits and some even got a well-deserved personal best time. We also witnessed many emotional acts of friendship and brotherhood as our boys encouraged, supported and gave up their own individual goals to help others in need.
Congratulations to all our Ironmen for a spectacular week of Triathlons on campus. – Mr Gregg Cole-Edwardes (Head of Prep Sport)
We congratulate the following boys on being the 2021 Ironman Champions:
Juniors: Arno Crafford (Grade 5)
Seniors: Nicholas Deysel (Grade 6)
3D Printing
I am pleased to say that our Technology Department has purchased their first three, 3D Flashforge, Adventurer 3, 3D printers. Combined with Solid Works, which is our design CAD program, we will be encouraging our pupils to become a lot more creative and inventive.
That which they now design or create on paper or on Solid Works, they will be able to make real with the 3D printer.
We encourage all boys to get involved. This includes non-technology pupils and staff. Come visit our department and demonstrate your creative side.
I believe that this new technology should attract quite a bit of positive attention. – Mr Ben Bosch
KZN Midlands Youth Choir
We would like to congratulate one of our Senior choir members, Jonathan Inglis (Grade 11), on being selected as one of the head choristers for the KZN Midlands Youth Choir for 2022.
This year will be Jonathan’s second year in the Youth Choir. Congratulations, Jonathan! – Ms Kristen Wepener
