15/02/2012
Dear Parents, Staff and Boys
22 FEBRUARY – ASH WEDNESDAY – THE BEGINNING OF LENT
Wednesday, 22 February is Ash Wednesday which marks the beginning of the Season of Lent. It is a season of penance, reflection, and fasting which prepares us for Christ's Resurrection on Easter Sunday.
According to the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus spent forty days fasting in the desert before the beginning of his public ministry, during which he endured temptation by Satan. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of this forty day liturgical period of prayer and fasting.
Ash Wednesday derives its name from the practice of placing ashes on the foreheads of adherents as a sign of mourning and repentance to God and to humble our hearts and remind us that life passes away on Earth.
The ashes are made from the blessed palms used in the Palm Sunday celebration of the previous year. The ashes are christened with Holy Water and are scented by exposure to incense. While the ashes symbolize penance and contrition, they are also a reminder that God is gracious and merciful to those who call on Him with repentant hearts. His Divine mercy is of utmost importance during the season of Lent, and the Church calls on us to seek that mercy during the entire Lenten season with reflection, prayer and penance.
http://www.catholic.org/clife/lent/ashwed.php
THE WEEK AHEAD
| Today, Friday |
17 February |
Day 1 of auditions for the school play
Kids Lit Quiz at De La Salle in Victory Park
Inter-Catholic gala at St David's |
| Saturday |
18 February |
Art meeting at St Benedict's
Cricket matches as advised |
| Monday |
20 February |
Day 2 of auditions for the school play.
Chess vs St Peter's @ home |
| Tuesday |
21 February |
Shrove Tuesday
Day 3 of auditions for the school play |
| Wednesday |
22 February |
ASH WEDNESDAY
Mass at 10:30 in the College Hall. All welcome. |
| Thursday |
23 February |
School closes at 12:00 for HALF TERM |
| Friday |
24 February |
HALF TERM |
| Monday |
27 February |
HALF TERM |
| Tuesday |
28 February |
Staff spiritual retreat - no school for boys |
| Wednesday |
29 February |
Term I recommences |
| Thursday |
01 March |
Opening of Prep Rugby Festival |
| Friday |
02 March |
Prep Rugby Festival |
| Saturday |
03 March |
Prep Rugby Festival |
SHROVE TUESDAY
The Prep school will celebrate Shrove Tuesday on 21 February by enjoying pancakes. Please note that all pancakes have been pre-ordered and prepared by the Grade 7’s. Thanks and appreciation are extended to the Grade 7 parents for organising this for the Prep School boys.
ASH WEDNESDAY
As we commence the season of Lent, the ASH Wednesday Mass will be held at 10:30 in the College hall. As always, parents are most welcome to join us.
THURSDAY, 23 FEBRUARY
Please note that school closes at 12:00 on Thursday, 23 February for half term. Please note that there are no afternoon activities on this day.
MID TERM REPORTS
Prep school boys will receive a mid term report on Thursday. The purpose of this report is to provide parents with information as to how their son is settling into his new grade. There are no marks on this report. We trust that it will provide parents with useful information. Please feel free to contact your son’s class teacher if you require further information or clarity.
HALF TERM
A reminder that although half term ends on Monday, 27 February, the staff will be on retreat on Tuesday, 28 February.
There will be no school for boys on Tuesday, 28 February.
ADVANCE SPORTS NOTICES
Inter- house swimming gala
The Prep School inter-house gala will take place in the indoor pool at St Benedict’s on 7 March.
The gala commences at 10:10 and will be completed by around 12:30. The school day will end at 13:00 as usual.
Inter-house athletics meeting
The Prep School’s inter house athletics meeting takes place at Germiston Stadium on 8 March. Although house teams will be selected, all boys will participate and score points for their respective house. We request that parents kindly drop off and collect their boys from the stadium on this day.
Full details of both events will be provided in the newsletter on 2 March.
PREP RUGBY FESTIVAL 1-3 MARCH
The St Benedict’s U/13 Rugby Festival is a premier annual St Benedict’s community event which was established and ran for the first time in March 2006 with the attendance of four Primary School Rugby sides. The 2012 U/13 rugby festival will be attended by six Schools from other provinces in South Africa, 2 teams from St Benedict’s Preparatory School, 2 Golden Lions invitational teams and 14 local Schools. We are very proud to have such an immense line up of top traditional and powerhouse rugby schools attending this year’s Rugby Festival. We are very excited and are looking forward to witness a very high standard of Prep Schoolboy rugby. This year we will be welcoming a number of new comers to our festival, namely, Laerskool Helderkruin and Laerskool Generaal De La Rey both from the Roodepoort area, Leeuwenhof our neighbour rugby School from Bedfordview and Laerskool Lichtenburg from the North West province. Special mention and thanks are due to the sponsors of our event. In particular, we want to extend a very big thank you to KIA Motors who have been proud main sponsors of the Rugby Festival since 2011. We are privileged to have the KIA association and to be part of their vision of supporting School boy rugby. The Rugby Festival has also proudly been supported by Insurance Zone and Advance since 2011, we salute your support!This festival will be the culmination of tremendous work and support from parents and staff who have worked tirelessly to prepare for the hosting of an event of this size. A sincere thank you, one and all and especially to Mr Badenhorst the Chairman of the organising committee, for all your hard work and time dedicated to the Festival. Your added efforts are certainly greatly appreciated. It is always a proud moment for St Benedict’s Preparatory School to host this festival and to be associated with wonderful Schools, the relationships with whom we value. Ultimately rugby is part of the process of teaching boys to be men of courage and integrity and to be willing to have the confidence to take risks in a responsible way.
OUTREACH
ORPHANAGE CLOTHES COLLECTION
We would like to thank everyone for their kind donations to our clothes drive for the boys orphanage. We received a generous amount of clothes which we are sure will make a significant difference in these children's lives.
CHOC
Thank you for supporting this worthy cause by wearing red and civvies on Valentine's Day. An amount R5 855 was raised by the Prep School.
LENTEN APPEAL : PURPLE PROMISE RIBBONS
The outreach boys will be selling Purple Promise Ribbons for lent. These ribbons are a daily reminder of our Lenten promises and may be worn on your blazers. They are available from each class teacher for a minimum donation of R2 and will be available from Ash Wednesday. All proceeds will go towards the Bishops' Lenten Appeal.
LITTLE EDEN FETE - LITTLE ITALY
Little Eden in Edenvale is one of St Benedict's long standing outreach projects. Annually they have a wonderful fete, which this year is to be held on SATURDAY 3 MARCH. The St Benedict's community assists by running the cake stall. Please could you help by donating a cake which can be dropped off at reception on Friday 2nd March. Alternatively a monetary donation can be left at reception clearly marked : LITTLE EDEN CAKE STALL - ATTENTION: MRS MOWATT.
THANK YOU TO THE GRADE 3'S OF 2011
This week we were able to present a large donation of stationery, books, games and other necessities to the Sacred Heart Centre in Dikatole. The Centre provides daily homework supervision and meals for over 100 children from the informal settlement and through this support programme a marked improvement in school achivement has been realised. We would like to express our thanks for the Grade 3 boys and parents of 2011 who made this generous donation possible through various fundraising initiatives which have not only enhanced our own school facilities but also provided support for outreach projects.
SECURITY AT ST BENEDICT'S
We are still awaiting the delivery of security stickers for parents. Once these have arrived, each family at the school will be issued with two 24-7 Security Entrance Tickets : one for mom's and one for dad's car. Parents are requested to display these tickets on their car's windscreen (left-hand side) to gain easy, unrestricted access to the school grounds. Once all boys have been issued with these tickets, drivers of cars which do not display the appropriate sticker will be required to sign in at the gate to gain access to the campus.
A REASSURANCE FROM MR OOSTHUYSEN - College Executive Head
In the wake of a query he received from a mom recently who is receiving unsolicited emails, he would like to re-assure all parents that it is not school policy to distribute parents contact information - particularly email addresses - to anyone. St Benedict's treats such information with the utmost confidentiality - as he suspects the vast majority of St Benedict's parents would expect us to do. If you as a parent do have access - for whatever reason - to a contact list of St Benedict's parents, please be very circumspect in terms of who you choose to share such information with.
CONGRATULATIONS
To BENJAMIN CLEMINSON (Grade 6V) who competed in his 2nd Midmar Mile dam swim on Sunday 12th February. Well done Benjamin.
DEAN ROAD GATE
Please note that the Dean Road Gate is strictly for staff and the pedestrian gate is only for Aftercare collections. Please do not try and enter these gates to collect your son after a sport practice. Please use the main entrance and the parking lot adjacent to the gym.
BADEN POWELL DAY
Lord Robert Baden Powell was the founder of the Boy Scout movement over 100 years ago. Since then, tens of thousands of boys have benefitted from his philosophy, the development of leaders by leading. Each year, this worldwide movement celebrates BP day on 22 February. As such, all Cubs and Scouts, regardless of their troop affiliation may wear their uniforms to school on Wednesday 22 February. We wish all Cubs and Scouts a good day and a rewarding year of scouting ahead.
LOST AND FOUND
A St Benedict's lunch bag has been lost. Unfortunately it has no name marked on it. Please hand it in to Mrs Schnelle if you find it.
A pair of reading glasses with a gold frame have been found. Please see Mrs Stoltz if you have misplaced your glasses.
OBAMI.
Obami is a social networking site that has been developed specifically for schools. Not only does Obami provide a web and mobile based platform for learners, teachers and parents to keep up to date with what's going on in and around school, it also supports e-learning through its comprehensive Virtual Learning Environment (facilitating resource sharing, discussion and assessment). We would like you to feel confident in your child(ren) using the system, as it has been developed as a safe environment for them to interact with each other and the adults in their lives. This is made possible through:
- controlled access for registered schools only.
- profanity filters
- random content moderation
- offensive content reporting
- alerts sent to parents when children are befriended by users beyond the St Benedict's network (if parents are part of the community).
- guaranteed privacy of personal data.
The Grade 6's are going to be registered on the system and experiment using the various features of OBAMI during some of the computer lessons. We urge you to visit www.obami.com and "Take the Tour" to get a better understanding of what the system can do. Please also feel free to email Dr Sanders (sandersd@stbenedicts.co.za) if you have any queries or concerns regarding this system.
MERITS OF THE WEEK
| Grade 4S |
LESEDI SIBANDA |
For excellent manners, good behaviour and conscientious work. |
| Grade 4M |
JACQUES THERON |
For being a super student. He does his best ALL the time! |
| Grade 4C |
LUCA COUTINHO |
For working so diligently and for having such lovely manners. |
| Grade 4L |
DONOVAN JARMIN |
For excellent work and lovely manners. A true blue Bennies boy! |
| Grade 5K |
ISHAAN CHHATWAI |
For a super Maths cycle test result and for super effort in class. |
| Grade 5W |
NAZIM KARAN |
For settling in so well and for excellent work in English. |
| Grade 5G |
FAUSTINO AMOS |
For having lovely manners. |
| Bissict |
MIGUEL REBELO |
For diligent work and a super Maths cycle test result. Well done Migue! |
| Grade 5Z |
ANTHONY KHOURY |
For an excellent Maths cycle test result. Well done! |
| Grade 6V |
MATTEO SCOGNAMIGLIO |
For having a good sense of humour and behaving much better! |
| Grade 6M |
LUKE MURPHY |
For settling into St Benedict's so well! |
| Grade 6E |
ALESSIO MORSON |
For being such a kind friend to Matthew Pistorius. |
| Grade 6S |
THOMAS HUANG |
For an excellent Maths Cycle test result. Well done! |
| Grade 7P |
DYLAN THOMPSON |
For working so hard and being a true Bennies boy! |
| Grade 7M |
GARETH DAVIDSON |
For his hard work and diligent work ethic. |
| Grade 7R |
JONATHAN TING CHONG |
For excellence on the sports field and in the class room. |
| Grade 7E |
CHRISTOPHER DE PONTE |
For an excellent improvement in his organisation. |
SPORTS NEWSLETTER
Newsletter 18 - 23 February 2012.pdf
Please note that there will not be a newsletter next week. We wish all boys and their families a happy and safe half term
With best wishes
G Edwards
Headmaster
