Dear Parents                                                                                                                                                                               

Once again the school has been a hive of activity. So many families shared the joy of a wonderful carnival on Friday afternoon/evening.  An enormous thank you needs to go to each and every parent that assisted at this event. We send a special Thank you to our amazing PA with Nida Hendrickse at the helm, who, with her team,  worked tirelessly to make this event as outstanding as it was.  We have facilitated many outings for the boys in various grades and thoroughly enjoyed celebrating Founders Day on Friday, when we could dig deeper into the history of this wonderful school. Our boys in Grade 1 and 2 are well into the rehearsals for our upcoming production of Aladdin.

I have included a little extract from an very interesting article written by Jill Ceder, a psychotherapist titled How (and why) to teach kids to have more grit. This section I thought was really  applicable to our little people, so I hope you find it interesting:    Let Your Kid Get Frustrated. Parents hate to see their kids struggle, but taking risks and struggling is an important way for children to learn. When your child is dealing with a skill, activity, or sport that is difficult to master, resist the urge to jump in and save them and do not allow them to quit at the first sign of discomfort. Pay attention to your own levels of anxiety. Don't be afraid of your child's feelings of sadness or frustration; this is how they develop resilience. When kids never have the ability to succeed at something difficult, they may never develop confidence in their ability to confront challenges. Don't let kids quit just because they are having a bad day. Allowing your child to give up the moment things get frustrating teaches them that struggling isn't part of working hard. And if they give up, they may never get to witness what greatness could have happened had they worked through those struggles. So, should you make your kids follow through on all activities, even the ones they whine and cry about? A compromise might be to try finishing all the activities until the end of the season or session. If your child chooses not to sign up again, allow that. What is important is that they pushed through the discomfort, which is a natural part of the process of learning something new.  Wishing Mrs Wallace a very happy birthday on 16h March.

Kind regards

SHARLENE GROOM
HEAD:PRE-PREP

Outreach - Easter Egg Collection

As Easter approaches, we are excited to continue to support the boys and girls of Athwood Primary and deliver a wonderful gift of chocolate goodies at the end of term! Boys are encouraged to bring a strip or box of marshmallow eggs during these last 3 weeks of term.

DISNEY'S ALADDIN KIDS PRODUCTION 2023 DATES

Kindly note that our school production of “Disney’s Aladdin Kids” has been moved a week later to accommodate activities across the Pre-Prep and College Campuses.  Please note that the performance nights will now be on the 16th , 17th , 18th and 19th of  May 2023.  Tickets will go on sale from the 2nd of May 2023.

The Lord be with you all

This past week it has been so wonderful for us to reflect on one of the most famous bible verses found in the gospel of John 3:16. We were all reminded about the amount of love that God has for us. Following this, I was also reminded about the 14th canticle which is the Song of Love: "Let us love one another because love comes from God". This speaks about the Agape love of God. He loved us so much that He shared his Son with us so that we could experience His divine love. We are to reciprocate this example and share this love with people from all walks of life.

St Paul writes in his letter, there are three things that last forever: faith, hope and love. But love is the greatest of these. So let us love one another with God's endless love.

Amen

In Grade N this week we have been learning about and discovering our oceans. We transformed the house corner into an Aquarium and much fun was had here! We went on a walk to the big Memorial Chapel in preparation for our Family Chapel service on Monday. The boys are looking forward to seeing their parents there if they are able to attend. During our singing lessons with Mrs Swanich, the boys learnt all about rhythmic movements and how to play a drum beat. Well done boys!

In Grade R we have continued to explore our 5 senses with fun activities like building shaving cream towers, making honey toast and learning about musical instruments.  The boys are also enjoying learning about coding and have been participating in a variety of activities based on this concept. Our new playground equipment has been a big hit and hopefully next week there will be fewer rainy days so that we can continue to make good use of it all!

The Grade 2 boys had a fabulous outing to Exotic Animal World (formally known as Butterfly World) on Tuesday. There was great excitement and as we arrived and sat down to have our snack, one of the boys said that it was the best outing he had ever been on. There was more fun to be had as they explored the outside play area. We were treated to an exciting talk and could touch and hold various creatures including hissing cockroaches, snakes, a blue-tongued skink and a tenrec. It has been another busy week preparing for Aladdin and it is exciting to see the boys rehearsing and learning the songs and movements for the play. Some amazing pictures were created in art club with lumo pastels of monsters in the city that glow in the dark.