25 March 2010
Dear Parents
The end of term for some is the beginning of another kind of adventure for others. On Friday a large group of DSG girls and SAC boys will leave for New York on a Drama / Dance Cultural tour. We wish them and Mr Bauke Snyman, Ms Sheena Stannard and Ms Hermien Potgieter a happy and memorable trip. Our Hockey and Netball girls are already in Gauteng. The First Netball team, with coach Ms Melissa Duiker, and manager, Sr. Mary Kruiskamp, is playing in the St Andrews tournament, and our First Hockey girls have back-to-back tournaments. Firstly they play at St Mary’s and then they have a short break before competing in the St Stithian’s Easter tournament. They are coached and managed by Mr David Wright and Ms Pamela Bowren. I wish our sportswomen a good start to the winter season and happy, successful tournaments.
I haven’t yet had the opportunity to welcome new staff into our community. Two young men have joined us on a part time basis to teach movement and drama to Grade Eights and Nines in the Arts and Culture period. They are Mr Richard Antrobus and Mr Kyle de Boer. It does wonders for us having them in our almost all female, middle-aged staff common room! Mrs Julie Beer has returned to us after a year’s break from teaching French. She replaces Mrs Elyssoun Ross. Welcome also to Mr Gareth Walwyn (Music), Ms Pamela Bowren (Sport), Dr Petra Gentz (Life Sciences) and Ms Ntando Mlilo (Housemistress – Espin Annex). Next term Mrs Jane Jarvis will start as Educational Psychologist, a shared position with St Andrew’s College. We look forward to welcoming her.
The year started with another big intake of Grade eights (66 in all). I am aware that there is much speculation, rumour and comment out there about DSG’s expansion plans and that we are becoming overcrowded, and I’d like to try and allay some of those fears. The DSG Council does have a development plan in place with the aim of optimizing what we have. Subject to being able to fundraise and afford it, our intention is to build an educationally modern, up-to-date junior school and accompanying boarding facility on the corner of South and Worcester Streets. The size of the school will not change and it will remain a Grade Four to Grade Seven School. Their facilities have been inadequate and over-crowded for some time and we wish to resolve that issue.
A new junior school will free up vital classroom space and create the opportunity of a fourth house in the senior school. The senior school has 317 pupils and we would like to grow to 350. This is still very much a small school. The idea is to use the fourth house not only for some new girls, but also to reduce the sizes of the other houses over time as they are, in some instances, overcrowded. Ideally we would like to have four houses of 70 girls with 70 daygirls. Next term some council members and I will hold a series of information evenings in Grahamstown, Cape Town and Johannesburg where we will introduce our proposed plans to you.
On that note, it gives me great pleasure to welcome Dr Di Wilmot as the new Chairman of our Council. Di is an educator at heart and I congratulate her on her recent appointment as Dean of Education at Rhodes University. Mr Gavin Harvey is our new Vice Chairman and I congratulate him also. Our Council members work long hours behind the scenes ensuring that DSG is sustainable and is strategically modern and forward-looking. They are also an incredible support to me. The members of Council are: Dr Di Wilmot (Chair), Mr Gavin Harvey (Vice Chair), Mrs Charlotte Lane (Treasurer), Mrs Hilary Saunders, Mr Colin Meyer, Adv. Ben Ford, Bishop Ebeneezer, Mr Richard Glennie, Mrs Linda Walker, Mrs Sue Robertson, Mrs Andrea Rutherford, Mr Andy Leith and Mrs Sandy Hird. Sandy Hird has kindly taken on the fundraising portfolio, so please contact her or me with any ideas of raising the money for our development plans.
We have had a phenomenal summer sports season and I will attach to this newsletter a summary of the highlights in each sport. Mr David Wright is an incredible Director of Sport and his attention to every miniscule detail of each sport from packed lunches, to drivers, to chaperones, umpires and accommodation is what puts sport at DSG on such a strong footing. He seldom has a day off during term time and never has a full holiday. I thank him on behalf of all our sportswomen.
The swimming season has been the best ever and I salute Mr Tudor Lacey on our successes there. It is heartwarming to see a man so passionate about our swimming that he literally weeps at our successes! Well done to him and to all our swimmers, especially Robyn Charter, Erin Graham and Nicky Smith who have had wonderful successes at the SA and inter-provincial championships.
DSG is also on the map in Rowing and we won six medals at the recent SA Championships in Roodepoort. Congratulations to medal winners: Penny Vorster, Jenna Scheepers, Kayleigh Scheepers, Jenienne Curr, Liz Abel and Liz Vorster. Congratulations also to Don and Alex Chek who coach them.
In Athletics special mention must be made of Amy Tearle and Mary-Ann Brown who, under the coaching of Ms Melissa Duiker, won medals at the SA Championships.
Although Waterpolo has had mixed successes this season we still have a number of provincial representations there with Rebecca Dakin and Maysoon Matthysen having been selected for the U19A Border team.
Brittany McCreath, Melissa Thompson and Nicole Ware have played in Squash tournaments around the country and have gained national rankings.
Lastly, our Tennis girls have had a full season and have more than held their own. Kate Ruck is the Albany U19 Singles Champion and she and her sister, Angela Ruck, are the Doubles Champions. Jenna Whyte, Savannah Varty and Sarah Blunden are also championship winners. A more comprehensive summary of all these achievements is attached at the end of this newsletter.
Drama, Music and Dance have also been very busy. Two nights ago the Drama hosted their Greek Tragedies performed by the Grade Tens. The standard was high and the atmosphere exceptionally light for tragedies with much laughter as part of the evening! The Junior House Plays were a wonderful surprise to the teachers in their originality, depth and standard of acting. Congratulations to the Grade Eleven directors on the high standards they reached there. Well done to Merriman who was awarded Best Play and to Emma Dreyer who won Best Actress.
The Music Department has hosted senior and junior concerts as well as a St Patrick’s Day Concert where they presented an evening of mostly Irish music. They are working towards a possible overseas choir tour in 2011 and so there is much to work for.
The Dance Studio is always full and busy with the dancers hard at work. This term boys and girls auditioned for a joint school dance production which will be presented next term. They are already practising long hours and I have no doubt that this will be one worth penciling into your diary. The dates of I Love(d) you / Orpheus are Thursday 27 May to Saturday29 May.
There has been considerable comment and many meetings held over the quality of the water in Grahamstown and just a while back there was an ecoli scare. DSGhas a bacteria filter system in its kitchen and every day the drinking water tanks in the Houses, Gym, dining hall, dance studio, etc, are filled up from there. This holiday we will install a more complex reverse osmosis system which will also remove the high metal content from the water. Although scientists are not in agreement on the danger of these metals, we have decided to err on the side of caution and so this complex filtration system is being installed.
A happy announcement is that Birch’s have managed to send all the winter brown pants back because of their poor cut. A new cut / style has been ordered. I suspect that girls who remember the old days where they could wear any brown pants they chose will still rather be cold. We have reached a compromise, however, and I hope the girls will be sensible. I have also been offered the possibility of mohair blankets to be designed in a green, brown and white check. These will be very warm and will be useful for supporters at Hockey and Rugby matches in the cold winter air. They will be made to order and the girls will be asked to place orders at the start of next term. A small knee rug will be about R200 and the larger ones are about R450.
Some reports have been fed back to me commenting on day girl behaviour, particularly at night and over the weekends. Please remind your girls of the legal age for drinking. From my side, I will not allow boarders to go to day girl homes of the girls whose names I have heard associated with under-aged drinking parties. I know most parents will support me in this endeavour to keep our girls safe.
Sadly, I also have to report that, as a result of an incident involving dagga, three girls have had to leave the school and another three have been given a final warning and a one month suspension. I remain determined to do all I can to keep DSG a drug free zone and I will not tolerate any substances on this campus.
It goes without saying that the primary focus is always on Academic work. This term our girls participated in an English Olympiad, a Maths Olympiad, the scholarship exams were written and the Matrics faced their first round of exams. Please take time to read through your daughter’s report and comments. You are welcome to contact your child’s tutor, the Head of Academics, Mrs Melanie Webb, or me if you have any concerns in this regard. At the end of Term 2b there will be exams and those together with other forms of continuous assessment will give us a far clearer picture of how each pupil is faring academically.
In closing, I wish you and your families a blessed Easter and a safe and happy time together over this holiday period.
Yours faithfully
Shelley Frayne
Headmistress
Summary of Term One Sports Highlights
Athletics:
Girls took part in Albany, Cacadu and EP Rounds
Albany Champs
Sam MacDonald: 4th in 100m, Amy Tearle: 1st in 100m and 200m, Cara Brown: 1st in 100m and 200m, Mary-Ann Brown: 1st in 800m and 2nd 1500m, Thobeka Mdlokovana: 4th in 400m, Jessie Barkas: 3rd in 100m and 200m, Tasneem Jacobs: 4th in 800m
Cacadu Championships
Mary Ann Brown – 1st in 800m, Amy Tearle – 2nd in long jump and 1st in High Jump
EP Championships
Amy Tearle qualified for nationals (high jump 1.55m) – new school record
Mary-Ann Brown won the 800m
Rowing:
Boat Race – 4th
Eastern Cape Championships
U14 Quad – 3rd (their first race ever)
U14 Single – Lisa-Mae Strydom and Erryn Green 2nd
U15 Quad – 2nd
U15A and B Double –1st and 2nd (winners -Roanna Yakas and Georgie Edwards)
U15 Skull – Jenna Scheepers 1st
U16 Skull – Kayleigh Scheepers 1st
2nd Skull – Liz Vorster 1st
1st Skull – Jenienne Curr 1st
1st Quad –1st
DSG won 11 gold medals in total
Buffalo Regatta
Selborne Sprints Buffalo Regatta
1st Quad 2nd 2nd
1st Double (Janine/Kayleigh) 2nd 2nd
1st Skull (Janine Curr) 1st 1st
U16A Skull (Kayleigh) 1st 2nd
U15A Skull (Jenna Scheepers) 1st 1st
U15A Double 1st 1st
SA Championships
Event Rowers Position
U15 Double (A) Penny Vorster
Jenna Scheepers 1st
U15 Skull Jenna Scheepers 1st
U16 Skull Kayleigh Scheepers 1st
U19 Skull Jenienne Curr 1st
U19 Double Jenienne Curr
Kayleigh Scheepers 1st
1st Quad (Main Race) Liz Abel (Cox)
Jenienne Curr
Kayleigh Scheepers
Liz Vorster
Jenna Scheepers 2nd (to St Marys)
Swimming
Inter-provincial –
Robyn Charter (3x 1st), Erin Graham (7th) and Nicky Smith (2x 4th)
Inter-house Gala
Merriman won a tight event
12 Individual Records and 6 relay records
River mile (Bushmans River)
Senior winners: Robyn Charter, Vicky Dreyer, Nicky Smith
Junior winners: Kenyan Smith, Nicola Wilson, Erin Graham
SA Championships – Robyn Charter swam for EP - won 50m Free, 100m Free and 2nd in 50m Back
Waterpolo
Border 2010
U19A team - Rebecca Dakin and Maysoon Matthysen
U16 Squad
Christina Georgowlakis - Caitlin Dugmore, Lisa Woker, Kenyan Smith, Nicola Wilson, Libby Meyer, Caitlin Dugmore, Tayla Thompson, Nicky Smith
U14 Squad - Robyn Anderson, Lisa Frew, Tasneem Jacobs, Jade Pinkney
Alexandra Road High School – Festival
1st Team won 5, lost 3 and drew 2
U16 won all but 1
U14 Reddam Tournament – Cape Town
Placed 3rd out of 6 (were 6th in 2009)
Squash
Dave Hodgson Squash Tournament – placed 3rd
Brittany McCreath (12), Melissa Thompson (16) and Nicole Ware (24) – National Rankings
Tennis
Queenstown – won both U15 and Open
Albany Tennis Championships
U18 Singles: Kate Ruck
U18 Doubles: Angela Ruck
U16 Singles: Jenna Whyte
U16 Singles (Runner-up): Savannah Varty
U16 Doubles: Savannah Varty and Sarah Blunden
U14 Doubles (Runner-up) Megan Viljoen (DSG) and Kyla Purdon (PAHS)
Independent Schools Tennis (Cape Town)
Placed 5th out of 8
Basketball Tour
The U16A Basketball team - Wynberg Invitational Tournament.
Emphatic wins against Settlers High School, Herschel High School, and Herzlia High School. Lost a very closely contested game against Pinelands to end up in second place in the tournament.
Kelly Long represents South Africa 10th May 2012
Kelly Long represented South Africa at the 5th International Sustainable World Project Olympiad in the USA
