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STAFF: AFRIKAANS FIRST ADDISIONELE LANGUAGE (FAL) and HOME LANGUAGE (HL):
The St Andrew’s College and the DSG Afrikaans Department staff:
Back row: André Bouwer, Deon Boshoff, Leon Jacobs, Alistair Ferreira, Gerda Oosthuysen.
Front row: Robyn Bouwer, Christa Snyman, Maretha Potgieter.
· Ms. Maretha Potgieter is the current Head of Afrikaans Home Language and has been teaching since 2002, after lecturing at Rhodes University for a couple of years. She enjoys teaching all texts – both reading and writing – and drama productions. Since 2005 she has lead the editorial team of the school newspaper, the Chiasmus and she is also involved in the Fish River Journey. She recently started a family with the birth of her baby boy, Alexander.
· Ms. Christa Snyman is the Head of Afrikaans First Additional Language. Ms. Snyman studied Drama at US and has been involved in theatre for many years before changing her career to teaching in 2002. She has a passion about anything Afrikaans and puts a lot of effort into lifting the profile of Afrikaans as a subject in both schools. Together with Ms. Potgieter, she organises many of the events listed below. She is committed to keeping on top of the latest curriculum changes and is very proud of the academic standard maintained by the Afrikaans department in the last two years.
· Mr. Leon Jacobs is a former head of department and has been at St. Andrew’s College for most of his teaching career. He is married to Ms. Anna Jacobs, a maths teacher at SAC. He loves poetry in particular, but enjoys teaching all literature. Mr. Jacobs has been very involved in rugby, athletics and the Fish River Journey. He has recently been appointed Transport Manager for SAC/DSG, but still teaches Grade 8 and 9.
· Mr. André Bouwer, also a former head of department, was born in Johannesburg, but nowadays he is an Eastern Caper through and through. He is also a lover of poetry and is very interested in new Afrikaans music. He is married to Ms. Robyn Bouwer and they have three daughters. He is involved in many extra-mural activities, such as the SAC Shack at Klipbaai (near Oyster Bay), and played a huge role in establishing the SAC Weights Room. Mr. Bouwer loves the ocean and especially enjoys rock and surf fishing.
· Ms. Robyn Bouwer has been teaching Afrikaans for twelve years and is also a keen geographer. She adores reading; hence she enjoys teaching literature, but is especially skilled as a second language grammar teacher. Ms. Bouwer is the Grade 9 GET Learning Area coordinator for First Additional Language and has been very involved with curriculum development for this. She is Master in charge of swimming at SAC and enjoys any activity that involves the sea. She has a passion for travelling and her dream is to tour through Africa in a Land Rover.
· Mr. Deon Boshoff is a bilingual Afrikaans speaking, English bred Zimbabwean. He really enjoys teaching short stories and novels, but has a special interest in second language grammar. He was Housemaster of Armstrong House for six years and, as Master in charge of Outdoor Education, heads the team organising the Fish River Journey. He is a keen cyclist and enjoys nature. Apart from all this he is a frustrated artist, designer and traveller (when money allows)!
· Mr. Alistair Ferreira is the newest addition to the Afrikaans Department and joined in 2008. He has 19 years of teaching experience and is originally from Uitenhage. He enjoys teaching a language and specifically prose. He loves taking his learners on a journey of discovery through the written word without physically leaving the class room. Mr. Ferreira is very involved in the life of the school assisting in squash, angling and tutoring in Upper.
· Ms. Gerda Oosthuysen is the DSG member of the Afrikaans Department and joined the staff 5 years ago. She obtained her BA degree (Honours) from US and her teaching diploma from UCT. She loves books, gardening and spending time with her three children.
WHY AFRIKAANS?
One of greatest gifts of our country is that we can learn a second language at school. People fought for it! But how do we decide which one to do?
• Afrikaans is a national language: Afrikaans is a language that is widely spoken in SA. If you can help yourself in Afrikaans, you can be helped everywhere.
• Afrikaans is an International language: Because of its Germanic roots, you can make yourself understood, and understand many European languages, including Dutch / Flemish, German and reading the Scandinavian languages like Danish, Norwegian and Swedish.
• Afrikaans is an academic language
• It’s a technical language
• It is a financial language
• It is an expressive language
• BEST OF ALL: It is the EASIEST language in South Africa
Our Mission:
We are committed:
• To actively promote and enjoy the use of Afrikaans in our school, our province and our country.
• To develop language skills towards spontaneous and effective communication in a variety of areas – be it through speaking, listening, reading and / or writing.
• To enjoy our cultural diversity and develop knowledge and sensitivity towards other cultures and languages.
• To promote critical thinking.
Our Motto:
You teach a culture when you teach a language
ANNUAL EVENTS:
The Afrikaans Evening is an evening sponsored by the Grahamstown Rapportryers hosted by Hoërskool P.J. Olivier and involves six of the Grahamstown schools. It is an evening of variety with dancing, acting, singing and generally just having fun in Afrikaans.
Onder andere woorde: An evening of poetry. A collection of the prescribed poems for Grade 10 – 12 are performed and interpreted either by dance, song or recitation. The evening has lovely Afrikaans traditional treats like koeksusters and melktert.
Bekgeveg is our annual public speaking competition. Contemporary and topical subjects are given to the learners and they prepare 2-3 minute speeches. There are different categories which include Best Junior, Best Senior FAL and Best Senior HL speaker.
Afrikaans Sokkies are becoming increasingly popular with the learners. There is normally a theme attached to the evening and the learners love dressing up and they have all practised their “langarm-moves” to perfection. Only Afrikaans music is played at these events and the learners dance the night away to Kurt Darren, Nicholas Louw, Die Melktert Kommissie and many more.
KKNK tour: It has become a school tradition for our Grade 11 learners to attend the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival in Oudtshoorn. It is a very successful outing with shows, music and a general immersion in the Afrikaans culture and the learners thoroughly enjoy the atmosphere.
ACADEMIC PROGRAMMES:
Afrikaans Support: We often find that learners need a little extra help with Afrikaans outside the classroom and for this reason, learners can now come to the SAC computer lab on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 17h30 and 18h30 for some additional help. Mr Leon Jacobs run the programme and will help learners with sections of the work that they might struggle with.
Readers are Leaders: This is a computer programme available to the learners on all the school computers to help with the building of vocabulary in both Afrikaans and English. Learners can work on this programme in their own time and class time is also allocated to it in the Gr 8 and 9 Extra Afrikaans lessons. The programme is structured in such a way that the learner can start at a very basic level and work up to a more complex and advanced level. We encourage learners to take responsibility for their own growth in the language by using this programme to practise their reading skills and build their Afrikaans vocabulary.
Teacher-training programmes: Our HOD’s attend the annual IEB subject conferences in February to stay informed about the new developments in the curriculum.
We also organise, in conjunction with Kingswood College, a Grade 12 poetry workshop presented by Tim Huisamen from Rhodes University. This aims to equip the teachers to teach the prescribed Grade 12 poetry in the best possible way.
We also attend and organise Cluster meetings with the schools in the area to assist and learn from each other.
Alistair Ferreira and Gerda Oosthuysen with the author, Anzil Kuhlsen,
who wrote the Gr 12 prescribed book, Zita.
She addressed the Afrikaans teachers at the IEB conference in February.
Grade 9 Afrikaans at Shamwari outing:
Every year the Afrikaans department takes the Gr 9 learners to Shamwari as part of their outdoor and wild life vocabulary theme. The learners are taken on a tour of the Born Free Foundation followed by a 2 hour game drive. They have work sheets with them on the truck on which they fill in all the animals they see and they have to write down interesting facts about the fauna and flora. All in Afrikaans! This is a fun outing and all (teachers included) love the day in the bush.
Afrikaans Outdoors
SAC/DSG SOKKIES:
Een van die dae is dit weer sulke tyd by DSG en St Andrew's College. Balke toe! en Stoppie lorrie! Daar word behoorlik geskoffel op die maat van lekker Afrikaanse Sokkie-musiek. Die tema verander vir elke sokkie en almal raak baie kreatief met die kostuums terwyl daar ook gewoonlik 'n khaki-broek en lang sokkies bespeur kan word. Die Afrikaanse Departement wat hierdie geleentheid organiseer, is baie tevrede met die gees wat gewoonlik hier heers. Daar is gewoonlik oral kinders besig om mekaar te leer en as hulle eers die "moves" het, is daar geen keer aan die swaaiery en draaiery nie. Loslappie!
Kelly Long represents South Africa 10th May 2012
Kelly Long represented South Africa at the 5th International Sustainable World Project Olympiad in the USA
