Newsletter 4 March 2016

Recycling competition

Sagewood School is taking part in a recycling competition from MPACT: a recycling company based in Gauteng. This year we have to collect up to 8 tonnes of paper and the competition will close in September. We will be doing paper drives every Friday morning where each child will empty their bag into our paper bank. MPACT will be announcing on a monthly basis how each school is performing.

MPACT Recycling is giving nursery schools, primary schools & high schools in Gauteng, Pretoria, Midrand, Durban, Richards Bay & Cape Town the opportunity to win cash prizes to the value of R20,000 per area. Prizes are as follows for each branch: 1st prize: R10 000; Green ambassador (Leaner representative): R1 000; Green student (Learner who brings the most paper): R1 000 2nd prize: R5 000 3rd prize: R3 000.

Each learner received two Ronnie plastic bags from the school, they can re-use the plastic bag as much as they can, we had our first paper drive on Friday the 4th of march 2016 and it was a success, we would also like to thank our parents and learners for participating in this campaign.

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR LEARNERS

GRADE 6: CORE SKILLS TEST 2015

The Core Skills Test is a non-curriculum based assessment which focuses on the application of skills and knowledge that a Grade 6 learner should have developed over their period of time in school.  It is constructed to accommodate thinking skills that are developed in Language contexts e.g. adopting a position and providing a rationale for your choice, or in Mathematical or Science contexts e.g. calculations, logical deduction given specific information.  The assessment also focuses on drawing information from visual stimuli e.g. graphs, maps, diagrams, illustrations.  The assessment contains questions that require learners to perform multi-steps of thinking in order to answer the question correctly – these questions have been classified as ‘complex thinking’. This test is set by a panel of educators from various private schools in Gauteng and is of a very high standard.

The total score for each learner has been calculated by weighting questions according to the difficulty rating of each question.  The weighted scores have been converted to percentage scores.  On the basis of the final score, learners have been allocated a rating as follows:

Exceptional: 90% - 100%

Outstanding: 75% - 89%

Commendable: 60% - 74%

The following learners performed in the

Exceptional range:

·        Pulkit Bansal

·        Pooja Lowton

·        Mishani Pillay

·        Sarita Pillay

Outstanding range:

·        Yatin Fakir

·        Kgositsile Giqwa

·        Naazneen Khan

·        Jaedon Moodley

·        Mansaa Pandey

·        Tiara Pather

·        Atira Rajah

Commendable range:

·        Calem Chetty

·        Damian Gouws

·        Okuhle Holmes

·        Khanyisile Mahlangu

·        Tirelo Morule

·        Bonolo Motalane

·        Mpho Tsotetsi

·        Thulisa Phungula

We congratulate these learners and are extremely proud of them!

Writing Competition open to all learners

Reflections on India by Mr Brian Dawson

1st Day of School in 2016

We would like to share some pictures taken on the 1st day of school at Sagewood.

Learners were accompanied by their parents as the new academic year begins. There were more smiles than tears this time around. At the Preprimary School, returning learners were very excited to see their teachers and new learners couldn't wait to try out different facilities at the Outdoor Play Area.

We wish learners all the best in 2016!