‘Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.’

Steve Jobs 1955 – 2011 

Steve Jobs, the CEO and founder of Apple, the richest company in history, died in October, 2011. The above quote was the topic of one of my assemblies in May 2011, as sadly that year was fraught with sadness for our community. Several staff had family and friends die, school families lost loved ones and many families were affected by poverty, divorce and depression.

When these unhappy things happen, one is prompted into reviewing one’s life and so there is never a better time to make some positive changes. In the assembly with the children, we discussed how easy it is to ‘live someone else’s life’, and we determined then that we need to take every opportunity to make life a series of moments that you will treasure forever.

At Pinelands North, we try to make school into a series of momentous moments. Every child will be taught information at any school you send them to, (some will be taught more than others!) but remembering the day that I was allowed to walk on the wet field without my shoes on, or the day that I sat quietly during break, watching day-old ducklings wandering around me, are moments that will be forever embedded into the psyche.

So 2011 was also been filled with small treasures, some personal and some communal. I will always remember how awed I was when our seven grade seven children spoke to the Western Cape Parliament in June, and how proud I was when I heard their well researched speeches and watched the confidence they portrayed when speaking to the press at the media briefing afterwards.

Another special day for me was when we were publically acknowledged by the Minister of Education for our inclusive policies! If you spoke to our children themselves, however, they would probably give you a different list of ‘moments’. Maybe they would tell you about the day the teachers played netball against the pupils, maybe the camp or tour they spent time at, or maybe just that this year their teacher really understood them or that they made one new friend this year.

To read about the many varied ‘special moments’ in the life of this fabulous school over the years, read our website – you will be astounded that we even have lots of time to learn too. Plan today, or during this next school holiday, to make some time for your family to celebrate some special moments together – you never know when time will run out and those moments will be over forever.

Catering to the needs of our brightest pupils.....

Research has proved that the brightest children are often not those who come top of their classes – often these children underachieve, become the class clowns or spend their days working out just how far they can try their teacher’s patience. They do that because they can! Being bright means that they can work out just how little they can do to pass each grade, and unless they are motivated, they continue to do as little as possible throughout their schooldays.

Pinelands North treats these children differently. Besides being given work that motivates them to achieve, they also need counselling and a set of social skills to help them cope in an unfriendly world. Bright children are often not accepted by their peers because they view the world differently and see things others don’t. Giving clever children more work in class, of the same type, is certainly not going to motivate them to achieve what they could.

Our Creative and Talented programme includes six months with our learning support co-ordinator to build self esteem, discuss friendship issues and learn to deal with authority successfully. This part of the programme makes Pinelands North unique in the Western Cape – some southern suburbs schools provide extension for bright children but none focus on the skills needed in society which are often lacking in exceptionally bright people! 

Besides this six month semester, pupils focus on thinking skills and learn to be creative in multi-age classes once a week. They also have a small group lesson where they learn how to research and to record evidence of learning.

By the middle of this year, our grade 5 to 7 pupils were writing a fourteen paragraph essay comparing the world of 2000 with the world of 2010. All they were given to write the essay was an A3 page of pictorial data! They had already written their autobiographies, and produced a book of very intricate paper mechanisms. The grade 3 and 4 pupils studied oliogochaetology, conducted experiments to discover how worms move, see and smell, and used Science kits to discover sound, weather, magnetism and energy.

In their small groups in the library, pupils have done problem solving, general knowledge, number puzzles and have researched from historical resources. They have also learnt to ask questions that require complex answers and figure out puzzles that play tricks on the eyes! In the counselling section of the programme, the children have grappled with terms like ‘normal’, ‘perfectionism’  and ‘self esteem’, and how to define these terms. They have had an opportunity to discuss what they are particularly curious about, and come to understand that often asking a question, is more important than knowing the answer! Children have been challenged to articulate how and why they have particular feelings and have then been given opportunities to share their feelings in a safe place.

For the first time in their lives, these children now feel understood and accepted, and have better coping skills with which to survive an often hostile world. One child reported this year that ‘the only way he gets through every week is that he has Creative and Talented lessons on Fridays!’ What would he have done if he hadn’t been at Pinelands North Primary?

SAPA Principals visit Pinelands North

In September, we hosted 60 principals from around South Africa, at our school. Instead of introducing the principals to the school myself, I, asked pupils from grade 3 to 7 to motivate why they wanted to be tour guides for individual principals.

These are a few of their responses –

‘I have respect for the school; for instance I pick up papers and I look after the Art garden, so please pick me.’  Noah Syndercombe 3

‘I love different accents of South Africa, love seeing people smile and saying, ‘What a wonderful school!’  Aidan Isaacs 3

‘I would love to let people know that PNPS is a loving school which has a good education. PNPS is very special to the pupils.’  Lerato Sello 3

‘I think I can do it because when I drop something on the floor, I pick it up because it is my responsibility to do so.’  Odwa Jonas 3

‘I am responsible, intelligent, kind, helpful and loving. I can show them lots of things, and I might also introduce them to a couple of my friends.’  Caleb du Plessis 3

‘I want to be an ambassador because I have a voice that all can hear, and I know the school like the back of my head.’  Logan Daniels 3

‘I think I would be a great person to show people around because I love PNPS. I love how clean it is, inside and out. I love how many pets we have. I love how many books we have in our library.’

Rana Ebrahim 3

‘I have respect for the school and always will have. When I see a paper on the floor, I pick it up. I recycle every Friday – I bring a bag or two – not a lot but it makes a difference!’  Casey Coetzee 3 

‘I should be chosen because I am up for anything and I am a people person. I would do anything for my school.’  Zara Abrahams 4

‘I am also respectful because if they are talking, I will be kind and listen to them. They might have something important to say.’  Chandre Mentoor 4

‘I am not shy and I would like to show them this school because it has been the best school of my life.’  Janus Taylor 4

           

‘I am very proud of my school. We have beautiful buildings and our teachers are talented. Our school is organized very differently from other schools. I would like to show the principals the relationship between the teachers and the pupils – we appreciate the input our teachers have in our learning. I’d like to show the principals our wonderful teachers and principal - we have the best principal because she cares for us, is very helpful and also plays sport.’  Danesha Daniels 5

‘I’m confident, love to speak to visitors and I’m good at answering questions. I would like to show them how wonderful our school is without actually boasting about it.’  Sethu Xamlashe 5

‘I would love to show how wonderfully grateful I am to be in such a wonderful school, and some children don’t realize that. I would give anything (except the teddy I sleep with at night) to become an ambassador for the school.’  Shana Paulus 5

‘I like people, children and babies but I really like principals – they help you with anything.’ Yumnah Toefy 5

‘I want people to see how we look after our school and how we respect each other’s religions. I want everyone to see our proud history. I also want people to see how wonderfully our principal runs the school and how funny she is.’  Nikita Dawood 5

‘I would like to show how honoured I am to be part of this school, and how privileged we are to have most things. Our school is also very talented with our art and technology creations. The nicest thing though is what wonderful teachers, pupils and peers we have; people who respect each other and make them feel at home.’  Ruvimbo Tasara 5

‘I want to show what a great school we are – how kind and talented our school is, how respectful we are to older people, and I want to show how responsible we all are.’  Kelly Emtoch 5

‘I have always wished that one of these days I would become a principal. To be a principal is a very tough job but you have to live with it.’  Ivanah Meyers 5

‘PNPS is a unique school, a school that accepts people for who they are.’  Michaela Flanders 5

  

‘This school means a lot to me and everybody feels like family. I just love to meet new people.’ Caylin du Toit 6

‘I would love to show the principals around our beautiful school – I want to show them our eager children who want to learn, our excellent staff and hardworking cleaning staff, and of course our PNPS trademark – the ducks!’   Adrian Endley 6

‘I would like to be one of the 60 students because I believe I would do it well – I am a very enthusiastic person who would love to answer questions that principals might have.’  Micaela Wanamaker 7

‘I feel that I bring out the best in PNPS! I’d be proud to show the principals around because we show the true meaning of what a school should be!’  
Kailin Smith 7

‘I am a well spoken person, speak with confidence and one day want to be a public speaker and this would be a good start for me.’  Tyla Sissing 7

‘I would be perfect for the job because I know a lot about the school and have lots of positive stories to tell and feedback to give.’  Courteney Alberts 7

‘I feel I can bring out all the best at PNPS. I can be courteous and represent the noble core of our amazing institution. This is all I can give – absolute perfection!’  Andrew van Wijk 7

African Convention of Principals: Maseru, August 2010

On reflecting on 2010, I realize again that I have been privileged to attend amazing conferences this year.

The most personally fulfilling was the one I attended in Maseru. The African Convention of Principals was held in Maseru in August, and was attended by principals from Nigeria, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho and South Africa.

Although academic for four days, the Wednesday in the middle was an opportunity for principals to share a day out together, visiting places of interest around Lesotho. Principals went to Katse and Mohale dams from the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, some went to Thaba Bosiu, the historical place of birth of the Basotho, Kome Caves, and I went to Semonkong and the Maletsunyane Falls, the highest falls in southern Africa.

What a long journey and a wonderful personal experience! We travelled for four and a half hours in a full sixty seater bus, alighted in a rural village and blindly made our way into the mountains on foot for an hour of fast walking to find the falls. The return journey was slightly faster and after leaving in the very early morning, we returned to Maseru in the dark.

The personal connections between very different people were initiated. Principals from foreign African countries ended up sitting next to each other for hours on end, or ended up walking with someone who, in real life, they would never have met. I walked through rural Lesotho, a lone white woman, deep in conversation with two Basotho principals and surrounded by Basotho people young and old, all who greeted me in Sesotho, as a fellow human being. I was unaware of my difference until a young child stopped, stared and burst out laughing. Only then did I realize that, yes, I had a white skin, and that the child probably had never seen someone like me!

I returned to Maseru, and then to Cape Town, humbled by my experience, and with the thought, again, that our Pinelands North pupils are so privileged to be at a school like ours, in South Africa in 2010. Walk through our doors – you will love what you see and feel!

International Conferences

What a privilege it is to be the principal of Pinelands North Primary School! This has been the year of international conferences for me, and because of the Governing Body’s belief in growing our staff, and paying for it, they have sent me to two of these conferences this year.

The first was in February in Cape Town: The Art of Thinking conference run by the International Association for Cognitive Education in Southern Africa. Rose-Anne Reynolds and I attended this three day conference on behalf of the school. I don’t think I have ever been in such esteemed company! Only about 180 delegates attended but about a third of these were foreign, and most of the foreign delegates  were professors! Rose-Anne and I networked at every opportunity and so had the privilege of having indepth conversations with Professors from Israel, Singapore, United Kingdom, Norway and USA, and with several from South Africa.

The discussions revolved around thinking skills predominantly; how to teach these in schools, how to train teachers in the skills first and how to find out whether schools were in fact teaching thinking in their schools. The reason we attended was to increase our knowledge for our Creative and Talented programme. This programme is run for our talented and diverse thinkers in the school, and I came away inspired to continue our task of producing bright pupils who can solve world problems, and to research the subject further!

Two years ago, in 2007, the Governing Body sent me to Auckland, New Zealand, to an International Principals’ Conference where I first decided to start a programme for our brightest students. This year I again had the privilege of attending this international conference: this time in Singapore. I spent seventeen days away – the first in Singapore and then the final five in Thailand.

Wow! The conference was initially affected by the Novel N1H1 virus, but that didn’t deter the 1500 principals from getting excited about improving their schools back home. Interestingly enough, only 7 principals from Cape Town attended, but there were 200 from South Africa in total (the second largest group attending)! We visited schools, even though this was difficult in the health circumstances, and we networked with principals worldwide.

I returned renewed, and beaming, having again realized what a super school I belong to – our primary school in the small enclave of Pinelands, provides an exceptional world class education! Nothing I saw in Thailand or Singapore was unusual for me – we compare very favourably internationally.

Having had that reaffirmed, makes these two conferences worthwhile! Thank you, Pinelands North, for always being at the cutting edge of learning around the world, and for including me in this learning – I love it!