Newsletter 2 Easter Term 2012

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NEWSLETTER

EASTER TERM No 2/2012

Dear Parents

We had a wonderful end-of-term assembly on Friday 30 March before the boysstarted their various projects and excursions.

We started with our normal brief devotion, acknowledging God as Lord andCreator. This was followed by a superb address by one of our Matric boys,Muhammed-Ismail Bulbulia on the subject of Plastic. He reflected on ourplastic, superficial world and argued for a deeper value and purpose for youngmen. This address had previously been given at the prestigious Best IndividualSpeaker section of the South African Guilds annual public speakingcompetition where he came second in the final.

After Muhammad-Ismail we had Ndumiso Mvelase (U4 Hodgson) conduct the mass song item from thewinning house in the Inter-House Music competition. Hodgson had sung magnificently to win this section.We also had the other instrumental and vocal ensemble winners play and sing. Ndumiso then conductedthe whole school and St Johns College sang with gusto and verve, and with a sense of unity and energy.Finally, after a brief video showing our summer sporting achievements in cricket, rowing, water polo andbasketball, we handed out the sports colours awards for the summer season.

It was a good end to the term and many staff and and boys who were present have remarked that it reallyshowed St Johns at its very best. We can be very proud of our boys and their many achievementsthroughout the term.

Besides a very busy and successful summer sporting season we had a wonderful production ofMetamorphoses, and a superb evening of music and song at Supper and Song. The combined CANSA forLife Relayin conjunction with St Marys was also a wonderful community endeavour. I have over the pastfew days been reading all the school reports with comments from housemasters and teachers, and Iexpress my sense of delight that so many boys are committed and loyal to the school, and are workinghard to do well. It is very encouraging.

In every term there are challenging moments when boys, parents and teachers err and let us down.Fortunately there are overwhelmingly more good things happening than bad. There are alwaysconsequences for bad behaviour, and these must take their course. Ultimately in a good community suchas St Johns, we learn from our mistakes and go forward wiser and more mature.

Mrs Helen Popplewell

Mrs Popplewell has served St Johns College for the past twenty-four years with distinction. She hasplayed the role of Class Teacher, Housemistress, Second Mistress in the Preparatory School, and then forthe past seven years, Headmistress of the Pre-Preparatory School. Helen retires at the end of this EasterTerm 2012.

She has in her work and attitude truly captured what it means to be a Johannian, and at a wonderfulfarewell dinner and final tea, I paid tribute to a very special lady who has touched the heart and minds ofthousands of boys. I described Helen using the words - Truth, Beauty and Goodness:

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Our Open Rowing Team recently attended the South African Rowing Championship. They were victorsin the 1st Eight, the 1stQuad and the 1stPair, which has never been done before in the Colleges historyof Rowing. In addition to this, they broke the South African Junior Record for the Eight and the Quad. Afine achievement indeed.

Our Water Polo team recently won the national KES tournament, showing that we have the best team inthe country.

Our 1stteam Basketball recently played in a tournament at St Johns and WITS. They came second inthe tournament, losing in the final by a mere five points.

Our 1st

team cricket has had an outstanding season, only losing three games at the beginning of theseason. However, they bounced back and have been undefeated for 9 games. They showed majorBMT at the end of the season in beating Hilton and winning against Jeppe on the last ball of the match.

I thank all the boys, parents and teachers for a wonderful term, and pray that you will have a blessedEaster weekend, and a restful holiday.

Roger CameronHeadmaster

Health and Safety Issues Reviewed

The safety of our children is of paramount importance. During the winter sport season sadly there are anumber of injuries. We have a clearly defined system in place to manage injuries.

At the Sports Council meeting on 3 April, our procedures were reviewed:

Prevention is our first priority, and coaches and staff are equipped and reminded that this is a priority. Weneed to be alert to potential danger and prevent it. If injury takes place we have a clearly defined plan ofaction. This plan is communicated to all staff and coaches. Both the Prep and College do this to ensurethat the plan is well known and defined. The plan examines injuries/emergencies at home and away. All ofthese plans are in place, but one of the concerns raised by the Sports Council was how effectively havethey been communicated to staff and parents.

Sister Geddes Venter and Mr Rob Long, together with the Heads of the various schools will ensure that aclearly defined plan of action is communicated. All incidents are reported on by Sister Geddes and theHeads of the schools are kept informed. We look forward to an injury free season.

Two Oceans Marathon

Thank you to all parents and Old Johannians who have sponsored me on myTwo Oceans run. To date I have raised R485 000 and hope to be able toreach R500 000 to support the cricket nets, gym and Maretlwane.

I will be running in St Johns colours and my number is 14, so if any of youare in Cape Town over the Easter weekend, you might shoutencouragement.

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A REMARKABLE MAN TURNS 90.

Recently we were honoured to celebrate the 90th birthday of our venerable pastHeadmaster, Mr Deane Yates. Dr Yates is spending his retirement in nearbyWaverley, but still keeps an eagle eye on one of his passionate projects, theAlexandra Education Committee of which he is a founder member.

It would take too long to describe all that Dr Yates has done in the field ofeducation in Southern Africa working tirelessly with his late wife, Dot for theupliftment of the disadvantaged. Throughout his life he has pursued the ideal ofnon-racial and multi-cultural education. Many awards have been accorded tothis remarkable man, among others, an honorary doctors degree from Wits,the Order of the British Empire, the Bishops medal of the Diocese ofJohannesburg and the Paul Harris Medal of International Rotary.

We wish Dr Yates many happy and healthy years of retirement.

Jenni MillwardCOLLEGE LIBRARIANARCHIVIST

MAJOR PRODUCTIONMETAMORPHOSES

St Johns College presented Mary Zimmermans contemporary take on the myths of Ovid during the weekof the 19-23 March in Big School. The production was mounted in just 10 weeks with a huge cast of 63young men and women from the College and Sixth Form. The set and technical aspects proved achallenge as well and there was much excitement generated by the pool that was created as thecentrepiece for the action.

The appeal of Metamorphoses lies in its relevance to our contemporary lives and it is no surprise that itwasnominated as Best Play in the 2002 Tony Awards; it is an intelligent, sensitively written and thought-provoking script that weaves the idea of transformation, both literal and metaphorical, through its scenes. In

the process of doing so, we as an audience are asked to interrogate our views on many issues that touchus in our current lives, such as materialism, the nature of love and obsessive and arrogant behaviour,among others.

The boat scene in Alcyone and Ceyx Travis Hornsby as Phaeton, James Surgey Midas [James Slter] embraces his daughteras Apollo and Luke Reid as the Therapist [Teagan Brmmer], while the rest of the cast

looks on.

Metamorphoses served as an ideal vehicle for the pupils at the College as it combined acting withphysicality to express a theatrical vision in new and surprising ways. The script provides an opportunity formany different theatrical devices to be woven into a final product. As director, I had the privilege of goingon a theatrical journey with the performers and incorporated a physically focused performance style into theproduction. The cast discovered new and interesting ways to use their bodies as story telling devices andthis physicality, combined with spoken dialogue, live music, projected imagery and the pool, created a trulyunique production of which we are all proud.

I am most grateful to all those who assisted me with this production.

Russell Untiedt

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BOYS NEWS

Chess

Neil Viviers (Lower V) was invited to participate in the SA Junior Closed Chess tournament from 30 March- 4th of April. Top 10 players in the country in each age group play out to represent South Africa later thisyear.

First Aid

Congratulations to Logan Geldenhuys (Lower IV) on completing his First Aid Level 3 qualification.

Golf

Marco Steyn (Remove) will be taking part in a Central Gauteng Foundation Golf Tournament on 1 April,and hopes to qualify for the National Under 14 Tournament to be held at the end of April.

Interact

Philani Qwabe (LV) and Luke Penney (LV) have been appointed as Johannesburg Junior Councillors forthe term May 2012 May 2013.

Public Speaking

Muhammed-Ismail Bulbulia (U5)as one of the top five speakers in Gauteng, represented St Johns in theprestigious Best Individual Speaker section of the South African Guilds annual public speaking tournament,and was ranked second, a very close runner-up to the winner with his speech, Plastic.

Rugby

Congratulations to Nicholas de Jager(UV 2008) on being selected to play for Stellenbosch University inthe FNB Varsity Cup. Brandon Walker (UV 2008) is currently at the University of South West England, andrecently captained Gloucester Club against Durham University at Twickenham, beating them 45 -20.Bothplayed for the Blues in 2008

Sailing

Henry Daniels (Lower IV), Simon Jones (Lower IV) and Michael Caroline (Upper V)represented St Johns at the Inter-Schools Sailing Regatta held at Victoria Lake Club inMarch. The boys really sailed well and put St Johns into 3rd position at the end of theRegatta.

Henry Daniels was also invited to participate in the South African Optimist Selection Regattaduring the last week of March. He is currently ranked 2nd in the country, and could qualify to representSouth Africa at the World and African Championships later this year.

Simon Jones (Lower IV) has been selected to represent SA in the Laser 4.7 World Championships sailingregatta. He is sailing in Buenos Aires the week of Monday 2 April to Sunday 8 April.

Rowing

Grant Dodds, Rowing: Head Coach has been appointed as Junior National Team Head Coach to attendthe Junior Rowing World Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria from 15 th to 19th August 2012. Laurence Nel

and Jamie Odgers, who were triple gold medallists at the South African Junior Championships earlier thismonth, have been selected in the junior mens coxless pair for the South African Team. They will also betouring to Henley with the rest of the St Johns 1st Eight at the end of June.

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U16 and U17 SASRU Development Squad

The following St Johns boys have been selected for the Under 16 and Under 17 squad to tour to Ghent,Belgium in May 2012:

Boys Under 16 Boys Under 17

Sean Verheul (U 4) Andrew Morgan (L5)Nick Papas (U4)Joseph Savenye-Terblanche (U4)Daniel Hafner (U4)Ayrton Da Silva (U4)

It is proposed that boys will be touring from the 1 - 7 May 2012. They will be racing in the InternatioGhentRegatta on the 5th and 6th of May.

Under 19 Junior National Squad

Jamie Odgers and Laurence Nel have been selected for the Junior National U9 coxless pair that will becompeting the World Junior Rowing Championships in Bulgaria in August this year.

Nick Greeff (U5) and Dimitri Theofanidis (U5) have been provisionally selected for the U19 boys coxedfour: A final decision on the selection of the coxed going overseas will made on their relative performanceagainst the other selection crews on the 14th of April at the Gauteng Senior Champs.

Scuba Diving

Qualifications this term:

Tennis

Michael Copeland (Remove) and Shaheen Patel (Lower IV) have been selected to play in the GautengCentral U/15 team in the Inter-Provincial SA High Schools Tournament. This is a great honour as only sixboys and six girls per age group are invited. Furthermore, individual players may earn selection to a SouthAfrican under 15 Schools Team which will tour overseas later this year. The tournament will be played from30 March till 03 April 2012 in Pretoria.

PADI Open Water

Divers

Himal KooverjeeAndrew BoltonChristopher ThurlingJoshua VerheulCameron FisherAbu SagarFranz RetiefThomas LillieMatthew LillieRichard Louis

Henry Oates

Padi Advanced Scuba Divers and Specialites

Jonathan RogersonAaron ChiuJames ChangJason HindeKoto Clunies-RossDaniel Venter

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WINTER SPORTS CAPTAINS

Chess

Jonathan Georgiades

Squash

Rugby

Hockey

Under 14A - Byron LedlieUnder 14B - Blaise Crwys-WilliamsUnder 15A - Richard LouisUnder 16A - Martyn StrydomUnder 16B - Nico Devonport

2nd

- Jason Strong

1st

- Matthew Barker

1 Team Squash in playing order:

1. Bradley Dial2. Dean Maxton3. Tyrone Dial4. Kyle Robertson5. Cameron Dry

6. Matthew Barker

Open Captain1st XV NJ Maree

2nd James Surgey

3rd Tinaye Tengende

4th Matthew Barker

5th To be confirmed

6th To be confirmed

U16 A Devon Henson

B Gareth Harvett

C Gareth Kunz

DU15A Lorenzo Masselli

B Thomas Montgomery

C Liam Kovell

D Daniel Chen

U14 A Connor McKerr

B Kyle Harvett

C James Braham

D Louis Morillo

SJC 1st XV Team 2012

1 Pilani Qwabe

2 Anthony Testa

3 Sam Theron

4 Devon Stone

5 NJ Maree (C)

6 Thomas Workman

7 James Eckersley

8 Thapelo Rapelwana

9 Mark Dzanibe

10 Wesley Antonities

11 Manqoba Lephoko

12 Niels Kuehnemann

13 Murray Conway

14 Tobi Ndzimande

15 Wesley Coulentianos

16 Gerhard Olivier

Captain

U14 A Gareth Fullerton

B Tom Roering

C Duncan Smale

D Peter Walker

E Matthew Nelson

U15A Hugh Ledlie

B Robert Fyall

C Nick Mac Robert

D & E Ayrton KappU16A Ndumiso Mvelase

B Prashant Venkatakrishnan

C

D Ryan Mackell

The Team

1 Andrew Tuma Waku

2 Luke Langschmidt

3 Kyle Robertson

7 Bradley Stocks

15 Kyle Lion-Cachet

5 Owen Newton-Hill

8 Thabo Zindi

6 Sameer Lalloo

12 Nathan Elliot

4Gregory Harrup

10 Nichiolas Tennick

17 Joshua Hooper

9 Daniel Fiser

14 Micha Dedekind

Open

6th Ross Smith

5th Greg Alexander

4th James Chang

3rd Cameron Foster

2nd Matthew Tregoning

1st XV Luke Langschmidt

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St Johns College has 2 doubletickets to give exclusively to St

Johns Students.

To enter, all you have to do is

the St Johns CollegeFacebook Pagehttps://www.facebook.com/pages/St-Johns-College/243089512383272

Link also available from the schoolwebsitewww.stjohnscollege.co.za

Winners will be announced 2 April