Pre-School Newsletter

TERM 1 | Issue 1 | September EDITION 2023

The Headmistress’s Desk

On Saturday, 9 September, I packed up my travel bag and headed to Sandton for a 4 day con-
ference. SAHISA (The Southern African Heads of Independent Schools Association) hosted a jam-
packed event with key-note speakers, ISASA talks, break away sessions, educational updates
and lots and lots of food! These annual conferences are educational gems and the time spent
with people who share a passion for education (and more importantly – education in South Afri-
ca) is invaluable.

This month I thought I would share a few of the golden nuggets that were discussed.

AI, ROBOTICS AND CODING

Benjamin Rosman is an Associate Professor in the School of Computer Science and Applied Math-
ematics at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, where he runs the Robotics, Auton-
omous Intelligence and Learning (RAIL) Laboratory and is the Director of the National E-Science
Postgraduate Teaching and Training Platform (NEPTTP)

Benjamin is an inspiring gentleman who guided us through a world of current technologies. I sat
with my jaw open watching him produce AI images and writing essays using ChatGPT. It cer-
tainly confirmed my belief of how different the world and education is going to look in the years
to come. The question educators are asking is: “What role will this technology play in our future
schooling systems?” While changes are inevitable, one thing remains certain – our children will
always need soft skills and human interaction. They are, however, going to need guidance navi-
gating through these technologies safely while learning how to use it in the jobs that are to come.
Follow him on https://www.benjaminrosman.com/ for more details.

TRANSGENDER TALK NINA AND DANI COSTELLA

Nina Costella certainly gave us an insider’s view as the parent of a transgender child. She spoke
with unashamed grief at the “loss” of her only son and with unashamed pride of the daughter she
had gained. Dani ended the talk, speaking with raw honesty of her personal journey, her con-
fused childhood, her severe depression and of the difficulties she faced throughout her schooling
career. Regardless of one’s personal opinion of this topic, hearing it first hand was a moving and
informative experience.

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 BULLYING - BRIAN SCHIMMEL AND CLINTON FEIN

The topic of bullying has been an ongoing discussion for years but it is not often that you get to
witness a public apology and heartfelt forgiveness between two grown men, who after years of
being the “bully and the victim”, have become friends. Brian and Clinton shared their personal
journeys through the education system in a genuine dialogue. These friends travel around the
country, sharing their stories from both perspectives with young children with the hope of encour-
aging change.

SHAPING TOMORROWS MINDS TODAY – COLLEEN LIGHTBODY

Dr Lightbody delivered a life changing talk on neuroplasticity – the ability to change our brains,
rewire our neuropathways and develop a greater sense of purpose. She obtained several de-
grees and a PhD after the age of 40 and having turned her life around, she has completed 3 iron
man competitions, 5 comrades marathons and has climbed both Everest and Kilimanjaro. She is
the owner of Brainwise. The BrainWise Philosophy confirms that people are capable of profound
change and their interventions and workshops combine neuroscience and psychology to en-
able personal, professional, emotional, spiritual, and physical mastery.
Find out more at https://www.brainwise.co.za/

POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR MANAGEMENT - BEV MCBRIDE

Bev McBride’s talk on positive behaviour management was geared towards the pre-school age
group and she highlighted the need for positive reinforcement, intrinsic motivation and most im-
portantly, the need to help children with big emotions. She was inspirational and I hope to host
her at St Dunstan’s in the near future.

I came back from this remarkable conference a little tired but enriched; a little more inspired
and certainly ignited in knowing that St Dunstan’s
Pre-School is well on track in preparing our little ones
for their futures.

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 Welcome to the Pre-School
Three new families have joined the Pre-School this month!

A very warm welcome to Abigail Jonker who has joined the Fish class with Mrs Chaplin and to
Deago Fernandes and Brodi Stockhusen who have both joined the Munchkin Class with Miss
Quabeck. Welcome to the Pre-School family! We wish you all the very best!

Happy Birthday!

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 Dates to Diarise
Thursday, 5 October Teacher Appreciation Day
Friday, 13 October Sensory Workshop (parents welcome)
Saturday, 14 October Candles Celebration
Sunday, 15 October SDC Music Concert & Choral celebration
Monday, 23 October Puppet Show
Tuesday, 24 October Parent Interviews
Wednesday, 25 October Parent Interviews

Thursday, 26 October School closes early for Mid Term Break

Friday, 27 October School closed for Mid Term Break
Monday, 30 October School closed for Mid Term Break

Tuesday, 31 October Superhero Dress Up Day & PFTC Food Chain

SAVE THE DATE!

Our first ever Pre-School choir will be
performing at the SDC Music Con-
cert & Cathedral Choral
Celebration on Sunday, 15 Octo-
ber!

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 Open Day
On Saturday, 30 September we opened our classrooms, sports fields and playgrounds to the
public for our Open Day. It was an incredibly busy morning and we were excited to meet so
many new families who will be joining our St Dunstan’s family next year!
#BuildYourFutureWithStDunstansCollege

If you missed out on our Open Day you can book a private tour with Kelly Cousins - kcousins@
stdunstans.co.za or book via WhatsApp on 071 351 6937

Pre-School Upgrades
The Quad Squad playground re-
ceived an exciting upgrade this
month as astro was installed in
the garden.

We are sure the Little Quadders

are going to love their new play
area.

We are also excited to an-

nounce that the soccer field in
the main playground will also be
upgraded to an astro pitch by
the end of the year!

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 Cross Campus News
A very big congratulations to our former
Pre-Schoolers who are excelling! Rachel-Ann
Williams, Iyla-Skye Brameld and Reegan
Bellingham have qualified to participate in
the AFRICA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS at
the end of October! Good luck girls! We are
cheering for you!

A big congratulations to our Student Leaders

of St Dunstan’s College for 2024.

Head Girl: Isabella Martins

Head Boy: Gianluca Matinuzzi
Deputy Head Girl: Jennifer Hintze
Deputy Head Boy: Nipho Zwane

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 Our community
Our Pre-School family has grown by one! Very
big congratulations to the Agostinho family
on the birth of their daughter, Julianna. Tiago
(Dolphin Class) is a going to be an amazing
Big Brother!

Big congratulations to Ashton and Tyrone

Finch’s mommy, Maegan, who recently got
married. The brothers got all dressed up to
help celebrate the special day! We wish the
happy family all the very best for the years to
come.

Talent Showcase
We are so proud of Lentswe Matabela (Toucan Class) who took these beautiful photographs
on Grandparents’ Day. We hope to see more of his photos soon! #Talented!

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 Pre-Schoolers Excel
We are so proud of our Pre-Schoolers! A big con-
gratulations to Travis Cloete (Dolphin Class) who
won GOLD at the versus Grappling/Jujitsu tourna-
ment.

A big well done to Hannah Tuniz (Dolphin Class)

who recently participated on the Junior Develop-
ment series. Well done!

Follow us!
The Pre-School Social Media pages are
tracking well and we are excited to con-
nect with parents and schools from all
over the world.

If you haven’t already, give us a follow for

advice, tricks and as always a little bit of
fun!

Instagram: @pre_sdc
TikTok: @sdcpreschool

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 Heritage Day
Our Grade 00 and Grade 0 children were
invited to attend the College Heritage
Day celebrations on the High school cam-
pus this month.

They were treated to games, visited the

market and explored the Heritage Day
museum. A big thank you to the Matric
students who took such good care of our
Pre-Schoolers. They had a blast!

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 Grandparents Tea
September is always a special month because
we celebrate the Pre-School Grandparents!

We invited our special guests to spend the

day in class with their grandchildren and end-
ed the morning with tea and snacks.

Thank you for spending the day with us and

making special memories that will last forever!

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 Grandparents Tea

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 Pet Visit
One of the best things about Pre-School
are the Pet visits!

This month the Pre-School children got

to meet a very large Tarantula for Spider
week in the Grade 000 classrooms. We
also got to meet baby bunnies and a very
cute bulldog puppy!

Thank you to all our special visitors for pro-

viding our children will hands on learning
at every opportunity.

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 Spring Day
We celebrated SPRING-Bok day on the first
Friday back at school this month.

The children and staff dressed up to wel-

come the start of Spring and in support of
the Springboks for the Rugby world cup!

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 Rhino Day
On Monday, 18 September we dressed in
RED for our Rhinos for World Rhino Day (22
September).

A huge thank you to our community for the

donations, we are pleased to announce
that we raised over R5000 for the Pilanes-
berg Wildlife Trust!

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 Matric Swop
As is our annual tradition we opened our play-
ground to the Matric students to come and
play for the morning. As they end their High
School career we like to remind them of how
it all started - Pre-School!

We wish the Matrics the best of luck as they

prepare for their finals!

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 Coding & Robotics
The Technology Class has been a hive of activi-
ty as the children jumped straight into the coding
and robotics programme.

Grade 000 to Grade 0 classes participate in Tech-

nology lessons once a week. They work with ro-
bots (Cuboids & Bee-bots), conduct scientific in-
vestigations and work through problem solving
exercises.

Our children learn, through play, to communicate

within a group and most importantly they develop
their critical thinking skills in this class.

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 Purposeful Play
Purposeful Play is a compulsory hour of outdoor play
that takes place between 10:30 and 11:30 every day
during the school morning. The children are encour-
aged to explore the different play areas and engage
with children in the other grades and classes. This is an
important part of their social and emotional develop-
ment at school and also gives the teachers and op-
portunity to get to know all the children in the school
outside of their immediate class. #LearningThroughPlay

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18
 Grade 0 Lemurs

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 Grade 0 Flamingos

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 Grade 0 Toucans

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 Grade 00 Caterpillars

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 Grade 00 Munchkins

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 Grade 00 Kangaroos

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 Grade 000 Fish

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 Grade 000 Dolphins

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 Rainbow Class

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