This proverb reminds us that peace in the world starts with each of us, individually – to be content and happy with who we are and to allow this spirit to touch the lives of those with whom we come into contact. 

We, as educators, continue to encourage learners to have a positive attitude, and to show kindness, care and respect for all, and we trust that this will, in turn, create a world, both here at Wynberg Girls’ High and in the wider context, in which we can all fulfil our potential, be peaceful, happy and successful.

“If there is light in the soul
There will be beauty in the person
If there is beauty in the person
There will be harmony in the house
If there is harmony in the house
There will be order in the nation
If there is order in the nation
There will be peace in the world”

With best wishes

Shirley Harding
PRINCIPAL

Parents and prospective students are asked to register, and then are given the choice of attending an information session in the hall, or taken on a guided tour of the school. This year, the information included a half hour presentation of Alice in Wonderland - a parody in which Alice, a Grade 7 student in the process of discovering who she is, is encouraged to join a range of cultural activities, clubs and societies offered in the Wynberg Wonderland. 

Shirley Harding then spoke generally of the school: the range of activities within the 4 pillars, the focus on academic excellence; the importance of single-sex education; the house and tutor group system, the leadership system. 

There were also a number of guided tours. Prospective pupils were taken to the swimming and diving pools, the library, the laboratories, the life skills room and art studio. There were demonstrations of a scientific, biological and cooking kind, there was music to listen to, there were art exhibits and artists at work and there was sport. 

Wynberg is a school with magnificent facilities and all of those could be looked at too. Some of the guided tours of the school were by the deputies and principal! Perhaps this illustrates something of what it is to be at Wynberg: all staff - whether management, maintenance, administrative or academic - are willing to go the extra mile. The result? A school which offers a world class education and prepares young women for the global perspectives of the 21st century. If prospective candidates want that, Wynberg is going to be one of the schools they'll need to consider.

To the disappointment of the school and the breaking of tradition, the Valentine’s Day assembly was cancelled this year. The rumours had been circling the school, and we were uncertain what to believe. The truth was cleared by Kelly during assembly. The unhappy sighs of Wynberg filled the hall.

However, as consolation, the Oscar winning blockbuster, “Titanic”, was screened. Suddenly, a technical difficulty struck, and on the screen pranced two flouncy fairies in tutus, singing ballads and frolicking round the school. Then they appeared live before our eyes, the crowd cheered, “Titanic” sank, and the real show began…

The show was presented by two fairies, the unromantic cynic trying to convince the sweet idealist that roses and chocolates don’t make for real love as Valentine’s Day is all a big money-making scam! Not convinced, the romantic fairy required proof, and we were taken on a tour to places where love is said to prevail. From skater-boys to cavemen, from the ghettos to the heart of Mitchell’s’ Plain, from the unseen world of internet dating to romantic candlelit dinners, we saw it all! 

Tarryn Saunders and 
Kirstin Eloff

The theme for 2005 was Night of the Stars, and it afforded all boarders an opportunity to dress as their favourite celebrity. The dining room had been revamped and was a fitting venue for the award ceremony :

 One of the highlights of the evening was the Buzz Show, where the purpose is to find a perfect mate. It‘s very hard for an event like this to go wrong, and with Wynberg students involved, it clearly had all the ingredients for a major success !

Then came the walk up the kloof, with stops to swim every now and then when it got too hot. With the current water shortage and heat wave in Cape Town, it was sheer pleasure splashing about in crystal clear mountain pools and feeling the lovely running water and waterfalls. 

The highlight was the very tall waterfall at the top which empties into the enormous Paradise pool. This idyllic spot can only be reached by climbing some steep cliff faces, which everyone managed without any drama, each person helping the person behind her, until everyone was up. After a few hours of leaping into the deep pool and lazing about in the sun, it was time to head back downstream and to the school bus. For many, it was their first kloofing trip, no doubt the first of many to come. 

A wonderful way to spent a hot February day!

The Debating Society has had an enthusiastic response from the new Grade 8’s, and we have been pleased to welcome these bright young speakers.

Our first Rotary Debate was against Wynberg Boys’ High at the boys’ school and we proposed the following two motions:

Junior: Prisoners should be used for public works. 
Senior:Rich countries should only supply aid to democracies.

We won both of the debates (hooray!!) and Raelene Adams was chosen as best speaker in the junior debate. Well done to her and all of the speakers !

Sheree Lang Head of the Debating Society

This year's production of "Much Ado About Nothing" was once again a first class one. "Much Ado" is this year's Grade 10 setwork and so it was that 250 girls joined me on 7 February to enjoy an evening at Maynardville. The evening was perfect. What was even more pleasing for me was that the girls really responded to the performance and came away having gained a great deal. For the last several years we have been particularly lucky to watch top quality productions. This fact should encourage the girls to attend every year to add to the many cultural experiences which Wynberg offers them. 

ART-REACH FESTIVAL

While most of the school was still on holiday, a group of Wynberg girls were using their talents for a group made up of enthusiastic high school and university students, passionate about the arts and using them to reach out to the community. The group is called ArtReach and their motto is “Reach hearts through the arts”. 

The festival consisted of music, fine art, and drama, the highlight being two one-act plays. The group produced the plays themselves, and did everything including work-shopping and writing the script, designing and making the set and costumes, rehearsing and marketing - in fact learning everything about the multi-faceted world of theatre production. 

Tara Notcutt, who matriculated from Wynberg last year, co-directed a comedy about Christmas called “Christmas Cracker” and Tarryn Saunders wrote and co-directed a tragedy based on Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Little Mermaid” called “Turritella”. Sharon Carter did lighting and sound, and Berenice Bentel, Michelle Botha, Kirstin Eloff, Rebecca Eloff, Erin Thomas, Kathryn Luyt, Tessa Hittler and Megan Hittler performed and helped in all areas of production. All but two of the female cast and crew were Wynberg girls.

The festival took place just up the road from our school, at St John's Church. With limited budget and limited time, the end product was a huge success. Money was donated to a project called “Feeding the Hungry”. It was an extremely enjoyable and fulfilling experience, and those involved learnt that much can be achieved with hard work, passion, commitment and integrity.

Tarryn Saunders and Kirstin Eloff

On Sunday 20 February, the SPCA held their annual Mutt of the Year Dog Show. Over the past few years, WGHS Interact Club has been in charge of the Tea Garden, and this year was no different. We arrived early on Sunday morning to get everything set up and ready for the busy day ahead and found out that the convenors for the Plant Stall hadn’t arrived. We decided to lend a hand and offered to take over that stall as well, giving the name of our own stall a very different meaning!!

It wasn’t long before the air was filled with the sounds of barking dogs who, with their owners, had come to support this very worthy cause. 

The day, although long, was a great success. We managed to raise R1292, 50 for the Tea Garden, which is a new record for us, and R1403, 00 for the Plant stall. This gave us a Grand Total of R 2695, 50 which will all go towards the helping the SPCA in many different ways.

Thank you to everyone who came to support us and also to those who helped at both the Plant Stall and Tea Garden, both Interact and the animals really appreciate it! 

Bronwyn Nussey

WATERLOO HOSTEL GOES BOWLING

It’s Saturday 19 February. Twelve girls hop out of the bus and eagerly enter the building. Such enthusiasm has not often been witnessed. . . so, what is the occasion ? Ten-pin bowling, of course. 

The two teams lined up against each other :

 After getting off to a somewhat scary start because several people were bowling for the first time, most eventually got the hang of flinging the rather heavy ball down the ‘runway’ towards the pins. Did it ever hit the pins ? Well, that’s an entirely different matter. 

The cheers and screams of delight had to be heard to be believed. The enjoyment of the occasion far out-weighed the soreness of the arms the next morning. Day girls - watch out ! This is one sport where the boarders rule !

THE ELANA SOLOMON SHOW

Wynberg achieved a convincing 10 wicket victory over Belhar in the Monday cricket league, scoring 44/0 in 8 overs in reply to Belhar’s 43 all out. 

Carolyn Jones (13 not out) and Candice Manuel (21 not out) saw Wynberg to victory but the star performance of the afternoon belonged to Elana Solomon who demolished the Belhar batting line-up with the extraordinary bowling figures of 5 – 3 – 10 – 7! (5 overs, 3 maidens, 10 runs scored, 7 wickets) She clean bowled all 7 of her wickets, spraying bails and stumps in all directions. Included in Elana’s wickets was the rare achievement of taking 4 wickets in 4 consecutive deliveries to achieve a hat-trick, or, in this case a “quad-trick”. Well done, Elana - keep bowling them over !

The cricket season has started quite slowly as only two matches have been played so far. Unfortunately the first was lost narrowly by 6 runs. 

Ingrid Coulter scored 23 runs to keep Wynberg in the game. The second match was against Belhar..... 

Two matches have yet to be played - on 28 February at home against Bergvliet, and 14 March away to Florida High School.
At the end of last year, Carolyn Jones, Ingrid Coulter, Melissa Abrahams and Elana Solomon were invited to participate in a fun day at WBHS. 

We didn't manage to beat the boys but we had much fun practising our cricket skills.

Carolyn Jones

The indoor hockey season started really well, with the 1st and 2nd teams having convincing wins over Springfield and Westerford and the 4th team beating Pinelands 16-0 ! The 1st team also drew with rivals Stellenberg 2-2 and is currently unbeaten. The 3rd and 4th teams have done even better, winning all their matches.

FIELD HOCKEY

Wynberg 1st XI are participating in a tournament run over the next 4 Saturdays at the Wynberg Astro. Support would be great and supporter’s cards will be signed.We played our first match against Stellenberg and beat them 2-1. Goals were scored by Carolyn Jones and Nicole Mullins. 

Ilse Davids

Our Synchro girls have also been hard at work, and the following girls were selected to represent WP at the USSASA National Aquatics Championships in Durban at the beginning of March: Lindsey Nevin, Caitlyn Manners-Wood, Tiffany Lovemore, Robyn Lee Malan, Jenna Thomson, Emma Manners-Wood.

LIFE-SAVING

Staying in the water, we make special mention of Heather Whitehorn who did fantastically well at the WP Champs for life-saving held on Fish Hoek Beach recently. Heather participated in the U16 Category and came 2nd in the Diamond Lady (similar to the Iron Lady), 3rd in the knee board, 4th in the surf ski, and 5th in the swim.She now goes through to the SA Champs in March in Camps Bay. Well done, Heather!

As Shelly Mason is injured, we have a new captain to announce. Congratulations go to Samantha Smith, our new Road-running captain.

GOODALL DELIVERS THE GOODS !

We are extremely proud to announce that Jemima Goodall entered the Agri Expo Anual Equestrian Show 2005 at Sandringham this weekend. It was with much deliberation and prompting (from her instructor) that she even took part as the competition is national and extremely stiff. 

Jemima's horse, Sweet Pea, came 3rd in the SA Riding - best rider catagory, and then they competed in the SA Riding - best walk catagory (15yrs and over), and came a whopping FIRST against all the top adult riders and horses!!!! 

Wynberg is extremely happy for and proud of Jemima and Sweet Pea!

With practices twice a week (some of which take place in the cold early morning!), plus matches for every team on Friday afternoons, plus Interhouse matches, waterpolo has been extremely busy this season. The most recent match results are those against Springfield: all the teams except for the 1st’s won convincingly. 

Well done to Kirsty and Robyn Anderson who have just returned from a very successful WP U16 tour to Bloemfontein. They will also be touring the USA in the June Holidays as part of a South African Invitation Team.

The results for the Interhouse Waterpolo competition are:

Well done to all who participated, especially to the pink house for winning ! To the girls taking part in the up-coming Interschools’ competition...GOOD LUCK!

Carolyn Jones 

Congratulations to Mrs Gail Bristow who swam in the Midmar Mile as usual this year. She won first place in her category, again, and was fifth overall, which is fantastic ! 

Swimming practice started well this season with a large turn-out of enthusiastic swimmers. We were very glad to welcome our new Grade 8 swimmers who show a keen interest and enthusiasm for this sport. We have been training hard for our annual interschool’s galas. The co-ed gala took place on 16 February at Newlands: WGHS finished 6th. There was tough competition especially from Springfield who won the event. We are looking forward to the PGSGU Interschools’ Gala on 10 March and hope to see everyone there showing their support.

Congratulations to Amy Meyer for making the WP High Schools’ Team and Chanelle van Wyk for representing South Africa in Rio recently. 

More about Rio in the next newsletter. I would like to make special mention of Deidre Knight, who took part in the Western Province aquatics Championships, where she won gold medals in the 400m Freestyle, the 100m Freestyle, the 100m Butterfly and the 50 m Butterfly. These are her best ever results at these Championships. What a start !

Bronwyn Grisdale

Deidre Olivier is starting to plan for your 20th reunion - can this be possible !?! She can be contacted at : dolivier@fairbridges.co.za  

Please contact her with any information about 1986 Matrics and their whereabouts.

YOUTH LEADERSHIP

DO YOU WANT TO IMPROVE YOUR COMMUNICATION AND LEADERSHIP SKILLS??

ENROL FOR AN 8 WEEK COURSE OVER TERMS 1 & 2.

WHEN: TUESDAY evenings 
TIME: 7.00 to 8.00 pm 
WHO: Grade 10 & 11 learners
WHERE: Ballet Hall 
COST: R 20.00 in total

STARTS: Tuesday 1ST MARCH

ENROL: Hand in your name with R20 in an envelope to Mrs McCallum in Lab 1.

Every year Interact takes an underprivileged school on camp. This year we want to take Dietrich Moravian Primary School from Philippi as we have formed a relationship with them over the past few years. Unfortunately, we can’t do this without funds and are therefore having a Trivial Pursuit Evening. 

Teams = from 2 to 6 people. Tickets cost R15 for adults and R10 for students. Tickets will be sold in the gym from Monday 28 February. 

Refreshments will be on sale during interval. There will also be the option of buying pizza : they will be approximately R8 per slice (slices the equivalent to ¼ of a large pizza, Hawaiian or Margherita). When buying your tickets, please let us know if you are thinking of buying pizza, for catering purposes.
We plan for this to be a successful and fun-filled evening, where we can also gain some general knowledge!

Date: Tuesday, 15 March 2005
Time: 18:30 for 19:00
Venue: Aileen Currie Hall, WGHS

Silverlea Wins the Constantia “Candy for Cancer” Challenge!!!
All houses responded enthusiastically to the “Candy for Cancer” Challenge which ran from 14 – 18 February. The Rotary Club of Constantia will be running an Easter camp for children with cancer, the idea being to provide these children with the opportunity to forget about their disease for a few days, have fun, be spoilt and simply be kids.

Constantia challenged the other seven houses to bring sweets to school so that WGHS could show its support for such a worthwhile project. The response was phenomenal: over 23 000 individual sweets were collected! This means that WGHS will be able to support a number of other organisations with gifts of sweets.

Thanks to all who participated in the challenge, and congratulations to the top three houses: 

1st Silverlea with 5010 sweets
2nd Constantia with 4314 sweets
3rd Apsley with 4068 sweets.

Ms M McCarthy

It would be great if you could join us for the evening and please pass on the invitation to anyone who you feel would be interested in buying some exciting art work.

Where : Thomson Hall, Rustenburg Girls’ High
When : 10 March
Viewing @ 18:00
Bidding from 19:00

Elaine McDonald, Volunteer Administrator
Two Oceans Aquarium
Dock Road, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town
South Africa
Tel: +27-21-418-3823
Fax: +27-21-418-3952
E-Mail: volunteers@aquarium.co.za
Website: www.aquarium.co.za