GENERAL NEWSLETTER NO. 2/2010                                        18 February 2010

LIVING VALUE: LOVE

Dear Parents / Caregivers

"Love cures people - both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it" (Karl Messinger)

We are now reaching "Mid Term" and all our learners should be settled into the daily routine. It is important that a routine around homework is also followed at home. The most important thing is that you CHECK your child's homework diary everyday. Homework is not a punishment but a way of linking home and school. If you notice any problems please contact the class teacher.

SCHOOL GOVERNING BODY: You will have noticed a BLUE card in your child's school diary, this contains the names and e-mail addresses of all S.G.B members. Please feel free to contact them with queries or suggestions. An S.G.B. suggestion box has been placed at the entrance for your convenience as well.

DATES TO REMEMBER: Please diarise
FEBRUARY
19th             - Swimming Gala at Sharonlea
24th             - Cricket Match Saxonwold vs Torah Academy
22nd to 25th - Grade 6 & 7 medicals
26th             - Swimming Gala at Wendywood
26th to 28th  - Leadership Camp

MARCH
1st to 3rd      - Grade 2 medicals
6th               - Club Family Function. Time: 10am - 2pm. Your
                      Class reps will contact you.
10th             - Photo Day
15th             - Grade 7 Aptitude tests
16th to 18th  - Grade 7 Sex Education
19th             - Intersen Phase swimming trials
25th             - Inter-House swimming gala
                   - Parent Teacher interviews
26th             - Last day of Term 1

SPORTS: One of our drives this year it to improve our "Support" for our sporting / cultural teams. I'm attaching the Fixture lists for you so that, if you have a free hour or so, your support will be greatly appreciated.

Cricket
3rd February   - Saxonwold vs Hirsch Lyons (Ter Horst won; Commonwealth won)
10th February - Saxonwold vs Bellavista (Ter Horst won; Commonwealth lost)
17th February - Bye
24th February - Saxonwold vs Torah Academy (Ter Horst home; Commonwealth away)

Congratulations to Jead Stehr and Lungile Ngwenya in Grade Six. They have been selected to serve on the Johannesburg Junior City Council. We wish them an exciting experience and we look forward to the projects they bring to our school.

The Grade 7 leaders will be attending a Leadership Camp in Magaliesburg from the 26th to 28th February. There they will be learning and experience the "do's" and "don'ts" of Leadership.

SCHOOL FEES: All accounts have been invoiced for January and February school and aftercare fees. Please make sure that payment is made promptly and before the 7th of every month. If you are on the debit order option which the school administers, please do not panic if the payment does not reflect on the school account immediately. Mrs Varie looks after the account for you.
When making payments using the electronic transfer option, kindly pay the school fees and after care separately (but into the same banking account) using either your account number at the school eg. 3VARI01 which is found in the right-hand upper corner of your statement or your child's full name and surname as the reference. This will assist Mrs Watt in allocating your payments timeously and will avoid confusion. Please do not use the payee's name and surname. This cannot be allocated.
In order to continue to provide the best education for your child we need your fees!

On a money note! We have been in contact with MAKRO and they offer schools a 4% incentive on all purchases made by parents affiliated to Saxonwold Primary. They will provide each family and extended family (apply for additional family through school) with a MAKRO card (your existing card will be linked to the Crown Mines store) and each time you shop at MAKRO CROWN MINES the 4% goes towards our school fees. This incentive costs you NOTHING, but could help in bringing our school fees down. At the moment the incentive is limited to Crown Mines, however, we are looking at affiliating other branches with our school.
Should you not wish to participate in this incentive, please complete the reply slip below and send it back to the office.

MORNING TRAFFIC: We are finding that parent's disobey the traffic rules by parking illegally when dropping their children off at school. Please may I ask parents not to disobey traffic rules for the sake of our children? Parents are also parking in the area where the scholar patrol has to be on duty. We have been in contact with JRA to paint the lines across the road and they have assured us that it will be done before the end of February. In the meantime, do not park on the road directly before or after the staff parking gate closest to the school main gate.

GENERAL: All house T-shirts have arrived and are available in the office from Mrs Mosana or Mrs Varie.

Yours sincerely

M.E. WHEATER
PRINCIPAL