4. December 2013 | 7. Edition 19. Year

4. December 2013 | 7. Edition 19. Year
Dear
pupils,
colleagues,
parents,
members of the Schulverein and friends of
the Deutsche Schule Pretoria,
The school year 2013 has been a
successful but busy year.
The growing enrolment figures and the
resulting increase in the number of
classes necessitated the building of new
primary school class rooms.
This
process was completed by the end of the
winter holidays.
The building process to create an
ecofriendly environment at the school was
almost completed by the end of
September. Largely financed by the
German Foreign Office, we installed wall
elements and superior insulation in our
class rooms – a cooling and heating
system which is much more ecofriendly
than a conventional one. Furthermore,
photovoltaic
equipment
with
a
performance of approximately 48.5 kW
has been installed. We trust that these
measures are not only exemplary for our
learners but that we will greatly save
energy, too.
As every year end, we will have to bid
farewell to some of our teachers. I would
like to wish all those who are leaving, all
the best for their futures. I would also like
to convey my thank you for their work and
their commitment to our school.
In 2014, we will have four additional
classes. Not only will we, therefore, have
to replace those teachers who are leaving
us for various reasons but find additional
ones to cater for the new classes also.
I will introduce those new teachers to you
in our newsletter of January 2014.
In 2013 the DSP received, as in 2012,
considerably high financial support. The
school’s management and the Governing
Body are very grateful to the German
authorities for their generosity.
In closing I would like to thank all
colleagues as well as the trainers and
coaches of our teams for their timeconsuming and dedicated work. During
2013 our learners, again, excelled in
many sports competitions.
However, our learners also excelled
academically. Their examination results of
2012, which were published at the
beginning of 2013, were excellent. Our
school is one of the best in Gauteng
according to the IEB (Independent
Examination Board).
Finally, I would like to thank the parent
community wholeheartedly, and here
specifically the members of the PRC, for
their dedication and their unstinting
support of the Deutsche Schule Pretoria.
I wish you all a great holiday and
Christmas season and a good New Year.
I look forward to continue our pleasant and
successful cooperation in 2014.
Klevenz
NSC 2013/ Deutsches Internationales
Abitur
Once again, we bid our grade 12 school
leavers farewell and wish them well for the
future and for their careers. The IEB
matric results will be announced at the
end of December and will be published in
our next newsletter in January 2014. The
final results of the examinations for the
German International Abitur will also be
announced then.
CONTENT
Page 1:
Foreword
NSC/Intern. Abitur
PAGE 2:
Personnel
PAGE 3:
Christmas Concert
Robotics
PAGE 4:
Robotics
Results DSD & DELF
Examinations
PAGE 5:
News from the Governing
Body
Info from the PRC
PAGE 6:
Alumni
PAGE 7:
Church Services of the
German speaking
congregations
Personnel
We again have to bid farewell to the
teachers who will be leaving at the end of
the year. We would like to say „Auf
Wiedersehen“ and „Good Bye“ to:
Ms Hildegard Krüger (14+ years at DSP)
Ms Grit Heubner (3 years at DSP)
Ms Kerstin Haberstroh (2+ years at DSP)
Ms Kathy Neuland (approx. 2 years at
DSP)
Herr Timo Lütge (approx. 2 years at DSP)
Ms Michelle Niendorf (1+ year at DSP)
Ms Hildegard Krüger
As from 1983 Ms Krüger, who herself was
a pupil at the DSP, worked at the DSP on
occasion. For the last fourteen years,
however, she has been in full employ as a
teacher. She has taught many learners
how to read, write and count, supplying
them with a solid base for their future
school careers. Teaching Religious
Studies is another subject which has
always been close to her heart. Ms Krüger
taught mainly in Grade 1 and Grade 2.
At many DSP events Ms Krüger lent a
helping hand. Some examples would be
the Oktoberfest and Grandparents Day.
She was a member of the Teachers‘
Council and chaired this council for some
time.
We wish Ms Krüger all the best for her
early retirement and many more years in
the best of health.
Ms Grit Heubner
Ms Grit Heubner is one of the teachers at
the DSP who were seconded by the
German
government.
She
is
a
„Bundesprogrammlehrkraft“ and has as
such taught at our school since February
2011. She mainly taught German and
Mathematics in the Primary School and
the Secondary School, and the subject
Ethics was added from the begnning of
2012.
Chairing the Teachers‘ Council for the last
two years, Ms Heubner has been actively
representing the interests of our teaching
staff members.
We would ike to convey our gratitude to
Ms Heubner for her commitment and
dedication to the DSP. May all the plans
for her future become true!
2
Ms Kerstin Haberstroh
In 2009 Ms Haberstroh gave a „guest
performance“ in our Kindergarten before
leaving again for Germany with her
husband. She returned to South Africa a
short wihle later with the new addition to
her family, her son Kilian, and her
husband. In October 2011 she resumed
her duties as an assistant in the
Kindergarten. In the meantime baby
Benjamin has joined this young family.
In order to dedicate more time to her two
sons and to spent more time on her
profession as photographer (perhaps
opening a new business), Ms Haberstroh
will be leaving the DSP at the end of this
school year.
However, her son Kilian will remind us of
the Haberstrohs every time we look at the
advertising board for the Kindergarden.
Kilian is one of the three children you can
see in the advertisement.
Our best wishes accompany Ms
Haberstroh for a successful new start!
Mr Timo Lütge
Almost two years ago Mr Lütge arrived in
South Africa from Germany to become the
new Youth Deacon for the Johannes
congregation. In April 2012 he added
three lessons of Religious Studies at the
German School to his list of duties.
Mr Lütge will return to Germany at the end
of this year. We wish him a happy return
and all the best for his future!
Ms Michelle Niendorf
Ms Niendorf arrived at our school straight
after having passed her 2nd State
Examination as a teacher. She is the class
teacher of our Grade 4b class. Ms
Niendorf contributed creatively to the
many events which were organised by our
Primary School.
Many thanks to Ms Niendorf for her
cotribution to the DSP. We wish her all the
best for her future!
Mr Bernd Biermann
We are not really bidding Mr Biermann
farewell. He will be on parental leave as
from January for one year, looking after
his baby daughter, Magdalena. However,
we will still be connected to him through
his hobby. He won’t be teaching
Mathematics any more, but will continue
organising the extra-mural climbing
activities. Enjoy your parental leave!
Ms Catherine Coffinet
Ms Coffinet taught French at the DSP for
almost three years. Her lively lessons
were much enjoyed by all her pupils.
During this period she initiated and
developed
a
student
exchange
programme with students from the island
of Réunion. In 2014 this exchange is going
to take place for the third time already.
Ms Kathy Neuland
A belated farewell goes to Ms Kathy
Neuland. Ms Kathy Neuland left the DSP
at the end of September. She commenced
her duties at the DSP at the start of the
school year 2012 when she was
responsible for the Primary School choir
for Grades 1 to 4, the Secondary School
choir for Grades 5 to 12 as well as the
Acting Group for Grades 1 to 4. The choirs
as well as her solo performance as an
opera singer often formed an integral part
of our school events; for example at the
Gala Evening organised by the PRC, and
at the ceremonial cut of the spade for our
new Primary School building.
Our best wishes for their future
accompany Ms Neuland and her family.
Ms Donatella Nadari
A belated welcome to Ms Donatella
Nadari! She started at our school some
months ago and teaches music for six
lessons a week.
Parents‘ evenings
The parents‘ evenings which have been
scheduled for the start of 2014 (16., 21.,
22. January) will, for Grades R to Grade 7,
take place in the class rooms of the
learners. These are indicated in the
attached list of class teachers.
Parents of Grade 8 to Grade 12 meet in
the class room of the class teacher. The
room numbers are to be found following
the grade printed on the attached list of
class teachers
A successful Christmas Concert
3
In addition to those from the Music
Department who are familiar faces
already, Ms Engberts and Mr Komann
also made their first appearances at the
Christmas concert.
With Ms Engbert in charge, the concert
was again a great success, bringing joy
and a feeling of Christmas to the
audience. Many thanks to all those who
were part of the organising and to the
performing teams.
Robotics
In today’s newsletter we would like to
highlight Robotics.
Mr Warren Markley has compiled some
reports on this topic:
What is First Lego League?
First Lego League (FLL) is an annual
robotics competition with 200 000
participants from 70 countries where
teams of 3 to 10 children learn to work as
a team while having to complete various
tasks with different themes. This year the
theme was “Nature’s Fury” and teams all
over the world had to build and program
autonomous Lego Mindstorms® robots to
conquer
natural
disasters
like
earthquakes and tsunamis. They also had
to do a project about the prevention of a
disaster of their choice.
SAPragmatics
SAPragmatics had 2 basic components to
the team: the technical team, which
consisted of Michael Sell, Tobias and
Heiko Damaske; and the project and
research team, which consisted of Selina
Hoffmann, Boyang Yan, Kamogelo
Matsomela
and
Jessica
Irons.
SAPragmatics chose the topic “Monster
Waves”, or freak waves which are
basically huge open ocean waves. They
had a lot of fun while trying to sink a model
boat by dive-bombing it. They also figured
out that Selina, their team leader, and Mr.
Hoffmann, their coach, were both very
good at that, although even they couldn’t
sink the boat once they had attached their
anti-sink solution. SAP sponsored their tshirts, banners and everything else that
was needed. The SAPragmatics had a lot
of fun programming, researching and
being creative in thinking up ways of
stopping their ship from sinking, even
though they got side-tracked a few times,
especially when playing a new game
called “Sinking Bob” – a game of their own
creation.
However, after the competition we had a
bit of bad news. The SAPragmatics had
not been chosen to go through to the
National Competition, even though they
came seventh out of the 38 teams that
competed. The SAP Burning Robots,
however, had managed to qualify for the
Nationals on the 6th and 7th December at
Sci-Bono Discovery Centre.
The Burning Robots team:
The SAPragmatics team:
SAP Burning Robots
The SAP Burning Robots had the same
two team components: the technics,
Heiko Kabutz, Thomas Kabutz and
Thomas Hettasch, and the research
department, Dominic Reichelt, Gustav
Jönsson, Norbert Graefe and James Kim.
The topic they chose was Wildfires, and
they had to come up with a way to stop
them from happening, or at least decrease
their frequency. In their research, which
included interviewing farmers and people
with experience of this topic, they found
out that most wildfires start because of
cigarette butts getting thrown into the
bush; so they distributed more than 300
fliers in shops and other places around
Pretoria. They also experimented with
ways of making portable ashtrays in which
to extinguish burning cigarette butts, so
that the still-burning butts aren’t thrown
out of the car into a dry patch of grass, or
something similar. They also had a lot of
fun,
especially
at
the
Regional
Competition, giving out Fireballs.
4
Stationery sponsor drive
We would like to thank you for your
sponsorhip
of
stationery.
Your
contributions will be distributed to the
Grade R and Grade 1 children of our
partner school P.S.
Umthombo/
Bohlabatsatsi at the beginning of the
school year 2014. I am pleased to see that
there are many of you who want to
contribute to the well-being of the children,
especially at Christmas, the time of giving.
I hope that many of you will be able to
donate a little bit more. The school’s
administration will be open, so despite the
school year having ended, you may still
drop off your contributions at our
reception. Perhaps we will reach our goal.
Quantity wise, we are halfway there.
Competition results
German Language Diploma 2013
(Deutsches Sprachdiplom)
Altogether 42 learners wrote the
examinations for the German Language
Diploma. These examinations have over
the years become a fixture on the school’s
calendar of events
There are two levels one can obtain: The
“DSD” (Deutsches Sprachdiplom) in
Grade 9 of our New Secondary School
classes and the DSD II. If a learner
acquires the DSD II he/she may study at
a German university. This year alone 35
learners wrote the examinations for the
DSD II.
We congratulate the following learners
who passed the examinations and
obtained the German Language Diploma:
DSD I
B1 Level
Malebo Paula Lekgoathi, Oarabile Moima
Kabelo Mokoka, Vlleeonharr Moyo
A2 Level
Itumeleng Chuene, Zachariah Idiculla,
Bongani Mahlangu, Izana Maila,
Alainah Parker, Chesley Pattrick,
Naimah Steenkamp, Thapelo Tsele
Dimpho Tsele, Boyang Yan
DSD II
C1 Level
Anne Ankermann, Samuel Baum,
Stefanie Damaske, Raphael Gerber,
Mark Jäger, Annette Lange,
Nektarios Ioannides, Markus Müller,
Dominik Nicolaus, Celina Pröbstl,
Philipp Savvopoulos, Anita Slabber
B2 Level
Kedibone Ledwaba, Kamogelo Mothle,
Lisa Nyamane, Natasha van der Colff,
Melba Reid, Carl Schildhauer,
Kimberley Schweer, Matthias Weber
DELF results
The examinations for the French
Language Diploma (DELF) were written at
the Alliance Française Pretoria. A
candidate who passed the examination
with the result B 2 may study at a French
university. We congratulate:
Olivia Fechtner
Regina Intemann
B2
B2
B 1:
Carla Ankermann, Yannick Kropp, Lea
Jäger,
Celina
Pröbstl,
Philipp
Savvopoulos, Amelie Volk, Mark Jäger
A 2:
Fred Wieneke, Alessia Hillmeyer
Access Discs 2013
Your previous access discs must be
exchanged for those of 2014. They will
allow access to the school grounds. The
new discs are available at our reception
which remains open until 18 December
2014.
5
Extra-mural activities, calendar of
events, list of class teachers 2014
The 2014 calendar of events as well as
the list of class teachers for 2014 and the
list of extra-mural activities (Sport) for the
1st term 2014 are attached to this
newsletter. They will also be published on
our website.
For organisational reasons the list of
extra-mural cultural activities for 2014 will
only be available after the first week of
school in 2014. They will also be
published on our website.
Information from the Governing Body
Farewell to a member of the Governing
Body
The chairman and his colleagues on the
Governing Body are bidding Mr Gebauer
farewell. Mr Gebauer joined the
Governing Body after he was elected as
one of its members at the General
Meeting of the Schulverein in 2011. He
served as chairman on the School and
Personnel Committee and was the
Secretary of the Governing Body. At its
last meeting in October Mr Wieneke
succeeded Mr Gebauer as the Secretary.
Due to his work commitments, working for
the German Foreign Office, Mr Gebauer
and is family will return to Germany in
June. The chairman would like to convey
the members’ gratitude for Mr Gebauer’s
trustworthy co-operation and for his
readiness always to act and give his input
to the benefit of the Schulverein.
Christmas
greetings
from
the
Governing Body
The Governing Body members wish to
convey their best wishes to all members
of the school community for a peaceful
Christmas and a happy and prosperous
new year.
Information from the PRC
Lunch from the tuckshop kitchen Price Increase
Please note that the PRC has increased
the price for lunches available from the
tuckshop kitchen. As from January 2014 a
full meal will cost R 30 while half a meal
and a meal in the Kindergarten can be
bought for R 15.
News from the Alumni
Julia Jacobs, alumni and currently
studying at the Robert Schumann
Musikhochschule in Düsseldorf, has been
involved in many concerts this year.
However, one definitely stands out.
As their cellist, she accompanied the
rockband “Die Toten Hosen” at their
concerts on 19, 20 and 21 October in front
of a thrilled audience of mostly young
people.
The band “Die Toten Hosen” was founded
in 1982. They play mostly rock music with
German lyrics. They are, besides the
band “Die Ärzte”, the band with the
highest commercial success.
6
Beginning of school after the holidays
Lessons will resume after the summer
holiday on Wednesday, 15 January 2014
with morning assembly in the school hall
at 7:30.
Kind regards
N Klevenz
Head
Attachments:
Church services of the German speaking
congregations
List of class teachers 2014
Calendar of events 2014
List of extra-mural activities 1st term 2014
Church services of the German speaking congregations
Date
22.12.2013
09:00
24.12.2013
17:00
24.12.2013
18:30
25.12.2013
9.00
29.12.2013
09:00
Gemeinsamer Weihnachtsgottesdienst mit St.
Peters (dt.)
Gottesdienst (dt.)
31.12.2013
18:00
Gottesdienst mit Beichte und Abendmahl (dt.)
01.01.2013
10:15
Kein Gottesdienst in der Johannesgemeinde –
Einladung zur St.-Peters-Gemeinde
Datum
24.12.2013
17:00
25.12.2013
09:00
Christvesper (dt.)
Stadtmission Pretoria
(Pastor Stobwasser, Cell: 083 979 6396)
Heiligabend Familiengottesdienst
Weihnachtsgottesdienst
Kein Gottesdienst
26.12.2013
29.12.2013
09:00
Gottesdienst
31.12.2013
17:00
01.01.2013
18:00
Jahresabschlussandacht mit Abendmahl und
anschließender Silvesterfeier
Kein Gottesdienst
Datum
24.12.2013
7
Johannes Congregation
(Pastor Dr. Nottmeier, 012 803 5212)
Gemeinsamer Gottesdienst in der St- PetersKirche
(dt., engl. und afrikaans.)
Familiengottesdienst/Krippenspiel (dt.)
Kath. Gemeinde St. Joseph
(Frau Schindler, Gemeindereferentin – tel 012 998 1772)
17.00
Christmette im Nazareth House,
290 Wilhelmina Str., Waterkloof
25.12.2013
10:00
Heilige Messe im Nazareth House
26.12.2013
10:00
Fest des Heiligen Stefanus
Heilige Messe im Hobbyraum des deutschen
Altersheims
Anschließend Kaffeetrinken mit
Weihnachtsgebäck
30.12.2013
10:00
Jahresabschlussgottesdienst im Nazareth House