Message from the office
The Olympics has come to an end with many inspirational events and many controversies too. There have also been
sad moments and some that were quite humorous. Likewise, the responses to these events on social media were at times uplifting but some were vilifying. Many people jumped on the bandwagon to slay, judge, condemn and break down. It amazes me how people are so quick to judge and say the meanest of things (especially from the comfort of their couch).
Unfortunately our girls are not protected or isolated from social media and when they read some people’s responses (not only regarding the Olympics) they may think it is a reaction to emulate and repeat. It is our role to teach our girls that our words, comments, actions, criticisms, judgement and rejections can be extremely damaging to others.
It is so important to teach our girls to have empathy, to have grace, to recognise their own shortcomings so that they may be gracious with others when things don’t go as planned. We do live in a world where it seems to be okay to be nasty and speak without thinking (especially when we don’t have to be held accountable and say it face-to-face) but we need to teach our daughters that it is not okay to cause others hurt and shame.
Be sure to have conversations with your girls that make them realise the impact their words may have on others. ‘How do you think she may have felt when you said that?’, ‘How would you feel if
someone said that about/to you?’. ‘Do you think she can help it/have any control over it?’. ‘How would you feel if someone started picking on you about something you are sensitive about?’. ‘You’ve made a mistake before; how did you want your friends to respond?’. Be sure to correct or address mean and unkind words and be sure not to use them yourself. Praise your daughter when you see her being kind, supportive and empathetic and make sure that you model love and acceptance.
We know that girls can be mean, but they don’t have to be. It is up to us to teach them otherwise.
Assembly
Thank you to Ms Casling’s Grade 1 class for their lovely assembly on Monday that commemorated Women’s Day. This was our last class assembly for this year.
Personality of the Week: Congratulations to our VP hostel girls and a couple of day girls who attended the SPCA movie night on the 2nd of August. They were nominated as our Personalities of the Week as they were commended for their good behaviour and they helped to clean up afterwards without complaint. The school received an email from the SPCA thanking our girls for their help on the night.
Indlulamthi Badge: Well done to Chloe Jeggels who received her Indlulamthi badge at Monday’s assembly. Thank you for being such a wonderful VP girl, Chloe!
Sportsmanship Trophy: We congratulate our U10A hockey girls who were all nominated to receive our Sportsmanship Trophy at Monday’s assembly for their enthusiastic and courageous play against Port Alfred’s U13 team.
Worker of the Week: Well done to Rebecca Phillip who is our Worker of the Week this week – in music she created a movie script and wrote the soundtrack! Wow! What amazing things our girls are doing at VP.
Merit Achievers: Linomtha Gonyela, Ciana Moodie and Kelly Smith have received over 250 merits so far this year. Keep it up, girls!
SPCA Book Sale
We were delighted that the SPCA raised R5274 from their book sale at VP. What a worthy cause and our girls were able to purchase some lovely books at bargain prices.
Trolley Dash
Congratulations to our Trolley Dash finalists for 2024: Bolise Mxube, Abongile Kili, Unathi Tyatyeka, Chriselda Thompson and Nothemba Mteto.
The finalists met at Pick ‘n Pay on the evening of the 13 August and Unathi Tyatyeka was the lucky winner of the Trolley Dash. Congratulations! The other finalists each received a R250 voucher from Pick ‘n Pay. We are very pleased to announce that R36 113,67 was raised. Thank you to everyone who contributed.
Interschools Best Speakers & General Knowledge Quiz vs Graeme College
On Wednesday afternoon we hosted our annual Interschools Best Speakers Competition. We were joined by Graeme College and all contestants made excellent presentations and made both of our schools proud! Well done! We would like to thank all involved for their support and effort in preparing our girls for the event. The winners of each category were as follows:
Grade 4: Kaylee May
Grade 5: Bridget Akpeng
Grade 6: Joel Chitsike (GC)
Grade 7: Talitha Dingani & Jed van der Merwe (GC) shared first place.
The Best Speakers contest was followed
by our Interschools General Knowledge Competition. It was a fun and educational evening. Although the team performed incredibly well in answering many questions correctly Graeme won the event. The score was 53 points for Graeme and 42 points for Victoria Primary. We are proud of our girls who conducted themselves well under pressure.
MUSIC
Save the date
We are thrilled to announce that our choirs (junior choir, senior choir and chamber choir) will be participating in the Rhodes University Music Festival on Saturday, 31 August which will be held at the 1820 Settlers Monument. Further details will be communicated once they are finalised by the festival organisers.
Assessments
All music pupils will play their Term 3 music assessments next week. Keep up the good work, girls and GOOD LUCK!
SPORT
Hockey results vs PAH
U10 VP 2-1 U10 PAH
U10/13 VP mixed team 2-0 U13 PAH
Well done to our girls and for the good sportsmanship they displayed during the course of the morning. Thank you to the parents for their support and to Mrs Andrews and Ms Knott-Craig for coaching, umpiring and transporting our girls!
U13A Netball Results – Cape Recife Tournament
VP 17-1 St Marks; VP 11-5 Cape Recife; VP 13-4 Paul Sauer; VP 14-3 Bonzai
Well done to a successful end to the season for our U13 girls and for their commendable behaviour displayed at the tournament. Thank you to Ms Featherstone and Ms le Roux for their coaching and support.
U10 Hockey tour to Graaff-Reinet
We wish our U10 hockey girls all the best at the hockey festival at Union this weekend. Thank you to Mrs Andrews and
Ms Knott-Craig for accompanying them. Have fun and safe travels!
Wilson Tennis
Good luck to our girls who will be participating in the Wilson Tennis Series on Sunday. Play well and have fun girls.
INTERHOUSE ATHLETICS DAY will take place on Thursday, 22 August 07:20–13:00 at Graeme College, Somerset field.
Our Interhouse Athletics Day is a fun compulsory day for all Grade 3-7 (U9-U14) girls. The Grade 00–2 girls will come to school as usual.
The Grade 3-7 girls must be dropped off at Graeme College, Somerset Field at 07:20 and meet up with their class teacher for roll call. The event will start at 07:35 and end at approximately 13:00. Girls are to be collected at 13:00 from Graeme.
The girls must wear their house T-shirts which are available from Heinen or Xtreme Embroidery (please no homemade versions), black shorts (NOT SKORTS), white socks, school hats/peaks, takkies and tracksuits. Girls must wear sunscreen. Please provide your daughter with plenty of water and a healthy lunch. The tuckshop at GC will NOT be available to VP girls! Parents are most welcome to support. If you are up to it we would like to have a parents’ relay team- so come dressed to sprint and give the teachers a run for their money! There will be no extramurals for Gr 3-7 on this Thursday.
Please make sure that her black (not blue) shorts fit her comfortably and are not too tight (they can be purchased at a very reasonable price from any Pep or Ackermans). If your daughter is at the appropriate age, please purchase your daughter a supportive bra for this event. Proper sports bras will provide support and minimise movement during her races which can help prevent discomfort, pain, and potential long-term damage. Please prioritise this if your daughter is needing one.
Updated Extramural programme
Please take note of the updated programme for next week which accompanies the newsletter home today. The programme for Athletics day is on the back side of the extramural programme.
PTA Meeting: We will have our next PTA meeting on Tuesday, 20 August at 17h15 in the school hall. All parents are welcome to join us!
Birthday wishes
We wish the following staff and girls a very happy birthday for next week: Ms Oerson, Ms Songongo, Sibabalwe Sokhanyile, Hlalumi Balfour, Ndaloyothando Koza, Unakho Fetsha, Alunamda Rafa and McKenzie Pringle.
We hope you have a very happy day!
Regards
Mrs Rafferty
PRINCIPAL
| UPCOMING EVENTS | |
| Fri. 16/08 | · U10 Hockey Festival @Union, Graaff-Reinet
· Gr. 7 Talk · Gr. 7 Technology afternoon. Ends 16:30. Please pick girls up at the Hostel entrance in Hill Street. |
| Sat. 17/08 | · U10 Hockey Festival @Union, Graaff-Reinet |
| Sun. 18/08 | · Wilson Tennis Tournament |
| Tues. 20/08 | · PTA meeting @17:15 |
| Thurs. 22/08 | · Interhouse Athletics @GC
· No Extramurals (Gr. 3-7) |