Manor Gardens Primary School

“When you find a dream inside your heart, don’t ever let it go. For dreams are the tiny seeds, from which beautiful tomorrows grow.” – Unknown

DATES TO DIARISE
15 April Permaculture Gardening (Staff Workshop)
17 April Book Repair Morning
19 April Start of 2nd term extra-mural timetable
22 April Earth Day
22 April Berea Media Centre Meeting
22 April SGB Meeting
26 April School Holiday
27 April Public Holiday (Freedom Day)
1 May Public Holiday (Worker’s Day)
1 May Camp Out
5 - 7 May Grade 7 Excursion (Anerley)
8 May Horizon Maths (Round 2)
11 - 19 May Grade 7 Exams
15 May International Day of Families
16 May Crawford La Lucia Proms
18 May International Museum Day
22 May International Day for Biological Diversity
27 – 28 May Grade 6 Excursion (Shongweni)
28 May Soccer Sizzle Social Evening
31 May – 4 June World Environmental Week
2 June Cross Country
5 June World Environment Day
5 June Mother’s Tea
7 – 8 June Booktime
9 June Break Up Day

We warmly welcome all members of our school community to the second academic term! We look forward to your contribution and collaboration in accomplishing the MGPS vision and mission statement which is, “To nurture children to their full potential in a harmonious and dynamic learning environment and to develop innovative, responsible individuals who are able to contribute positively within a diverse and changing society.”

GENERAL NEWS

CONGRATULATIONS
Congratulations to the following children:
- Liam Harwood who has been awarded a General Bursary at Durban High School for 2011
- Kyrin Naicker, Mondli Gcaba and Jordan Grobbelaar for being selected to attend the KZN Cricket Trials
- Thomas Oosthuizen who made it through to the KZN Athletics Meeting in the hurdles event where he was placed 3rd.

APPRECIATION
- Thank you to the Fundraising Committee and those parents who assisted with the installation of six generously donated Whirly Birds in our school hall. These turbine ventilators are a pleasing green solution to effectively cool the hall.
- Thank you to the guest musicians who performed at the Easter Assembly on 26 March. We appreciate your valuable skill and time
given.

FP BOOK REPAIR MORNING
One of the things that we are most proud of at Manor Gardens Primary School is our unique approach to reading. One of the key factors to this approach is letting the Foundation Phase children choose their own reading books in the Reading Room every day. Our Reading Room is well stocked with a wide variety of children’s books. Even though great care is taken by most to treat these books with respect, they do get damaged. We need your assistance to help us repair these reading books, so that they can go back onto the shelves and be enjoyed again.
We will be having a book repair morning on Saturday 17 April from 08h00 to 10h30. Your assistance will be greatly appreciated.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
The Riverside Theatre Company will be presenting “Beauty and the Beast” to our children from Grades 1 to 7 on Friday 30 April. The cost of the production is R12.00 per child. Please send the money in a clearly marked envelope to the class teacher by Friday 23 April.

POLIO AND MEASLES CAMPAIGN
During April, the Department of Health will be visiting our school to give polio drops and administer measles vaccines to children under the age of 15 years. Kindly complete the consent forms which will be sent home during the course of this week and return to school as soon as possible.

CHILD TRAFFICKING
We have received many emails from concerned parties alerting us to the potential danger of human/child trafficking in South Africa, particularly during the Soccer World Cup. We urge children and parents to be careful and vigilant at all times. Teachers have discussed ‘stranger danger’ with their pupils.

CAR PARK RULES
We are fortunate to have a car park. Many schools do not have the luxury of off road parking for parents dropping and collecting their children. Thank you to those who consistently observe the rules of our car park. We, however, continue to hear reports from parents about motorists who choose to ignore these rules. This behaviour compromises the safety of our children and unnecessarily frays tempers. Once again, we appeal to you to be considerate when using the car park. In the interest of safety and to prevent a tragic accident at our school, please comply with the following rules:
- Please only park on one side of the car park, in the parking bays
- Please do not park parallel to Dale Road in the car park because it increases the number of children crossing the car park and your car obstructs the vision of the children to oncoming motorists.
Every family has been issued with a copy of these rules which were developed to ensure your child’s safety. Should you have misplaced your copy, please make a note in your child’s homework book and the class teacher will send you another copy.

WITNESS TO AN ACCIDENT
Is there anyone out there who saw the car accident involving Mrs Marshall-Connellan? It occurred on Thursday morning, 29 October 2009 in Francois Road (Rick Turner). If you can help, please contract Mrs Marshall-Connellan at pmarshall@mgps.org.za

SPORTS NEWS
Please note that the extra-mural programme will start on Monday 19 April and the timetable will be sent out during the course of this week.

CAROL LOTTERING
PRINCIPAL