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SOUTH PENINSULA HIGH SCHOOL

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* Applications for Grade 8 2013 open on Monday 16 January and close on Friday 27 February 2012. Forms may be collected from the school. *  SP hosts the 2012 Global Classroom Partnership Conference in June. More details soon. Read all about the GCP here. *  Visit the Alumni site at www.spalumni.co.za.

• Thoughts from The Office: Welcome to this feature, where principal Mr Brian Isaacs shares his thoughts on current issues in education. In this edition he focuses on the 2011 Municipal Elections. Read more here.

• Inter-house 2012: The annual inter-house athletics event was held on the 31 January and 1 February at school. 2012 proved to be the year in which perennial underdogs, Azalea, rose from fourth position in 2011 to first this year. They had led, except for a brief period, throughout the first day and were never caught thereafter but, with 7 points for a win, the victory was not assured until just before the relays. Kendal and Mimosa vied throughout for second and third place. The final points tally was as follows: Azalea - 576; Kendal - 535; Mimosa - 509; Protea - 442.

• Matric 2011: The matriculants of 2011 have upheld the tradition of excellence set by their predecessors by obtaining outstanding results in the 2011 Matriculation exams. Of our 184 candidates, 181 passed, giving us a 98.4% pass rate. Equally impressive is the fact that 79.9% of the candidates achieved the Bachelor's Pass (the old exemption), a record for SP. Our top student was Lauren de Waal (below) (87,29%), who had 7 distinctions (A's). She was very closely followed by Waseem Basadien and Umr Rasdien (both with 87,14% - 5 distinctions) and Samuel Dodgen (87.0% - 5 distinctions). All four were placed on the WCED Merit List, and attended a function at the official residence of the Premier of the Western Cape. Also at the function our school was awarded R15000 for Excellence in Academic Performance, one of 22 schools to receive this award. The criteria were as follows: consistency in number of grade 12 candidates over a period of 3 years (at least 90%); an overall pass rate of at least 95% in 2011; % of candidates with access to Bachelor's degree; % of candidates with Mathematics passes. Read more here.
• Grade 8 Orientation: On Wednesday 14 December the Grade 8s of 2012 were introduced to their new school. They were welcomed by Mr Isaacs and during the interval they were treated to a performance by members of Eminence, the school’s rock band, assisted by ex-student Chad Isaacs, one of the members of the school’s first jazz band. See more photos here.

• SP builds a wind turbine: For the past few weeks members of the 90 x 2030 Club have been building a wind turbine which, when completed and installed, will be able to save a certain amount of electricity and so reduce our carbon footprint. Read more here. Below is Ali Waggie, watched by Daniel Robinson, Western Cape Clubs Coordinator of Project 90 x 2030, trying desperately to keep his feet on the ground.

• National Gold for SP: Kaamilah Navsa (below) achieved the remarkable feat of gaining a gold medal in the National Eskom Expo for Young Scientists held in Johannesburg early in October, with her project entitled ‘The Benoulli Lift Effect’. Aashiq Parker and Mikhaeel Navsa obtained silver with their project called ‘Maths in Music’. Kathryn Jacobs was the fourth SP representative, with her project entitled ‘Brain Games’.

• Feeling on top of the world: Members of SP’s hiking club exceeded all expectations in an inter-schools challenge which involved an ascent of Table Mountain on Saturday 24 September. Participants were divided into pairs and, besides climbing the mountain, also had to perform various tasks along the way, including a written one. Places were determined according to the time taken to complete the course, as well as the tasks performed. The winners were SP’s all-girl pair of Kristi Overmeyer and Jamie-Lee Jackson (below), while second place went to SP’s Quinton Joshua and Ibrahim Saheb. In addition, Luke Coller, paired with a student from another school, came fourth. A truly outstanding achievement!

• SOS Schools Challenge: For three days in September four SP students, Aashiqa Laingno, Saarah Abrahams, Tyler Ridder and Caleb Sampson, accompanied by teacher Nicole McNamara, were put through a series of gruelling physical challenges in Grabouw as part of a competition which is to be flighted on SABC3’s Espresso programme in January and February 2012. For more photos, click here.

(Updated 5 February 2012)