Sports and Cultural Festival: Basketball

The Basketball Tournament was organised by Ms Chalice Egling and the tournament umpire was Mr Carlos Alfredo. The schools that participated in the girls’ basketball tournament are: Brebner High School, Norkem Park high School, Pretoria Girls High School, Edenvale High School, The Glen High School, Michael Mount Waldorf School, Redhill School and St Peter’s College.

When asked about the weekend, the girls we interviewed said it was most enjoyable. Even though some of the teams played a rougher game than others expected, the knowledge and sportsmanship gained by playing against those teams was valuable. One of participants from The Glen High School said: ‘The teams we played against during the course of the weekend were challenging.’ Rudzani Ramuthaga of St Peter’s College said: ‘The experience tested the skills that we leant on our recent tour to Mozambique.’

The St Peter’s College team made it through to the semi-finals and resulted in the Pretoria Girls High School team to just miss a shot at the title. In the semi-finals the girls played against The Glen High School and won.  Unfortunately St Peter’s College lost in the finals to the team from Michael Mount Waldorf School.

During this weekend, many new friendships were formed. We all learned important lessons as a result of the varied competition. The students from St Peter’s College would like to thank Mr Rui Morais and his team for organising this wonderful event!

Shannon Friday and Nicola Macleod

St Peter’s College Sport and Cultural Festival

St Peter’s College held the 9^th annual Sport and Cultural festival at the end of September. Every year this Festival gets bigger and better and 2012 was no different.

With girls’ and boys’ soccer, girls’ and boys’ basketball, netball, art, choir and debating on offer, there was something to satisfy everyone’s interest.

 

Overall 45 schools competed from Gauteng and Swaziland with a total of nearly 2, 000 participants. The organisers of the festival, Mr Rui Morais and Mr David Short from St Peter’s College said: ‘This year’s was the most successful tournament yet.’ This annual festival is widely recognised as the best winter sport’s tournament available to South African schools. The College Parent’s Association provided meals to players and spectators alike, and a total of 4, 500 meals were sold.

It is truly glorious to see that, at as Festival such as ours, we are all merely high school students, doing what we love best. Our team of St Petrian reporters were out in full force to document the happenings from start to finish.  Keep reading the blog and we will share the atmosphere and outcomes of the festival.

May you all continue doing what you love, and doing it well.  We would like to thank all the participants, organisers and supporters for a wonderful Sport and Cultural Festival. We can’t wait for September 2013!    

 Callie McEvoy

What Legacy Are You Leaving?

 By Joshua O’Brien

What will people remember you for?  How are you perceived?

It was not long ago that I was singing along to one of Chris Brown’s new songs. While I was singing my Gran asked: “Who sings this, my boy?”

“Chris Brown. Why?” I replied.

“Isn’t he the man who hit his girlfriend?” she enquired.

“Oh yes” I replied. He was dating Rihanna?”

“Yes that’s the one.” She reflected: “He’s not a very nice man, I must say!”

What is your view of Chris Brown? Is your opinion of him as a result of the way he sings or the way he treats women?  Before my Gran reminded me of the incident with Rihanna, I saw Chris Brown as a very talented artist with a great deal to offer to the world.

My Gran, on the other hand, has no idea who he is as a musician and only sees him as a man who has no respect for women.

A legacy is not something you leave after you die.

A legacy is something you build every day you live.

Having a talent or being famous doesn’t mean anything unless you treat people well and with respect. It’s not all about winning or being the best, it’s about how you treat the people while doing what you love, that is the legacy that you ultimately leave behind!

Chris Brown may have apologized for what he did, but it doesn’t take away what he did. That incident of violence will be associated with him forever. That is how many people will see him.

How will people see you in the future? Is it going to be the way you have treated them through high school, good or bad, your attitude towards work and your teachers or the way you act and present yourself?

I hope people will remember me for what I believed in had to offer the school and for the true friend I have been to my peers. The glory and accolades of being first team this and first team that, will fade into insignificance if not coupled with being a good, honest, caring and kind person.

South African Sports Legacies

By Tarryn Havenga

In historical terms, a legacy is something that is handed down from one period of time to another period of time. It can either be positive or negative. Legacies are, more or less, what we remember about a person or a country. A legacy is something you leave behind that will benefit others. Perhaps even those generations still to come.

What an individual or a country does today might, in the future, be regarded as being important enough to be thought of as a legacy from the 21st Century. Outstanding examples of sport legacies are Penny Heyns and Oscar Pistorius

Both individuals demonstrate how they unleash their full potential. They share the philosophy of ‘run your own race’. Penny and Oscar bring a dynamic, powerful message of hope and inspiration to all of us. These messages empower people to take complete control of their lives, realize their potential and fulfil their destiny.

Penny Heyns, also known as ‘the golden girl’ of South African sports in the 1990's, is a household name in South Africa. She is regarded as one of the greatest female breaststroke swimmers ever. Penny established herself as the world’s greatest female breaststroker of the 20th Century when she won both the 100m and 200m breaststroke events in Atlanta, 1996. She remains the only female Olympian to do so. She won bronze in Sydney, 2000 and has broken a total of 14 individual world records during her swimming career.

Her experiences of training and competing internationally have given her supreme insights into what it takes to get to the top, and more importantly, how to stay there. Penny retired from competitive swimming in 2001. She is now an athlete's commission member of the International Swimming Federation (FINA), a businesswoman, a motivational and public speaker and a television presenter.

Oscar Pistorius, South Africa’s latest laureate, has been awarded the 2012 Laureus world sports player with a disability. Oscar is the first amputee sprinter; he is a gold medallist, Paralympic champion and blade runner.

We all know that swimming and running are individual and often very lonely sports. They are much like life. They require certain vital characteristics in order to attain success:  sacrifice, determination, perseverance, dedication and single-minded focus. This is what it takes to make it to the top of one of the world’s toughest sporting disciplines and stay there.

The same principles relate and apply to our lives in general. I trust that this will inspire you to believe in your own potential, and inspire you to turn disappointment into victory.

What legacy do you want to leave behind? This may be regarded as being important enough to be thought of as a legacy from the 21st Century. Most importantly, live your life in the pursuit of personal excellence.

Malema Leaves Yet The Youth Remains

By Khanya Memela

Julius Malema has been stripped of his title as ANC Youth League president. Some say it was bound to happen; others disagree with the final decision made by the ruling party. Irrespective of all that was stated the burning question, is where does removal of Julius Malema leave the youth of South Africa?

Julius Malema has had a political career filled with criticism as a result of the choices he made. As the ANC Youth League leader he was expected to perform a number of duties.  All were all intended to address the problems facing the South African youth: serious issues of unemployment, lack of education and HIV/AIDS.  The youth in South Africa make up the biggest demographic group and the position of Head of the Youth league is a difficult one to hold.

Malema is a man who made some questionable choices, many believed that he was not right for this daunting position. With the removal of Malema from the Youth League one must ask the question as to whether all the challenges faced by the youth can be solved by one individual.  With or without Malema in power the challenges we face as the youth of South Africa will remain until a greater change occurs.

This greater change needs to be within the mind sets of our youth and within our current ruling government. In terms of the youth, we need to adopt a mentality where ambition is our main driving force and the issue of laziness is never a restricting factor within our own development as the youth of this country. In respect to our current government, a development in the way it operates needs to occur in order for there to be a change in our educational system, which will result in a change in the many other problems we face as the youth of South Africa.

There needs to be constant development whenever we elect and remove a leader from power. Malema proved unsuitable for the job. A more adequate leader is required to champion youth issues with government.  There must be a change in thinking to help change the mind-set of our youth to make change.  The challenges our youth face are slowing down change in South Africa.

Nights of Wonder and Numbers

By Khanya Memela

The Tour de Math season began on a high note for the mathematicians of Grade 11. Two of the mathematicians were part of the winning team and four others returned home with a few prizes.

The season started with two legs, the first hosted by St Andrew’s and the second by St Stithians Girls. Due to Mrs. Louw’s injuries we were not able to attend the first leg but managed to attend the second leg, where a night of wonder and numbers was experienced. 

This very first evening for the College’s Tour de Math team was one filled with mind boggling equations, good food and amazing company. The evening, which was hosted by St Stithian’s Girls’, had a grand total of 400 students participating in this auspicious event.

The hundreds of students buzzing with excitement included the St Peter’s team of 12 which, according to our tradition, only consisted of Grade 11 learners. Two students from the same school were paired with two students from another school. These teams of four each tackled the challenging hour-long mathematics paper. Questions were discussed and solved, jokes were made and new friendships were formed.

Once time was up we were allowed to leave the gruelling paper as the educators begun to mark our attempts. We all left the writing hall discussing the challenges we came across with old and new friends. A prize giving occurred a few minutes later where half of the St Peter’s team returned with a prize.

The 2012 Tour de Math season does seem to hold quite a lot of promise as our first evening was a pure indication of this. With four more legs to go throughout the year we wish our mathematicians a great deal of luck and further enjoyment on their “Nerd’s Night Out”.

Teaching Tech

By Matthew Brent

Ever thought teaching Mathematics could be fun? Well it’s no joke. Mrs Louw, as her students will know, has taken teaching Mathematics to a new level. Ever dreamt of being taught on a computer? Well, we’re one step closer to that becoming a reality.

In her Mathematics class Mrs Louw has a data projector in her classroom that projects her iPad onto a screen. This is then used as a whiteboard. The first time Mrs Louw touched an iPad she says: ‘I knew had to have one. I use an application called Noteshelf that I can easily write on.  This is a must have for teaching Mathematics, because keyboards don’t have a Pi button.’

Not only is this really cool, but it is cost effective and environmentally friendly.

This setup costs around At R2, 000 for a decent projector, R3, 500 for the iPad 2, and a little more for a special tipped pen. You can’t write on your iPad with any old pen.

Costs and environment savings come from not having to use whiteboard markers. On an iPad, you can write forever, and ever, and ever, with no extra or hidden costs.  You don’t have to buy markers and you have a million colours to pick from. This begs the question, is it stupid not to swap over to an iPad? Keep in mind that iPads never run out of ink. The only juice they do need is kept in a battery that’ll last for days.

Not only is this a board, but it’s a board that remembers what was on it yesterday. The slide of a finger you can store thousands of pages of work, so you never need to rewrite it for another path of students. If you’re having a sick day, you’ll receive your work emailed straight to you from class, so you need never miss a thing.

The interface of the application that Mrs Louw uses is user friendly and it is nearly idiot proof! With an iPad you can show different types of media in the classroom.  For example, you can Google an example in class and see if you can solve it, this keeps things interesting.

It doesn’t end there. Have you been working hard and deserve a reward? Well you can YouTube some “Math jokes” and enjoy a lesson filled with laughs.

Apple is always innovating, so if Mrs Louw likes the iPad 3, she can move all her info straight to her new iPad. What if she needs all her information on the move? Well, Notepad will also be fun on an iPhone.  And so, with Eskom’s cooperation, let there be knowledge!

Eco-Wise St Peter's Guys

By Jessica Craig



As an individual of St Peter’s College is the environment really something you worry about? Do you realise that 30 years from now there might be a World War 3 over a natural resource that we waste daily and constantly take advantage of? My question to you is if you care enough to change this reality?

St Peter’s College has given students, staff and visitors many opportunities to make a positive contribution to the environment:

·         The big orange Mondi bin at our main gate to recycle paper

·         Cardboard bins in every class to recycle even more paper, this is handy for a quick disposal of that note you nearly got caught passing around in class

·         Large stone dustbins are placed around the school for your convenience, although I have noticed that students have become somewhat caring for the birds and left their food scraps on the floor. How thoughtful.

·         Recently we have had a dam built to the right of our new pavilion, this is for the saving of water around the school by using the dam for irrigation of all our fields and gardens

But surely we can do more? All we are doing is throwing rubbish away and helping our water bill.

Shouldn’t we have recycling bins on the school campus? Imagine recycling glass, plastic and paper the right way. The school could potentially earn a few extra thousand Rand each month!

This money could effectively be used to donate more to Habitat for Humanity or even the Matric Dance Committee. Why should we sit here and do nothing when we can do something and have a positive outcome?

I dare you to make a difference; I challenge you to be the change you want to see in the world.

Sources: http://stellasmom-ronda.blogspot.com/2011/04/eco-friendly.html (image)