Dear Parents

A warm welcome to all our returning families. I trust you all had a wonderful holiday and have returned rested and ready for the year. We are full steam ahead into 2018. I would like to welcome all of our new parents and children to CHP and 345 and I hope that you are all feeling settled and happy.

I would also like to welcome a number of new teachers which many of you have already met. At 345 CW we welcome teacher Precious who is the new Grade 0000 – Lady Bugs class. Precious assisted teacher Shelley last year and has since been promoted to class teacher.

At 345 VV, we welcome Miss Natale Scott to Grade 0000, Miss Micaela Hunter to Grade 000, and Mrs Danica van Niekerk – Grade R.

At CHP, we welcome Miss Liesl Anderson to Grade 2, Mrs Kelly Botha to Grade 5, Mr Sulaiman Timol, who was an intern last year, to Grade 5, Miss Portia Shabalala to Grade 5-7 isiZulu and Mrs Kaogelo Mailula who will be teaching Music full time. Our teaching team has really grown at CHP over the last 3 years and it is exciting to watch our special school develop!

Our theme for the year is “Simply the Best” and this is what we strive to achieve. At CHP and 345 we want Simply the Best for our special children. Our staff, facilities, technology and curriculum are world class. It is such a privilege to watch the children grow and learn and have fun while doing it.

We welcome our first group of Grade 7 learners this year. They have finally arrived and we are excited to walk this road with them this year. I wish them all the best for their last year of prep school. Our school is now complete!

We will be building again at Carlswald this year. We have another 4 classrooms to build in the prep school as well as the new gate and entrance which we had hoped to build last year, however, due to the ever-present red tape, this was delayed. We have also extended 2 classrooms at Vorna Valley to accommodate the growing number of children who want to come to our special school. We will keep you informed as the various projects get under way.

We continue to develop the Thinking Skills and Technology Integration programmes at CHP in association with Thinking Schools South Africa and Think Ahead – Apple’s Education division. The staff receive regular training and Thinking Skills such as Habits of Mind, Thinking Maps and de Bonos Thinking Hats are being used in the classrooms from Grade R. Our technology offering also continues to grow with iPads being used in all the classes regularly. Our Nursery schools are also continuously “freshened up” with new equipment and resources as the needs arise. Learning in the nursery schools will continue to be effective and fun with the teachers focusing on sensory play and helping the children to meet their developmental milestones.

We are happy to inform you that Beaulieu College has offered preferential admission to our children when they finish Grade 7. We also have relationships with Summit College, Redford House Bluehills and St Peters College who have all indicated that they would like our children when they move to Grade 8. This is a tremendous compliment to us as these are all well established independent schools who desire to offer our Grade 7s high school places when they leave at the end of Grade 7.

We are looking forward to an exciting and busy year this year and I would like to encourage you all to get involved with your child’s class and school. Please support our schools in whatever means you are able, whether it be through your time working along with the class moms, or in other ways.

I wish you all a wonderful, successful, happy year and remind you that we are here to ensure your child’s happiness at school.

All the best!

Regards

Stewart Tagg
Headmaster
345 and CHP