Dear Parents
Welcome to 2019! I hope you all had a restful holiday and have returned ready for the year ahead. We are full steam ahead into the year. I would like to welcome all our new parents and children to CHP and 345! 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 Pam who is the new Grade 00 – Busy Bees class teacher.
At 345 VV we welcome Teacher Chnè to Grade 000.
At CHP we welcome Ms Zanele Phakathi – Zulu Grade 1-3, Ms Arianna Coelho – Grade 1, Ms Claire Elsworth – Grade 4 and Ms Litika Singh – Grade 5. We also welcome Mrs Mary Porteous who joins us in the Swim School. Our team continues to grow at CHP and it is so exciting to watch our special school develop!
Our theme for the year is “Moving Forward – One Step at a Time” and this is what will be doing. At CHP and 345 we continue to move forward. We maintain a world class standard in all aspects including our staff, facilities, integration of technology and academic curriculum. This year we also embark on an exciting new programme in CHP where we will be looking at and focusing on each child and their individual learning styles. The staff enjoyed 2 days of intensive training as well as being personally profiled according to their own learning styles. We will be able to look at and teach our children far more individually, ensuring that, as far as humanly possible, we are teaching according to their preferred learning style, making the learning experience far more effective.
We welcome our second group of Grade 7 learners this year. They are very excited about the year and are looking forward to being the “big fish” in the school for a year before they become the very “little fish” next year in Grade 8. I wish them all the best for their last year of prep school!
We hope to 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 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. This year we introduce an official IT Lab where IT and Coding skills will be taught and integrated into the other learning areas. Very exciting indeed!
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 continue to enjoy good relationships with Beaulieu College, Pinnacle (Summit) College, Redford House Bluehills, St Peters College and Curro Midrand 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 yet another 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 magnificent 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