Dear Parents

By now the dust of January and the start of the year has settled, the holidays are a distant memory and we are full steam ahead into 2017. 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.

In January we welcomed a number of new teachers which many of you have already met. In 345 CW we welcomed Ms. Paige Opperman who is the new Grade 000 – Parrots class teacher and at 345 VV we welcomed Mrs Nicole Haines-Thorn into Grade 00 – The Warthogs class.

In Grade 1 Ms. Aminta Janse Van Rensburg joined us to cover for Mrs Margot who gave birth to a beautiful baby girl in December. Ms. Roughton, who was one of our intern teachers last year moved into Grade 3 and was joined by Mrs Madusha Govender. Mrs Mohamed moved up to Grade 4 and was joined Ms. Deshmeé Govender. Mr. Sulaimon Timol joined us as our intern this year and is assisting Mrs Johnson in Grade 5 and 6 while Mrs Sowerby is on maternity leave. Her baby arrived on the 31st of January and we welcome both our new little ones into the world. We also welcomed Mrs Premilla Rampukar into the Media Centre, Mrs Julie Willis who will be teaching Art as a specialist subject to Grade 3-6 and Mr. Byron van Rooyen who is helping Mr Lord with the sport coaching and PE. Mrs Nel joins Ms. Ximba in the language department and is teaching Afrikaans. It is truly wonderful to watch our schools grow each year.

Our theme for the year is “Always Good, All of the Time” and this is what we strive to achieve each day. It’s what we endeavor to inculcate into our children – what they do, how they work and the effort they put in must always be their best, all of the time. It’s what the teachers and management strive to do each day too and we know that with the support of our parents and families we will be able to maintain our superb standards.

We will be building again later this year. We have another 4 classrooms to build in the prep school as well as a new gate and entrance to the school in Carlswald. This will be another exciting project to embark on and, although it can be a little disruptive to the running of the school, it is worth it when the project is complete. We will keep you informed as the project start date draws closer as well as what the project will entail.

Our superior education drive continues this year as, over and above our academic, cultural, music and sporting areas we continue to develop the Thinking Skills programme in the prep school in association with Thinking Schools South Africa. The staff receive training regularly and Thinking Skills such as Habits of Mind, Thinking Maps and de Bono’s 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 as well as the imminent introduction of Google Chrome Books which will add a different edge to the technology at CHP. Our Nursery schools will also be receiving a makeover this year with the introduction of new equipment as well as some changes to the playgrounds which will be very exciting for the learners. 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 mention that as a school we have been offered preferential admission to Beaulieu College when our children finish Grade 7 and are looking for a high school. This is very comforting for us as Beaulieu College requested us to become a feeder school and so we are able to guarantee a high school place for all our Grade 7s when they leave CHP.

There are many exciting things taking place at 345 and CHP and we are looking forward to another successful, happy year.

I wish you all success and remind you of our very best at all times.

Have a great 2017!

Regards

Stewart Tagg
Headmaster
345 and CHP