St Anne's Matric Vocal Student, Simone Markham, was awarded her 3rd Certificate of Achievement from the International Rock School Music Examination Board for achieving the highest mark (96%) nationally in the Grade 7 Popular Vocals Examinations for the first session this year.

In addition, it was confirmed by the IRS National Representative that Songworks, under the direction of Dr Tracy Stark and Mr Steve Stark, has had more Individual National Award Winners than any other Music School in South Africa, and has also won the award for Best Overall Examination Results Nationally more often than any other school in the country.

Pictured: Simone Markham, St Anne's Diocesan College Matric Music Student

News supplied by St Anne's Diocesan College.

Local Hilton based photographer Stephen Pryke enjoys regular early morning walks when he takes the dogs out into the various green pockets and wetland areas in and around our village. Not surprisingly his camera is always ready for action and he shared with us some of his photographs taken during these walks.

Thank you Stephen, it is good to remember all that is right with the world!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Hearts Edu-Centre Opened it's doors in January of this year. It has been a long held dream of founder, Hayley Moore to open a centre such as this – as she battled to find the right facilities for her own special needs son. It was opened with the intention of creating a resource centre for families of children with special needs, for children on the Autism spectrum but not exclusively. A place for parents and families to share ideas and resources to better support their special kids whether it's behavioural issues, neurological or developmental.

It was our vision to create a safe, pressure free environment where children can focus on their education without the added pressure to conform to societal or age norms that may not be within their reach. It is a place where the child's strengths are focussed on and built upon as we set realistic goal posts that they are capable of achieving on an ongoing basis which leads to improved self confidence and an openness to the learning process. By implementing a holistic approach we engage the child with all of the 5 senses in the learning programme that has been setup and tailored to the child's individual needs. We liase with and work with many professionals in this field to further assist your children – speech pathologists, Ot's, psychiatrists, psychologists etc to refine and assist with each child's individual programme.

We accept children from 4 years old to 12 years old and welcome a visit from any parent who needs our support or who is looking for a school environment that will work with their children's unique challenges. We offer a small , safe, home school environment geared to optimise your child's potential! Come and visit us today! Call Hayley Moore 074 963 5627 or email : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information. We're having a SENSORY fun day OPEN DAY on Friday May First – please contact us to book your space Bring along your children to have fun and explore!!

News supplied by Happy Hearts Edu-Centre.

Mother's day is upon us! Order a delectable BELGIAN CHOCOLATE FAN hamper or gift pack for that one person in the world who gives you unconditional love (and supports you through thick and thin!!!) OR just because she is a CHOCOLATE FAN and treats you like FAMILY!

We have SUGAR-FREE, DAIRY-FREE and ORDINARY CHOCOLATE

Fillings or Plain chocolate – cherries, nuts, dates, ganaches, mallows, pralines, caramels, coconut, mints, coffee, shortbread, etc,etc,etc!!!

Hampers: YOU (or WE) Choose a selection from our range of slabs, bars, single chocs, biscuits, sauces, fudge!

Gifts: ANY one or more of our Belgian Chocolate products

Local Delivery: We will deliver to her doorstep if she is in Hilton or to the Lazy Lizard in Howick for those further afield.

Visit www.facebook.com/chocsense or www.chocolatesensationshilton.wordpress.com

News supplied by Chocolate Sensations.

Have you ever worried about what you would do if your hard drive backups did not work or even worse your server got stolen? Here is a success story of how Backup Bank helped a client to resolve a serious data loss problem.

A prominent and respectable attorney firm recently had a staff member delete files and folders on the server by mistake. Added to their woes, the daily backup device failed the day before and so substantial amounts of data were lost. We have been running https://backupbank.co.za for a few months with our client and they urgently called to see if we could help.

The client had very limited experience on how the Backup Bank system worked. They were happy to run the product but were not very tech savvy. Backup Bank was installed and the OwnCloudTM technology has been running seamlessly and quietly in the background for months. The client by chance remembered that Backup Bank may be able to help them in this situation.

Our team spoke with the IT technician, helping the firm, who at first was quite concerned about the product running on the server he was managing. We explained how the Backup Bank product worked, synchronising files and folders to the cloud server, keeping the information up to date continuously. We further explained the benefits of version control and how Backup Bank kept multiple copies of all files and even deleted files on the cloud. His initial fears subsided as he understood the capabilities of the product. He logged into https://backupbank.co.za and the client files were found intact. They were quickly restored to the client server, allowing the attorney firm to continue operations.

Both the client and the IT technician have commented on how Backup Bank saved the day. "What a great product. It really helped us. Without it we would have lost all our data. Thank goodness it was running."

The IT technician commented "I really like the product. It took a while to download the substantial amount of data but I was able to restore everything." and "The product is really good." and "Wow that is cheap, I will definitely look more at it and see if I can recommend it to my other clients."

Our team was glad to see the system working well and our client happy.

Remember https://backupbank.co.za is not the only backup solution you should implement. I am sure you will agree the product is really worth having!

News supplied by Backup Bank.

ZAMBIA – 6 Waste2Toys workshops in 4 days for 166 educators, parents and community workers who have a direct impact on 6 924 children! What an exhilarating, humbling, exhausting, uplifting, challenging and positive experience! Thanks to the very generous sponsorship from Vodacom as part of their Change the World initiative, Caro Richter, one of the Singakwenza Board members, and Julie Hay, Singakwenza's ECD director, were able travel to various areas around Lusaka and Livingstone to teach these caregivers about the importance of learning through play, especially in the early years. Our workshops focus on how to make toys and educational materials from waste, as well as what skills the child is developing when playing with these toys. In this way the teachers can see that it is possible for the children to be learning while they are having fun! As is the case in South Africa, the Zambian authorities are only just beginning to understand the impact of early learning, and as a result, many schools, especially in the pre-school (or nursery school, as it is called in Zambia) phase, have very few resources available to them, and the response of the delegates to the resources that we taught them to make from recycling was phenomenal!

The first workshop was held at a small nursery school on a farm in the Lilayi area. Most of the delegates weren't able to speak English, so Kelvin, one of the delegates that had come to learn from us, was co-opted into translating for us. During our visit, we were privileged to meet a number of amazing and inspiring people, and Kelvin was one of them. He works as the Education Coordinator at the Lilayi Elephant Nursery, which cares for and rehabilitates orphaned elephants from the Parks around Zambia. He was a fantastic interpreter and soon was describing the concepts of hand-eye coordination and the development of the pincer grip as if he had taught these concepts his whole life! One part of the workshop is showing the teachers how to make spades, funnels, sieves, shakers and measuring containers to use in sand and water play out of plastic bottles and yoghurt pots. The one teacher asked how often children should be allowed to play in the sand pit, to which we replied, "EVERY DAY!" She mentioned that the parents were unhappy when the children came home dirty, so we showed her how to make an apron by cutting off the bottom of a grocery bag and putting the child's arms through the handles, and Kelvin used one of the local children to model it.

That afternoon, we travelled into Lusaka central and taught caregivers, nurses and community workers at the University Teaching Hospital, most of whom work with mentally and physically disabled children. They were all able to speak English, but I needed to speak slowly enough for the sign language interpreter to translate for the three deaf delegates who attended. Many of the ladies knew about the concepts I was talking about, but have access to very few resources to develop these skills with the children they work with, so they were delighted with the new ideas. Their biggest challenge came when we asked them to create something using only the materials we had given them – no scissors or glue. The idea behind this is that even if the teacher does not have access to wooden blocks or lego, she can still provide her children with opportunities to develop their creativity, problem solving, communication and team work. One group was given plastic bottles, another was given egg trays, another had yoghurt containers and the last had cardboard tubes. Many of the delegates had no idea how they could "build" something if they couldn't cut and stick! However, after much talking and negotiation, each group came up with an amazing "construction" and the caregivers could clearly see the importance of this type of activity.

The next morning we had to leave home at 06h30 in order to travel the 15-odd kilometres to our next workshop in a Community Centre in a township or "compound" called Mandevu. The workshop only started at 08h30, but we discovered that the traffic in Lusaka is something not to be taken lightly! We were very grateful that our host, Frances Davies (on the right of picture), who had coordinated all our workshops for us, was available to drive us to each of the venues, as we might still be sitting at the first intersection! A safe following distance is about 20cm from the car in front of you, as if you leave a space any larger than that, another car will squeeze in between you, and a red robot just means go through the intersection carefully. At the traffic circles you give right of way to the person who pushes in the quickest, and traffic jams of an hour or moreare common. This workshop was probably one of our most challenging, as most of the people we were teaching were volunteer caregivers of physically and mentally disabled children, and the expectation of what these children can do is very low. Fortunately the children that they care for were sitting or lying on the carpet beside the carers while they were busy, because it was the reaction of these children to the activities we made that showed the carers what some of the children are actually capable of, so by the end we had won most of them over. As this workshop also needed to be run in the local language, we persuaded Sharon (centre in picture above), a lady who was accompanying us to each of the workshops to assist with the eats that Frances had donated, to step out of her comfort zone and translate for us. She did a fantastic job and although she found it challenging, she enjoyed the experience.

That afternoon we travelled to another compound called Ngombe, where we met Whitney Morreau, a young American lady who has set up an organisation called "Impact One Initiative", to provide mentorship and support to the teachers in the primary schools in this compound. She has been working with the teachers in 12 schools for over a year, and it was clear that there is a deep mutual respect between her and "her" teachers. We had a very successful workshop here, and one of the great things about Whitney being a part of it is that she will be able to ensure that the skills continue to be used. We will also be sending her updated lesson plans that she can share with the teachers to extend what they can do with the equipment they make.

One of our favourite parts of the trip occurred at this workshop. One of the teachers had brought her young son of around two and a half with her, and it was his reaction to the toys that his mum was making that really showed the delegates that the fact that the toys cost nothing and are made from recycling doesn't matter to a child. When he woke up, he initially sat quietly holding the ball his mum had made, but when she started poking holes in the polystyrene vegetable tray with matchsticks, his curiosity got the better of him, and he wanted to try too. The purpose of this activity is to help children to develop the muscles in their fingers so that when they get to the stage where they are ready to hold a pencil, they have developed a strong pincer grip as well as good eye-hand coordination. As you can see from the picture, the little boy absolutely loved this activity, and spent ages putting the matchsticks into the holes, taking them out and putting them in other holes, poking new holes, and then giving himself a round of applause! We then offered him the hot chocolate container with slits cut in the sides, and he entertained himself for the rest of the session posting plastic lids into the different holes. The teachers were amazed at how fascinated he was by our "toys" and also at how well he coped with the different activities. We couldn't have asked for a better way to show the delegates how effective the materials are that they were making.

Our final workshop in Lusaka was held at a Primary School in another compound called Mutendere. Teachers from the local schools were invited, and we had the opportunity to present to educators of children from 3 to 9 years of age. One of the concepts that we try to get across to the teachers during our workshops is that children learn so much when they are having fun, and not all learning needs to take place sitting at a desk. To help the teachers to get in touch with their inner child again to understand this, we encourage them to try out some of the activities that we want them to use in the classroom. The activity in this picture requires the teachers to throw the ball in the air, clap once, and catch it again, then throw it, clap twice, and catch it, then throw, clap three times, catch, etc, trying to see how many times they can clap between throwing and catching. Immediately the atmosphere in the room changes and the previously serious delegates' faces light up in delight. Once the activity is complete, we ask the teachers what skills a child would learn when playing like this. They are amazed when they realise that such a fun activity teaches eye-hand coordination, counting, gross motor (or "big muscle") development, control over how hard to throw the ball, quicker response time, cooperative play, social interaction, one-to-one correspondence and comparison of numbers.

From Lusaka we travelled to Livingstone, where we were hosted by Wilderness Safaris through their Children in The
Wilderness (CiTW) programme. The CiTW coordinator for this region, James Mwanza, invited teachers from the various schools where their eco-programme is running, and once again we had a very enthusiastic and dedicated group of educators. They participated fully in the workshop, and we were blown away by their insightful questions and
responses. One of the ladies teaches deaf children, and she thanked us for the activities we had taught her which strengthen children's fingers and hands, as her children need them to cope with learning to do sign language. Two of
the teachers came from a school in a very poor village, where there is very little in the way of recycling, so James will coordinate the collection of the items that they need from the nearby Wilderness Safari camp. We therefore also needed to have a quick lesson with the chef at that camp, so that he understood why his kitchen can no longer dispose of the cereal boxes, egg trays, grocery bags, yoghurt cups, etc!

The most difficult part about this trip was having to cancel our Project Coordinator, Linda Hill's ticket at the last minute, due to her mum becoming very ill in the final stages of cancer. However, without her incredible organisation in the months before and the coordination of flights, accommodation, transport and hosting, we would never have been able to run this trip as successfully as we did, so she was with us every step of the way in spirit. We were very fortunate that one of the members of our Board, Caroline Richter, was able to step in to help at the 11th hour.

We were delighted to have got front page coverage in The Meander Chronicle of our trip, as well as some online coverage.

It was such an incredible privilege to be able to travel to Zambia to run these workshops, and we are so grateful to our amazing sponsors for making it possible. Our goal at each workshop was to help the teachers and parents to understand that they are the most important element in a child's education, not shelves full of expensive equipment. We have been into so many classrooms which are beautifully painted and fully kitted out with the latest materials, but there is no education happening. That "stuff" isn't what determines how well children are educated. The sponsorship we received allowed us to teach 166 adults (and 6924 children!) that all that is needed is a dedicated, enthusiastic person with a pair of sharp scissors, a marker pen and access to a whole lot of waste!

News supplied by Singakwenza.

 

 

Two St Anne's pupils have been selected to represent South Africa in their respective sporting disciplines. Pictured here are Ana Chemaly (left), who will represent SA in the u19 Squash Team and Megan Rebstein-Dovey (right) who will tour with the u16 Water Polo Team in July.

News supplied by St Anne's Diocesan College.

Laddsworth Primary School's Caitlyn Slabberts, Thomas Truter and Aaron Ward received their KZN Midlands Colours Swimming Awards for 2015. Laddsworth congratulates them on their achievements.

Above back L-R: Caitlyn Slabberts, Sean Veenstra (SP Sports Coordinator) and Thomas Truter.
In front: Aaron Ward.

News supplied by Laddsworth Primary School.

Laddsworth Primary School's First XV Rugby team has been sponsored by The Fury Motor Group for the third successive year. The new kit was presented during assembly by Gary Stokes who is the Regional Manager for Fury Motor Group.

News supplied by Laddsworth Primary School.

 

Jodi Lee & Dominique Teichmann from St Anne's Diocesan College have been selected to represent KZN in the U14 Netball Team that will participate in the Interprovincial Tournament in Johannesburg in the June holidays.

News supplied by St Anne's Diocesan College.

In recognition of World Book Day on 23 April, the boys and girls of Cowan House Co-educational Prep. School dressed up as their favourite book character.

Pictured is Grade One pupil Lennox Bruce, who was King Arthur for the day.

News supplied by Cowan House.

The Men's Nominated Pairs competition is moving ahead rapidly with five of the first nine games having been completed. Well done, chaps. Let's sew this one up quickly.

Five novice bowlers from Hilton played in the NIBA tournament on Sunday. Andy Hitchcock in his last year as a novice won through to the final eight. Heather Godsmark who only started playing bowls in January this year had a good win in her first game but went down in the second. Mike and Nina Guest and Shelagh Bowness all lost both their first round games but were quite pleased with their play. Well done to our new bowlers. We are very proud of you. Our best wishes to Andy for good bowling in the games to come.

Events on the calendar for May include the IF tournament on 1st, Artisans on 8th and Harry Cooper on 9th.
We'll be playing for chickens on Saturday 16th and the next Jaxx Roll is scheduled for 20th. All players are urged to confirm their entry for the various competitions as soon as possible.

We are hoping to be able to enter teams in both the Sanders Trophy (for Ladies) and Lambert Brothers competition for Men at the end of May. Get your names onto the relevant lists soon so that we can confirm our participation.

Howick are still looking for ladies to play in their fun tournament on 7th May and for at least two teams of men from our club for the Men's Fours on 23 & 24th May. Check details on the notices on our board.

Duties: 3 - 8 May. OOD: Chris Purchase. Tabs: Colin Watson & Tony Barrington. Lock-up team: Colin Watson. Club House: 7th May: Joan Byrom. Teas on 9th May: N/A – Quarry Spar Lunch. Biscuits: 6 & 7 May: Graham Appleby & Arthur Daugherty.

News supplied by Hilton Bowling Club.

Jemma Aldworth, a Form 4 St Anne's girl, recently returned from Malawi where she organised a school library at Riverside Primary School in Nchalo; an area that was badly affected in the recent floods which left hundreds of thousands of Malawians displaced. Mr Ignatius Phiri, Board Chairman at Riverside, writes that Jemma "donated her time and talent" to organising their school library and says she is a "true jewel!" Jemma approached STEPP, the St Anne's Education in Partnership Programme, in the 1st Term regarding her project whereby she gained access to 10 boxes of books, imported by STEPP and subsidised through Books for Africa. STEPP had also campaigned for a stationery collection at the end of last year; that stationary was donated to three schools, Riverside being one of them. Co-ordinating the transportation of the books and stationery from the SA to Malawi was no mean feat. The enormous potential reached through the determination of one person demonstrates what can be achieved when you choose to act in the interest of others.

Pictured: Jemma Aldworth (centre) with the pupils of Riverside Primary School in Malawi

News supplied by St Anne's Diocesan College.

Sharon Houghting aka The Queen of Hearts and Laddsworth Primary School's Librarian, inspired young readers during Assembly this week with an interactive question and answer session based on Alice in Wonderland. This 150 year old Lewis Carroll story provided a fun topic for Laddsworth's World Book and Copyright Day focus. Two helpful 'knaves', William Hodgkinson and Robert Mitchell assisted with a presentation and prize awards.

Laddsworth's Grade One pupils celebrated World Book Day with a Mad Hatter's Tea Party on the 23rd April.

Pictured L-R: William Hodgkinson, Sharon Houghting and Robert Mitchell.

News supplied by Laddsworth Primary School.

Josephine Clewlow in Grade 5 at Laddsworth Primary School competed at the prestigious Land Rover Horse and Wine competition held at Durban Shongweni Club from the 9th – 12th April 2015.

She was extremely successful on her pony Highover Maria. In the showing classes she came 1st in the Show Pony class and 2nd in the Show Riding Pony class. In the dressage classes she won the Novice 2 class with a fantastic score of 65.59%, a small mistake in the Novice 3 class saw her finishing 2nd with a 62.61% and in the Novice 4 Championship she came 2nd with 64.71%, it was extremely close with only 0.29% between 1st and 2nd.

Riding proudly for her new sponsor Harcourts in the Top Hat Dressage Pony Rider Series held at Durban Shongweni Club on the 19th April, Josephine and her pony Harcourts Highover Maria placed 2nd in the Novice 2 Class with 64,41% and in the Novice 4 Class she came 1st with 66.71%.

Gavin Lambooy congratulated Josephine during Assembly.

News supplied by Laddsworth Primary School.

Despite the arrival of winter with a vengeance on Thursday six hardy souls turned up to enjoy a game under leaden skies. Things were considerably better on Saturday but attendance was a bit disappointing with only four rinks of trips.

The Jaxx Roll on Wednesday was won by Brian Ravno, Bill Ralphs and Burnice Shaw. Runners-up who collected vouchers from Dulcѐ's were Hugh Barr, Bob Mitchell and Charles Carr. Well done to all the winners and thanks to our sponsors.

Margie Garrard and Thelma Mylne participated in the NIBA Senior Pairs earlier in the week. They won their section on the first day then were beaten in the semi-final. Your club is proud of you.

Due to a lack of support we have had to cancel the Club ladies' nominated pairs competition. The men will commence their nominated pairs this week. Please complete your games by the cut-off dates.

Duties: 26 Apr – 2 May. OOD: Dave Garrard. Tabs: John Arnott & John Aubrey. Lock-up team: Fred Palmer. Club House: 30th Apr: Jill Bannatyne. Teas on 2nd May: Gill & Doug Robertson. Biscuits: 28 & 30 Apr. Jill Bannatyne & Derick Hull.

News supplied by Hilton Bowling Club.

Thomas Truter, Omar Wilson and Stuart Temple completed the fun ride in the Umko Challenge Cycle Race this weekend. Omar placed first and Thomas came in second place in the 20km race while Stuart Temple finished in first position in the 10km race.

Above back L-R: Thomas Truter and Omar Wilson.
In front: Stuart Temple.

News supplied by Laddsworth Primary School.

If you want the ultimate night golf experience look no further. The Firefly Golf Company specialises in supplying night golf products at the best prices available in South Africa and also in arranging night golf events at affordable prices.

As Golf is an extremely loved and popular sport around the world it is no surprise that it is taken to the next level to be enjoyed not only during the day but also during the night.

The first Night Golf event for Pietermaritzburg is planned for the 24th of April and the Victoria Country Club. Being on a Friday it is the perfect event to bring the whole family along for a great time on and off the course.

Food and drinks will be available and a prize giving will be held after the event.

There will be 10 holes set up for the players and the game is played in complete darkness with LED fairway markers that light up the fairways and LED Flag poles that light up the flags. Bunkers and other Hazards will also be illuminated.

Each player in the 4 ball will also be able to choose his/her own colour LED ball to play with and they will be able to choose from Pink, Red, Blue and Green.

For once it seems almost impossible to lose a ball on the course as the balls glow extremely bright! Balls will also be for sale at the event.

For more information on night golf or if you would like to host your own event, please visit Firefly's website at www.fireflygolf.co.za and to book your spot for the Victoria CC event please mail Werner van der Westhuizen at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by phone at 082 824 6633.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

News supplied.