GHS will send its first ever golf team to compete at the National All Girls’ Festival, which will be held in Pretoria at the end of April 2017. The team will play an 18 hole individual stableford competition at Pretoria Country Club, take part in an Individual driving, chipping and putting competition at Tuks Golf Academy and then play a 9 hole individual stableford competition at Services Country Club. Border Ladies’ Golf (BLG) and Woman’s Golf South Africa are going to be providing funding for the golfers to get lessons from pro coach Andrew Baillie. Teacher in Charge, Ana Taggart, will also run practices for the girls to prepare for the festival and for other junior and ladies tournaments in the region.

 

Baillie and Taggart have been involved in organising junior golf days in the school holidays for the last two years, for children aged 5 and older, to introduce children to the sport. For a mere R18, children have had an afternoon of golf, with younger children taken in golf carts and guided in the rules of golf by the lady members of the Queenstown Golf Club. BLG has sponsored trophies and medals for these tournaments. BLG has also supplied 4 sets of junior golf clubs, which have been used by many of the children taking part in these days. The September Junior golf day attracted 27 juniors, aged 5 – 12, with more than half of those being girls. There are a number of girls from Balmoral playing in these tournaments and there are increasing numbers of these girls playing in the Border Foundation events, so it makes sense to formalise the sport in the high school.

There have been golfers at GHS in the past. Elize Strutt, was awarded a scholarship to study in the USA as a result of her golfing abilities. She was playing off a 7 handicap in her matric year at GHS. Elize also represented Border at a number of Provincial tournaments playing off a 3 handicap.

BLG has loaned GHS two new full sets of ladies’ clubs and practice equipment, so that golf can also be introduced to girls who have never played golf before. It isn’t the easiest sport to take up because the equipment is quite costly. Stutterheim lady golfers recently handed over a golf bag and a few clubs for the beginners. Golf is growing in popularity amongst women – Queenstown Golf Club has 39 lady members at the moment – ranging in age from 11 to 81. GHS hopes to increase the number of girls playing golf at high school level and the loan of the equipment is going to go a long way to helping us achieve this.

Message from Border Ladies: “We are ecstatic about this new venture and look forward to seeing these junior girls get handicapped and then participate in our 2017 Border tournaments.”

 

Girls’ High School celebrated a very successful 141st Birthday Weekend. A Musical Showcase in St George’s Hall was a highlight where the girls were given the opportunity to show off their beautiful voices and dramatic skills.

Old Girls of various groups got together on Friday evening in the Erica Danckwets Hall enjoying a spread put together by old-girl Estie Featherstone (Hattingh).

We are very thankful to Rose Malinaric who gathered the 1966 matrics (50 years). We also thank Lusanda Feni who gathered a big group of old girls from 1996 to celebrate their 20 years. A big thank you to all the other Old Girls who joined in the celebrations. Unfortunately the head girls of 1991, Natasha Immelman, could not attend the weekend’s activities as she is living in America and Melissa Cunningham was the guest speaker. We thank Heather Moorcroft (President of the OQA), Arlene Rossouw (Secretary/Treasurer of the OQA) and all those who put in hours of work behind the scenes. Without your hard work the weekend would not have been such a success. It was such fun to watch these girls interact and see how the years have not really made any difference at all.

It was a pleasure to show off our beautiful school after the breakfast at School House on Saturday and the Old Girls were full of praise for what is being done at Girls’ High.

Saturday evenings’ Get-Together was a huge success and the girls had time to reminisce at the Queen’s Casino/Hotel.

The Sunday Service in St George’s Hall was an apt end to a lovely weekend. Melissa Cunningham (de Wet), Deputy Head Girl of 1991 encouraged the girls to give back to the community.

 

A note from the director and writer of ‘Turbulence’ by Thina Ntsaluba to the cast

This is my first one; I can’t promise that there ever will be another one. This play has taken, what seems like forever to write. If I can say I’ve learnt anything about play writing, it’s that……it doesn’t come easy. When an idea hits you, the first challenge you encounter almost immediately is the fear of whether or not the idea is good enough to put on paper. I’ve given up on this script so many times. I’ve had moments while in the midst of writing this script, where all I wanted to do was just delete the whole document. That is what a script can do yo you. I gather, however that there is always this indescribable and overwhelming force that always pulls you back to the script. ‘TURBULENT’ wasn’t written for me; rather its my gift to everyone, both friend and foe who have made a contribution to my growth as an individual. I hope you, as the cast, can interpret the play the way you see it, while keeping reference to what I was trying to put out there. In that way this play becomes more relevant to our audience. Being on stage means nothing, it’s about singing, dancing or acting and making people feel your presence. You, as the chosen cast owe it to God, this script, your audience, your talent and most importantly yourselves, to leave everything on that stage. By no means am I saying this to put unnecessary pressure on you all. I am saying this because in a few weeks time “TURBULENT” will be but a distant memory, a lost golden moment with amazing people. No play was meant to last forever. Looking at that sad truism, the best we can do with the time we have together is to create and develop a play worth remembering and one that ranks amongst the best. It is your job to bring this script to life. Just let the words carry you through this journey, feel the emotions and everyone else will believe you. I present to you ‘TURBULENT”. Nurture, cultivate and trust the script and I promise you … we will come out on top.

This year Girls’ High School sent 4 sporting codes and 7 cultural codes to participate in the All Girls’ School Festival. This festival was hosted by Durban Girls’ High School. The fact that they managed so well while competing against city schools many of which are far larger than Girls’ High School can ascribe to the spirit and of the girls effort and the expertise and dedication of the staff who coached them. A special mention of the 4 Squash girls who won the Gold Medal! It was a remarkable achievement for a ‘small’ school from a ‘small’ town and once again Girls’ High has shown that it is up there with the best. Sincere thanks go to the staff and pupils who represented the school and the parent body who made it financially possible to participate in this prestigeous event.

 

ART – non competitive

Kelly-Ann Adonis and Sinazo Vanqa had an amazing experience at the All Girls’ Festival. The Art girls were given the theme “Durban … where East, West and Africa meet”, along with the freedom to experiment with any techniques, varying from printing of fabric, making clay medallions, screen printing, sun dying and beadwork. The aim was not to have one finished artwork, but to experiment and appreciate the process towards a finished piece. There was an exhibition of all the pieces on the last day of the festival. Kelly and Sinazo learnt a lot, while having great fun.

CAMERA CLUB – non competitive

Amey Groenewald and Kirsty Benecke went along with the team to capture memories on film. They then did a power-point presentation to the school showcasing some excellent photographs.

CHESS

Iviwe Malotana, Joyce Ejumu, Soumya Simon, Dhrishya Thomas and Sarah Jacob represented Girls’ High School and they were placed 12 overall. They won their matches against Northlands, Rhenish, Burban GHS, drew against Affies but lost against Collegiate, Eunice and Jeppe.

• Motion vs St Michael’s : The Solution to S A Energy Crisis is in Nuclear Energy which they opposed and won
• Motion vs Collegiate : Classical Fairytales Should be Written with the Aim of Correcting Gender Stereotypes which they proposed and won
• Motion vs Shadow Team : Government Officials Should Not be Allowed to Send their Children to Private Schools which they opposed and won
• Motion vs Danville Park : Hacking is a Suitable Form of Protest Against Large Corporations which they proposed and lost
• Motion vs Westville : Private Hospitals should be Forced to Give some of their Profits to Public Hospitals which they opposed and won – the girls then advanced to the semi-finals where :
• Motion vs Clarendon : We should Institute a Beauty Tax on Individuals Whose Physical Appearance is Conventionally Appealing which they opposed and won – the girls then advanced to the final where :
• Motion vs La Rochelle : Grant Women an Extra Vote in the National Election which they opposed and narrowly lost.

DEBATING

Kristin Arends, Lindelwe Hoho, Mandisa Mtola and Mbasa Gosa competed competed against 20 schools. They were placed 5th overall with Lindelwe Hoho (placed 5th) and Kristin Arends (placed 10th) won Best Speaker Awards. Their results were as follows :

• Motion vs Rustenburg : South Africa Should Leave the International Criminal Court which they proposed and lost
• Motion vs Ridgepark : Companies Should Perform Social Media Background Checks on Candidates Seeking Employment which they proposed and won
• Motion vs Potchefstroom : Punish Sports Clubs for the Behavior of Their Fans which they proposed and won
• Motion vs Pretoria : The Rise of # Must Fall Movements which they proposed and lost
• Motion vs Affies : The State Construction of False Historical Narratives in An Attempt to Promote Social Cohesion which they opposed and won

DRAMA – non competitive

The Drama Group consisting of Thina Ntsaluba, Stelchia Hughes, Yamkelani Velaphi, Yanga Malotana, Amahle Ciliwe and Aliziwe Ntoto. The girls competed against 13 schools with 78 participants. All the girls who competed were given a vote to commend 8 Best Actresses in the various Drama Productions, and Thina and Yanga were chosen for 2 of these awards.

PUBLIC SPEAKING

Sazikazi Mbalo, a Grade 10 pupil, represented Public Speaking. In Round 1 the girls had to read pieces they have chosen and state why they chose the specific piece. In Round 2 they made unprepared speeches based on any given subject. After that there were forum discussions and Sazi’s group won ‘Best Forum Group’. Sazi qualified for the finals and was eventually ranked in the Top 5 of the All Girls’ Public Speakers.

VOCAL ENSEMBLE

Mrs Carlien Buss and the 14-strong Vocal Ensemble group did GHS proud. After 3 vocal and movement workshops, the girls had a repertoire sharing section. All 10 participating schools had the opportunity to share a 10-minute repertoire. After all the groups had sung, each person in attendance was given one vote to decide on the Most Entertaining (and proficient) Ensemble – Girls’ High School won!

HOCKEY

The 1st Hockey team ended 15th at the All Girls’ Festival. The girls recorded the following results : lost vs Eunice (0 – 3), vs Wynberg (1 – 2), vs La rochelle (0 – 1); drew vs Potch (0 – 0) and won vs Danville (1 – 0) and St Michaels (2 – 0).

NETBALL

The 1st Netball team ended 17th overall at the All Girls’ Festival. The girls beat Westville and St Michael’s. They lost to Paarl, Potch, La Rochelle, Rhenish, Affies, Danville, Clarendon and Durban. Special mention must be made of Zimvozetho Ncinitwa and Khanyisile Ngozi who won Best Defending Players and Siphokuhle Mpela and Sesethu Jonga who won Best Attacking Players during the festival.

SQUASH

Well done to Girls’ High Squash who once again won the Gold Medal! Inge Coetzee, Teagan Roux, Mikayla Boy and Monique da Cruz represented squash at the All Girls’ Festival. They beat Clarendon 4 – 0, Rhenish 4 – 0, Pretoria GHS 4 – 0, La Rochelle 4 – 0 and Westville 4 – 0, not giving away any games.

TENNIS

Hayley Lucas, Lauren Meyer, Jamie de Wet and Lindi-Lois de Wet represented tennis at the All Girls’ Festival. The team had some very tough matches and they were placed 13th overall.