Grade 8 Class of 2017

KCS is proudly presenting Grade 8 class of 2017 pupils

Naomi Heese, Dunshirn Davis, Sabelwe Gumede, Sphesihle Mbhamali, Malibongwe Mpontshana.

The above mentioned pupils make the grade 8 class of 2017 run by Ms Petra Heese who is their class teacher. KCS is growing every year and continues to aiming high to become one of the best Schools in the country. We strongly believe that the School will continue growing and there’s still more to come. We are excited to enroll the first class of grade 8 and hoping that this class will make our very own grade 9 in 2018.

Having Ms Petra Heese heading the grade 8 class is a privilege as she’s an experienced educator whose been in the department of education for so many years working as an educator. We strongly believe that her experience of working with most great schools in the country will be a great benefit for these learners. May the grace of God bless the school and it’s accomplishments as we believe it’s all coming from Him.

KCS 2017 Opening Speech

Head Mistress: Mrs S. Hamilton

 A very warm welcome to Khethani Christian School in 2017.

I have got the amazing privilege to greet you as the new principal of the school. The end of last year was marked with many farewell events for the Swift family. Andrew and Bridget Swift lead the school over the past 6 years with great dedication and lots of love for the children of Ingwavuma. They brought the school from a handful of learners, taught in a few different places around town to a vibrant school of 158 children this year. There is a school campus with 8 class rooms, a school hall, office space a jungle gym and more. This is just the outside achievement. On the inside, they developed teachers, and taught and encouraged learners to reach their full potentials. There is a very strong team of educators, a caring governing body and a management team which all working hard develop Khethani to make it shine bright on top of the Lebombo Mountains.

To step into their shoes is a big privilege and a huge responsibility. Coming from a Swiss Admin and Nursing back ground, I’m also bringing some experience in project management and counselling. Since early 2002 Ingwavuma is my permanent home. Here is where I met my husband Hennie and now have the joy to bring up 3 beautiful children, who all attend Khethani.

I could only take on this challenge knowing Miss Petra Heese by my side – she carries a vast amount of teaching and school management experience from 3 decades of involvement in education in many different countries around the globe. Mr Manqoba Mkhwanazi and Mrs Thandi Ndlovu – both faithful teachers at school stepped up to leadership duties to form our management team.

A very big thank you to all of you who have contributed to Khethani in any way since the humble beginning in January 2009. You are a enormous encouragement to all staff and the community of Ingwavuma.

I start this year with great excitement and expectations to see Khethani growing further – growing deep roots academically for an excellent education of our children – growing deep roots in all aspects of admin incl continuing our application process with Umalusi and most of all growing deeper in our understanding how wide, how long, how deep and how high the love of God is for each one of us.

Sylvia Hamilton

Principal

March 2016

Dear fans and friends

A big welcome and thank you to new fan club members Pete and Claud Storrar and Martin and Vanessa Fawcett (all from Johanesburg).

I’m just back from a cricket tour. We took the boys to play two matches: one in Hluhluwe and the other in Eshowe. We left Ingwavuma on Friday morning. I’m sure you remember any outing that you went on at school (more than you remember Mrs Fitzwilliams’s riveting History lessons). Well that same sense of anticipation and excitement still courses through the veins of the modern learner – who has both visions of impending adventure and the thrill of a missed day of school causing giddy delight. I loved how the boys welcomed each new team member into the Isuzu bakkie. Everyone would bundle out of the car, en masse, and run over to help Kwenza carry his bag, blanket and umphako over to the trailer, chattering about who was sitting where and which packet of Simba chips would be opened first. Beautiful community.

We stopped first at Zulu Croc, outside Hluhluwe, were Laurence showed us a fascinating array of snakes and crocodiles. Wandile volunteered to have a snake draped round his neck. I’m not totally convinced Wandile knew what he was in for, and the unfortunate Australian Python took its maiden flight across the gravel when Wandile’s nerve broke. I was amazed to see two species of African crocodiles that I never knew existed, the pygmy and long-snouted – both from Central Africa. One never stops learning. The boys were clearly rattled by the reptiles, as their bodies went into shock, causing us to lose convincingly to both Hluhluwe Primary School and John Wesley Eshowe. We retreated to the Xaxaza Caravan Park in Mthunzini to lick our wounds and regroup around the lovely swimming pool. As we drove the long road back to Ingwavuma the next day the boys had long forgotten the epic defeats as I was left to ponder the mysteries of the cover drive and leg glance………

The term has been a busy and fruitful one with lots of great teaching and learning. We are blessed with a wonderful staff. The school really has developed strong rhythms that nurture achievement and excellence. Check out our Facebook page (Khethani Christian School) or website (khethani.co.za) to see the many activities that take place at Khethani in a week.

My close friend Murray Gibbon is principal of a young institution: Claremont High School in Cape Town. The first group of Grade 12 learners who had been at the school since Grade 8 left the school at the end of last year. What a cracking achievement then, that one of Murray’s Grade 12s finished 3^rd in the NSC exams in the whole of South Africa! I asked Murray what his secrets were to running a successful school. I share them with you here:

1. Build relationships between teachers and pupils. No significant learning is possible without significant relationships.
2. Create opportunities in the ‘wider classroom’: Olympiads, GK quizzes, camps, sport, leadership opportunities etc
3. Work longer and harder than others. Jealously guard academic time. Start lessons on Day 1; don’t erode days at the end of terms.
4. Take responsibility for your own life, you’re not a victim. For the resources at your disposal, be a good steward.
5. Give back. It prevents a sense of entitlement. And helps you be a ‘change agent’. Share wherever possible.

He also mentioned something about winning as many cricket games as possible, but I thought it best to leave that one out.

But on a serious note, it was a very good exercise for the Khethani staff to sit down, look at that list and reflect on how we measured up to those 5 points. I’m happy to say that we could all agree that the school was doing really well when we pegged KCS against this yardstick.

The Governing Body has made the decision to open Grade 8 at the school in 2018. I look forward to seeing how Khethani Grade 12 learners fare when 2022 rolls around. I won’t be at all surprised to see an excellent set of results.

To all our fans, my  sincere and heartfelt thanks for your continued support. On behalf of everyone involved in the Khethani project – thank you, thank you and thank you!

Many blessings

Andrew

 The Khethani Fan Club

 Our ‘Fan Club’ currently has about 40 members, a number that continues to grow. We ask each of our fans to donate R200 (or more, or less) a month to the school, or to make a once-off donation. The money goes into a fund that is used specifically to improve our teachers’ salaries. We are currently funded entirely through parents’ school fees (R1000/month) which are very high for the community we operate in. However, we want to offer our staff salaries that will compete with state salaries and keep them at the school but our budget does not allow for this. Your donation would go towards helping us retain staff that will assist us in attaining our vision of developing into a quality school.Fans also request to make donations for specific projects which is also fine.

 If you do join the fan club, please drop me an email so that I can add you to our list.

 Banking details:

 Account name:     Khethani Christian School 

Bank:                    First National Bank (FNB), Pongola 

Code:                    270124 

Acc number:         62281179757 

SWIFT code:        FIRNZAJJ

Dear Fans and Friends

             

                
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​We had our first ever Reading Rocket (courtesy of Miss Hogge – OK so the poms do come up with good ideas every now and again). This was paired reading across the school, with older and younger children taking turns to read to each other. The kids loved it!

                  
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​On the sporting front our boys finished off the year by winning the Mkuze Cricket Tournament in nailbiting fashion! With all the sides having 3 points, the result hinged on run rate. We managed to win by the slenderest of margins, but to be honest any result would have good considering we spent a day at the one of the most picturesque grounds in the country (go and have a look if you happen to swing past Mkuze). The final sporting acts of the year were Interhouse cricket and netball, with a double whammy Coo-ee bonanza being the spoils of war (which is good when you are playing in close to 40C heat).

                

             

Dear fans and friends

                            
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​The KCS Mountain Biking Club in action! Training, transporting bikes rural style, ready for action at our first race in Monzi, Lisa Coetzee takes position 3!!

           

              
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​Foundation Phase Interhouse General Knowledge Quiz, IP and SP Interhouse General Knowledge Quiz

                      
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​Interschools Cross-country (we came 2nd!), Tigers – Interhouse soccer winners, Interschools Maths Competition winners (Sthelwesihle Gr 1 1st, Siphosethu Gr 2 2nd, Fisokuhle Gr 3 2nd, Spetho Gr 4 1st), Heritage Day

       
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​And another productive, growth-full, fun term comes to a close, end of term assembly.

Dear fans and friends

   

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Samara Naicker was born in Ingwavuma at Mosvold Hospital in the 80s. She left when she was 12 and her parents relocated to Durban. For her 30th birthday she decided to return to the place of her birth. ‘Ingwavuma’ was Googled and spat out the email address of Neil Coetzee, the chairperson of the school’s governing body. A couple of emails later resulted in the call to have Samara’s 30th birthday party at Khethani Christian School. Samara arrived at the school with her fiance, mom, aunty  and step-father. What followed was a lovely party, happy children and moved staff. Samara also made a cash donation to the school and became a Khethani fan. What a lovely, generous occasion it was. A big thank you to the birthday girl!

We were visited by Grant Edkins and a team from Crossways Church (and Dorian and Yvonne Reece) in June. Grant and his team came to encourage and to enjoy the rurals. They joined Neil Coetzee and the mountain bike club on Saturday for a 25km ride around the community. The rural dogs proved a challenge for Dorian and the rural hills proved a challenge for Sihle. The team enjoyed the support and Lethu found that there were some riders to challenge him up the hills (MTN Qubeka take note!). Nick Kegge and Grant promised the team that they would join them on their maiden amaShova voyage in Durban later this year in October (no pressue fellas). Later that afternoon the Grade 5 – 7 learners decamped to the bush of Lindizwe where we had a great braai which was followed by stargazing with Paul Hemming (Crossways umfundisi) as night descended. It was a perfect night, no moon, no wind and no suburban lights (although does that count these days with load shedding?). The learners saw the Coal Sack, the Magellenic Cloud, Scorpio, the Dog Star, Scorpio, Saturn, Pluto, the majestic Milky Way and the Southern Cross and the pointers. Paul gave us wonderful insights and interesting illustrations to help us understand the universe, and what a universe it is!

​Term 2 included our Annual Inter-house Spelling Bee and I was really wowed by some of the (mostly) girls! Zonqoba and Fanele had a serious duel in Grade 6 with Zonqoba coming out on top, and successfully spelling onomatopoeia (and how many of you could get that right without spellcheck?) without skipping a beat.

Our staff was bolstered this term by Vince Cordero (US Peace Corps Volunteer) who is teaching IT (on tablets) to Grade 3 – 7 and small group Maths and English to Grade 1 – 5. Joshua Storrs visited Ingwavuma for a couple of months and taught Grade 7 Science and Social Studies as well as coaching u9 rugby. We will be joined in August by serial volunteer Emily Hogge and we look forward to welcoming her.

Many blessings

Andrew

Dear fans and friends

Dear fans and friends

Academics

We wrote the Annual National Assessments for the first time this year. It’s a great yardstick for an honest measure of our progress. Our curriculum doesn’t quite align with the state curriculum which is a disadvantage, but writing the tests revealed what we need to work on and what we are doing well. Our literacy results were 24% above the national average, while our numeracy results were 16% higher. Maths is fast becoming our number one academic priority as it is the subject, that if not taught well early on, creates the biggest problems in the higher grades. Our systems in the Foundation Phase are now working really well and we are achieving excellent results there. A focus next year will be on filling the gaps with the children who started at the school 5 years ago – when the school’s structures were a little looser!

Activities at school

We celebrated Cultural Heritge Day this term. Some of the children looked tremendous in their outfits – the only pity is that we did not have a camera at school that day! I particularly remember Lihlithemba Tembe – he looked splendid with his head-dress and ‘skirt’. We combined ‘Teddy Bear Day’ and ‘Teachers in Uniform Day’ together – wow, some of the teachers looked so young they could have been in Grade 10!

Sport

We hosted the inaugural the inaugural Inwgavuma Invitational Cricket Tournament this term. Khethani, 2 local schools and John Wesley Kosi Bay were the four schools invited. We used a round robin format with a final and 3^rd/4^th play-off on the final day. Mpontshini Primary won and Khethani finished 3^rd. It went really well, the forcasted deluge did not materialize and we hope to expand the event in future years. Cricket has definitely taken root in these schools – a favourite moment was driving past a homestead in the Ntabayengwe community and seeing two brothers playing a one-on-one game of garden cricket against each other. We will be going on a cricket tour to Durban during the second weekend of the 1^st Term next year. We will play 2 matches and go and watch the Dolphins playing a 20/20 match. The girls and boys played netball and cricket matches against Mbalekelwa Primary and Okhayeni Primary.

Outings

The Senior Class and Grade 3s went on a cruise on the Pongola Dam. They had good sightings of game from the barge and were well behaved according to the hosts – bonus! Tthe Grade Rs and 1s went to Sodwana Bay (about an hour and a half away) which they always enjoy. Mrs Mung’omba’s class went to St Lucia (about 3 hours away), where they visited the Crocodile Park and also went on a cruise in the estuary. Sabelwe Gumede was celebrating her birthday and got to steer the barge. The French tourists apparently had a ball interacting with the kids and made them feel like celebrities.

We finished the year with our End-of-Year Celebrations where we awarded prizes for academics, character, diligence and sport. We also ran speech and writing competitions during the 4^th term and the winners received their prizes as well. We also presented special awards to those children who did not receive a single detention during the whole year (no mean feat!) – there were only 9 children in the school who performed this noteworthy achievement.

From all the Governing Body members, the staff and children I wish you and your families a blessed Christmas and New Year.

As always we thank you, our partners, as we strive – in a small way, in a small corner of the Republic – to fulfill the vision of former President Nelson Mandela:

I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against 

black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a free and democratic nation in which all 

shall live in harmony with equal opportunities. It is an ideal for 

which I hope to live for and realize, but if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.

God bless Africa

Andrew

Dear fans and friends

Dear fans and friends

Dear fans and friends

Greetings from the north-eastern corner of the republic, where the roads are dusty and the humidity is hairy. It has been a cooker of a summer. Temperatures have regularly been in the nasty 40s. Roll on winter I say, roll on. Pity the teachers and kids that have had to grapple with fractions and algebra in oven-like temperatures. Bit of a drought up here as well – it’s going to be an ugly winter for most of the community that relies on open water sources and boreholes. It’s been a lovely summer for bird-watching though. The European bee-eaters, beautiful birds and fantastic flyers, cruise over the school regularly during the day and I have never seen them in Ingwavuma before.

We feel very loved – both by existing fan club members and new recruits. New recruits include Colin and Roni Jackson (Watamu, Kenya), Michael Gathercole (Cape Town), Peter and Nichi Walker-Woodard (Cape Town), Martin and Liz Schroeder (Brisbane [I think], Australia), Jonno and Ruth Harris (Mississippi Delta, USA), Andrew and Kate Warner (Cape Town), The Zoё Trust (UK), Roger Jaton (Johannesburg), Dave and Jemima Gerber (Switzerland), Arthur and Rose Schweizer (Switzerland), Ernst and Vreni Lehmann (Switzerland), Franz and Irma Booth (Switzerland), Barbara Rothmund (Switzerland), Abdellatif Takkel (St Antonius Gymnasium, Appenzell, Switzerland), Andrew and Kate Warner (Cape Town) and Michel Corminboeuf (Catholic Church, Appenzell, Switzerland) . I hope I haven’t left anyone out – please send me a cyber kick up the pants if I forgot you.

A term of cricket action. We watched the quarter and semi-finals of the World Cup under our tree (see below, big screen action, bunny ears at their best, grass needs a cut) – the teachers were free to bring their classes to watch at any time (with me there most of the time) but generally there was only a crowd at break time. Mr Mkhwanazi and Mr Mbereki joined me during their free periods for the dying embers of the semi, and I think both are now confirmed cricket fans. What a tense match. Our boys went on a short tour to Emplangeni (Felixton College) and Eshowe (John Wesley Eshowe). They played lovely cricket under the watchful eye of their coach Neil Coetzee and won both games, with the Felixton game being much more exciting than even the World Cup semi. The girls played netball against local opposition and will be preparing this term to take part in the Hluhluwe Primary Pineapple Festival. The boys (u9 and u11) will be moulded into the first Khethani rugby teams – very exciting for me. We also had our annual interhouse Athletics Day this term, won by the Tigers.