Woodlands Sports day fundraiser 2013!

The sun was beaming and the excitement has been growing for several weeks now about the sports day which was due to be held on 20th March 2013. Children were put into houses, red, green, yellow and blue with teachers assigned to each house. 

The morning saw the GCU boys give the field a spring clean with freshly cut grass, marking the field with chalk, getting sounds systems ready to go and the gazebo ready for action. All we needed was the children and boy did they come. 1pm soon caught up and on marched each team in their team colours chanting and clapping ready for the afternoons events. The usual athletic events were the order of the day starting with 800m girls in the U10. Of course no sports day would be complete without novelty races from grade R and 1, sack race with pillow cases, 'egg and spoon' with potatoes rather than eggs and the entertaining 3 legged race, mums of course got the chance to compete with a very eager Mrs Lee who put in an appearance in every parent race. The day rounded off with the ever exciting relay races with nail biting finishes.

 The day was a true success and it was wonderful to see parents coming to join in the fun and support their children and the school. This has been the second fundraiser the school has hosted for the year and whilst we must wait to see what the final figures were there is no denying that no matter what was raised everyone took part and enjoyed the moment. There are some things in life that we all share in common not matter from what part of the world you are from. Sports days are always and forever will be something we all share in common weather we were sporty or not, they are days which we cherish and remember the uniting of schools and of communities and Woodlands sports certainly did that.









All that is left to reveal is that blue house came 1st with over 130 points, followed by yellow and red in joint 2nd with last but by no means least the greens. Well done to all those who took part!






By Jennifer Pickett
GCU

GCU Wolves growing!

Basketball girls

The basketball training are up and running we have three girls teams (12, 14, 16) and two boys teams (12, 16) which is new to the club, this year are growing bigger than last year and we hope the teams do well in the league and as we will be working together and help seek great talents amongst these young girls and boys.

The Western Province School Basketball team trails took place at Settlers High school on the 9 March 2013, we send four girls for under 13 Nina Rhoda, Aden Fancensie, Chante skipper, Esme De-Kock, you could see these girls gave there all on trails and they made me as a coach proud and to prove the coach they got what it takes to be on the team ……and they made it through so all for G.C.U Wolves girls made it for the Western Province School team.

Lucretia Goliath

On the 18 March 2013 our basketball girls went to Sea Point Beach front where we had the girls had a team building and physical fitness programme at Green Point Park open air gym.

By

Lucretia Goliath 

Girl’s basketball coach

Who can fit in a big big box?

Acting out a story really brings it to life!

The past two weeks I have been reading the story of the big big box with my 1^st group of grade 2’s. I and the class was excited because I used two boxes to demonstrate my story. I had a big and a small box. When the kids came in I read the story to them and then explained that we were going to act out the story by using the boxes! As I read, children one by one piled into the box to illustrate the story, they were so excited. It was very funny to see how they got in the box, some feet first some head first and then got stuck turning around. Eventually the box broke because of all the excitement but one thing for sure it bought the story alive.

Rearranging sentences using students!

I could see that they understood the story better using props, so I’ve learnt if you let the kids ‘do’ the story they will understand much more so I am definitely going to try and implement this more into my lessons in the future.

This has been my first time tutoring in this way and whilst it has been a challenge the improvement in the children and the fun I’ve had has been great. I have learnt so much that I can apply to other areas of my work and im excited to see how the second term develops.

Bean bag game - student throw a bean bag to the word I say

By Laaiqah Safter

Grade 2 tutor

GCU school sports update

Our sports codes are up and running both basketball and soccer team’s leagues will be starting on the 6 April 2013. We hope our children will be successful in the league…

The G.C.U coaches are volunteering at different school in the Heideveld community,

Vanguard Primary, Woodlands Primary, Welcome Primary, St Theresa Primary. At the moment the coaches are helping out with the athletics and inter-house athletics, after the school holidays the physical education will be launch as a subject where the teachers will be assenting the children in each session.

G.C.U are sure growing in each schools we as the coaches are proud to be part of G.C.U and for having such a huge impact in each child’s lives. 

By Lucrecia Goliath

GCU Basketball coach

Meet Sylvia

Paired reading and games with my Grade 3's

My name is Sylvia and I am working in Library and with tutoring. We started this year in good spirit and we welcome new staff on board our team. The environment is actually blossoming among us with good relationships and communication among all. Out lesson planning has grown from strength to strength, there is a lot of improvement working in smaller groups. the behavior is much better this year and they are paying more attention to the lessons at hand. Our training at International house is helping us all tremendously with our skills and enabling us to grow as individuals and as a team.

Book club Mondays using the Nalibali supplements (found in the Times on Wednesday)

I have also started doing the Wordworks program this year which has been great fun for me. We have had the pleasure of meeting two adorable ladies to the team as volunteers on a Thursday, Val mai and Betty they are a great help and are doing an amazing job with the grade ones. It is amazing to see how fast they can learn and it makes us feel proud and happy. We also recently started the book club again on a Monday afternoon and its fantastic to see how many children want to stay so they can read a bit more. the book club is filled with fun and games and lots of reading!

To me this job is a blessing and an honor working with such lovely staff, educators and learners at Woodlands Primary and I enjoy every minute of it!

Practicing our Wordworks games with Val mai, volunteer

By Sylvia Van Nikerk
Library assistant

A volunteer story

Hi my name is Carole Reqoena, 28 from France. I found GCU thanks to a backpacker they gave me Mario's contact for being a volunteer.  It wasn't easy to find a volunteering project and GCU was really the kind of project i was looking for. I was looking forward being with kids, playing with them, helping in educational projects and training them with sports and games.

I think GCU is a great organisation where i feel very involved and integrated. The work team is very kind and helped me to feel welcome. There are lots of projects. Tutoring lessons, soccer, rope skipping and basketball which you can be involved with. In GCU i help the coaches in sport lessons and during the basketball training. My favorite moment was playing with the kids and discussions with them. 

By Carole Roqoena, France