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Big Changes By Stefanie Rawlings |
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May / June / July 2009 Issue 3
Field Reporters: Liz Smith, Tembelani Daniso, and Pippa Colebourne Editor: Stefanie Rawlings Design/IT: Stefan Drexlmeier |
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In this Issue 1) Big Changes 2) Volunteer Spotlight 3) Grade 1 Explores the Ocean 4) Sisonke Philosophy 101 5) Sponsorship Spotlight 6) Thank yous 7) Translators & Flyers 8) Last Word from Pippa |
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Hello fellow friends of Sisonke! Here in the northern hemisphere, Stefan and I have been enjoying summer adventures a little too well, hence the delay in the third edition of the newsletter. Things in peaceful Port St Johns have also proven to be especially eventful lately. Two changes in particular, one challenging and one joyful, present the opportunity for our network to show unprecedented support to the dedicated teachers and students of Sisonke as they adjust. I can’t help but smile as I write now, imagining you all around the world |
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reading the next few lines. I’m sure you’ll be as excited for these two Sisonke teachers as I am. Pippa and Tembelani met about three years ago, and got to know each other while organizing creative activities for the children of Port St Johns. Pippa told me once that she immediately recognized something special about Tembelani, seeing the spell he cast over the kids, as he effortlessly held their attention with his playful yet earnest approach to life. Pippa and Tembelani have grown as individuals and as a couple so much in recent years, as they and the other teachers worked to create the Sisonke we know today. So, it is with absolute joy that I share with you that Pippa and Tembelani are expecting a baby, due in December!! In preparation for this new chapter of their lives they are building a home on the land Tembelani shares with his brothers in Port St Johns, but they are planning to have the baby in Pippa’s home country, England. They hope to head to England in October and return to Port St Johns in March. Six |
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months is a long time for the school to be without two of its pillars, which brings me to the reason for sharing such details with you all here in this forum: we need your help in finding dedicated, long-term volunteers to help hold down the fort while Pippa and Tembelani are away. Just to make things even more interesting, fate has thrown in another big adjustment in December. The owners of the buildings which house Sisonke School have made other plans for the property, and given notice that the school may not renew its lease after the end of this year. We are blessed to have another piece of property available for the school to rent, behind “The Hub” in the center of town. Although this lot is empty and not the ideal home for the school, it is a good place for the teachers to set up temporary residence, until a site that is better suited becomes available. This means investment in simple temporary structures on the property, which of course, means an urgent need for funding. Please, really keep Sisonke in your hearts in the coming months, and share its story with everyone who may be able to help. It’s going to be a challenging season, and our support will make all the difference in this intense (but exciting!) period of growth. |
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Volunteer Spotlight: Dinner Party in Australia for Sisonke |
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We’d like to thank Liz Smith for answering the call on Sisonke’s Global Fundraising Day, and for writing in to tell us about her awesome event! “On Friday July 3rd I held a South African dinner party at my house for 10 of my family and friends. They were asked to make a AUD$25 (€15/$20) donation per person towards dinner. On the menu was food such as butternut soup, bobotie, boerwors, mealie meal, malva pudding, rooibos tea & Ouma |
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rusks. I gave a short presentation to the guests about Port St Johns and Sisonke School and handed out information packs containing the school newsletter, an anonymous donation envelope, South African recipes, and information about the sponsorship scheme.
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“The guests were brilliant. They were genuinely interested in Sisonke School and my amazing time in Port St Johns. They were extremely generous, and with the help of a few other donations, we were able to raise R6000!” - Liz Smith |
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Sisonke volunteer, Liz Smith |
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Teacher Spotlight: Grade One Explores the Ocean! By Tembelani Daniso |
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Tembelani and his class exploring rock pools |
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Hi, my name is Tembelani and I am a teacher at Sisonke School. I am teaching Grade One where the children are between 5 and 7 years old. I would like to tell you about a lesson I did with my class. The lesson was about the ocean and we did it as a project for about 4 weeks. We had great fun talking about all the creatures, and I never thought that I could enjoy teaching a lesson so much. The idea came from a story I heard recently about a seahorse, and we just built onto from there.
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We were doing games, movement, plays, singing and poems all about the ocean. We did research about all the animals that stay [live] in the ocean and we learned about lots of animals we didn’t know about, like starfish and seahorses. We were creating songs, making games, and making jewellery from the shells. We also went on a trip to the beach to see the small fish and other creatures in the rock pools. We collected a lot of shells and other things from the beach for our nature table.
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It was an amazing experience for me and my kids and we had a very good time. It wasn’t easy to get them to focus on the other lessons because they were so into this ocean. We were also doing speaking, reading and writing, all sorts of things connected with the ocean. We were just loving it because we can see it, we can eat from it, and we can heal ourselves from it. That’s why we enjoyed it so much and we could experience all those things for ourselves. It is real: we are living it, its in our heart and in front of our eyes. We enjoyed it so, so much. |
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Sisonke 101: Integral Education By Pippa Colebourne |
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Grade One at the beach |
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Tembelani & Pippa |
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We mentioned in our earlier editions that Sisonke School uses a variety of educational approaches and philosophies to bring about the best approach for the children. We have looked at some the ideas of Rudolf Steiner and how we are seeing them manifest within our school. This month I would like us to look at the ideas of Sri Aurobindo and his pioneering work in education, known as integral education. Integral Education is a philosophy and practice of education for the whole child: body, emotions, mind, soul, and spirit. The modern practice of education for |
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utility or for productivity is not enough for the children of the 21st century. It ignores the highest and truest parts of their being. Too often it ignores the physical and emotional development of the child as well. Integral Education unites the ancient educational goal of self-knowledge with the modern goal of world-knowledge. Both of these goals are admirable, and the two of them must go hand-in-hand in any educational system that is integral. Integral Education assists the child to discover for himself/herself out of his/her own temperament and being the aim of life and the purpose that he or she has to play in it. If everyone truly has a spark of the Divine as the center of his being, a comprehensive education must do more than ignore it or passively acknowledge it. Integral Education takes that spark, the soul, as the guiding principle for the education of each child. |
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The role of the teacher is to put the child upon the right road to his own perfection and encourage him to follow it, watching, suggesting, helping, but not imposing or interfering
~Kireet Joshi~ |
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As part of our teacher training we spent a lot of time reading and discussing this approach and found many similarities to the ideas of Rudolf Steiner. In fact the words below were taken and adapted a little from the writings of Steiner and |
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we now use them on the front cover of our parent handbook. When the teachers were introduced to these ideas they immediately connected with the message they were bringing. We had many lively discussions about how society can try to mould people into the way they think they should be rather than allowing the individual in each person shine through. We still laugh together now at how Sisonke School is not a sausage factory producing identical little sausages. Our children are simply guided and allowed to develop their own uniqueness and sense of self. Our varied curriculum offers many opportunities for the children's qualities to take shape, grow, and help them to make their connection to the wider world. Children are encouraged to discover their unique life purpose, and - by developing that purpose - to help build a better world for themselves, their families, and their communities. |
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Sponsorship Spotlight: Phiwemihle Msito By Pippa Colebourne & Tembelani Daniso |
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Phiwemihle Msito, age 5 |
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Phiwemihle meaning “beautiful gift” is exactly that, a beautiful gift to our school. She is a 5 year old girl who started in our Grade 1 this January. As well as looking absolutely adorable with bright shining eyes, she has also has a wonderful loving nature and is very popular within the class. She lives in town with her mum and younger brother who she is very close to. Phiwe is very excited for next year when her brother will also be old enough to come to our school. Phiwe’s father lives in a village just outside of town but she is fortunate to see him regularly. In fact she is so close with her father that sometimes after finishing school she just decides for herself to head over to his village to spend the night. Being such a small, gentle and quiet child you wouldn’t expect the confidence and responsibility with which she handles her life. In the classroom, Phiwemihle loves stories. Whether she is listening to them or telling her own to her friends, she always has a twinkle in her eye where stories are concerned. It is taking time for her to get used to writing letters and numbers but if you consider that she is only 5 years old, then its clear she is doing very well. She loves to count and organise things, and she told her teacher that she |
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wants to be a business lady when she grows up. At home Phiwe is very responsible, taking care of her brother and helping her mum around the house. You can see this during free play at school, where she always takes on the role of mummy in the games. We are so happy that Phiwe found her way to Sisonke School, as the bright light she has inside her will now be cherished and allowed to grow ever brighter with each step of her development. We are appealing for sponsorship for her, as her family are only able to contribute R100 a month towards her school fees. Please support us in giving Phiwemihle a brighter future. |
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Enkosi kakhulu! (Thank you!) |
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· Wendy Thompson for her parcel of goodies · Eline Wobma for sponsorship of Reanatsie Tieli · Theresa Morris for sponsorship of Gordon Njiva · Liz Smith for her fundraiser events, raising R6000 · Pierre Melancon for sponsorship of Sisandile Mkosana · Julie & Mark Wightman for their donation parcel of stationary · Manchester Fundraising Team for their sponsored walk raising R5000 · Ten Der Sense, headed by Mairead Collins, for raising R1000 in the Global fundraising campaign · Kelly Leach for sponsorship of Sandisiwe and the donation of 4 boxes of craft materials (which the kids absolutely love!!!) |
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Fresh assignments for our bold and brave! Flyers: One of our past volunteers, Lisa Mayo, made us a flyer to help recruit volunteers. We have just received our first two wonderful volunteers from the flyers she made and distributed. A HUGE thank you to Lisa! We have now updated this flyer and are calling on you all to print and distribute it in as many places as possible. Universities, libraries, coffee shops, information centres etc. It is included here in PDF format, ready for you to print. If you would like to modify it and include name and number as contact person just email Pippa at sisonke.school@yahoo.com, and she will send it you in publisher format.
Translators: The newsletter is proving to be a great way for the Sisonke family to stay connected, and we’d like to be able to share with non-English speaking folks as well. If you speak any other language, can you help us by translating the newsletter? Contact us at sisonke.school@yahoo.com |
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Wanted: Translators & Flyer Flyers |
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A Last Word, From Pippa |
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Hi there to all our Sisonke friends,
As Stefanie announced so beautifully we are expecting a little one in the coming months. We are both very excited and looking forward to being parents. Although this is an exciting time for us, I am also very anxious about the school. I have put my heart and soul into the development of Sisonke and it is worrying for me to now go away for 6 months.
This is where I really need as much support from you all as possible. With the recent fundraising efforts from many of you, Sisonke is now in a much stronger financial position. In fact we had huge celebrations here last month when for the first time ever we were able to leave some money in our school bank account. What an amazing achievement it was and huge thanks to all of you who have contributed!
I am extremely busy at the moment stocking up the office with all the things needed during my absence, but my biggest concern of course is the finances whilst I am away. Any money that can be fundraised now will be put into the bank as reserve to be used during the months I am away. If we can pull together and get as much savings in the bank as possible it would be wonderful and would certainly help me feel less anxious about being away.
The other huge thing Stefanie mentioned was that we have to move premises. Why is it that things always happen at once??? Anyway we do have some land we can rent but as you heard there is nothing on that land. I am looking into donated containers that have been converted into classrooms or some kind of pre-fabricated structure. There are two ways we need help:
1. Research and email any charities that give classrooms for schools to use. Approach businesses that could fund the purchase of classrooms in Africa. 2. Fundraise the money needed to purchase temporary structures.
If you think you are able to help with any of this contact me by email and we can talk further. sisonke.school@yahoo.com
For those of you who are able to fundraise some of the costs needed, I will keep you updated by email or facebook once I have some prices for the classrooms, that way you will have a figure to work towards.
And just to remind all of you again WE REALLY DO NEED YOUR HELP! No matter how small the donation or how little time you can give us, every bit helps.
Sending love, greetings and best wishes to everyone,
Pippa and the South African Sisonke team |
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To our friends around the world that have helped us in recent months, our deepest gratitude: |