The weekly newsletter from Southern Cross Schools provides information on recent school events and upcoming dates. It describes sightings of African wild dogs on school property and includes an educational fact file on the species. It also details a Grade 3 class hike on a forest trail where they observed fungi and flowers, and a visit from an adult male rock python named Snoopy to a Bush Lore class where students learned about snake anatomy. The newsletter highlights extracurricular activities like an impromptu talent show in the aftercare program and boarding house students visiting a waterfall.

1. Southern Cross Schools
PO Box 116
Southern Cross Schools
Hoedspruit
1380
Phone: 015 793 0590
E-mail: raptor@scschools.co.za
Weekly Newsletter 4 of 2011
School for the Planet Week 1 of February 2011
A Peek at Last Week … Awesome Encounters with African Wild Dog
• Our Grade 3 class went on an Learners, this past week, were treated to fabulous sightings of
educational outing to Franklyn the small pack of three African Wild Dog at school. This pack
Park on Monday 31 January. has been on Raptor’s View for the past five months or so and
has been very active on school property during this time. It
• Our College netball players
attended a coaching clinic at
certainly is a real privilege for us all to have such magnificent
SCS on Tuesday 1 February.
encounters with this rare and highly endangered predator.
• Our young Foundation Phase
netball players attended a net-
ball coaching clinic on Wednes-
day 2 February.
African Wild Dog Fact File
• Our Pre-school held a cake sale Lycaon pictus, the scientific name
for the rest of the school on is derived from Greek and Latin
Friday 4 February and collected and means “painted wolf”. Humans
R1 423.80. Well done all con- are its number 1 enemy. Relent-
cerned! less persecution and habitat loss
• A number of Prep and College have reduced wild dog numbers to
swimmers went off to partici- fewer than 5000 individuals left on
pate in the Limpopo Swimming the planet. To date there has been
Champs in Polokwane on Friday 4 no confirmed record of a wild dog
and Saturday 5 February. attack on a human being.
This & That
It was great to see how
patient our Grade 6 learn-
Important Dates: ers were when they spent
some time working with
Prep School cluster 07 learners in the Pre-school
athletics meeting at Feb this past week. Learners in
Drakensig. the Prep School have also
been spending their Phys
Netball Coaching 08 Ed lessons in the pool,
Clinic at SCS for Feb improving their swimming
technique.
U10 to U12 players.
College cluster ath- 09 Grade 3s Hike on Forest Trail at Franklyn Park
letics meeting at Feb On Monday, our Grade 3 class went to Franklyn
Frans du Toit. Park where they were guided through the
5,5km Blue Route hiking trail by Lee and Claire.
Prep School Valen- 11
The learners enjoyed exploring the forest. Of
tine’s Social at Re- Feb particular interest were the various fungi and
source Centre. flowers which are out at the moment. They
hardly noticed that they were walking on quite
L/S Tzaneen Ath- 12 a challenging path as there was so much to see.
letics Meeting. Feb They completed the walk in under two hours
and had time to play in the mountain stream
Shamu Sprint Swim- 14
and to enjoy their lunch on the grassy banks.
ming Gala Registra- Feb Thank you to Lee and Claire for a wonderful
tion closes. morning. (Photo & article from Sally Wiggill.)

2. School for the Planet - “Snoopy” the African Rock Python Visits
Southern Cross Schools
PO Box 116
Hoedspruit
Limpopo
1380
Phone: 015 793 0590
Fax: 086 530 5153
E-mail:
raptor@scschools.co.za
In their Bush Lore classes last week, learners were introduced to an adult,
male rock python. They decided to name him Snoopy as they thought it
would be a sufficiently cute and cuddly name for a snake of that size. Ques-
Sustainable Living Hint: tions ranged from “Has he met any girls recently?” to “How do you know
when snakes are thirsty?”. Mr D. de Boer and Mr van Breda taught the class
Buy local! Look for items about both snake and human anatomy, the result being that some learners
that are produced locally. By wanted to “act like snakes and not get dizzy” as snakes don’t have ears. The
supporting local farmers, children enjoyed themselves thoroughly and some of them faced their fears
local industries and local and even gave Snoopy a stroke. Needless to say, a lot was learnt about the
manufacturers you reduce African Rock Python. (Photos & Article by Kathleen Painter.)
the demand for products FUN & GAMES AT AFTERCARE
that are transported long (Photo & Article by Kathleen Painter.)
Aftercare proves that Southern
distances and so you reduce
Cross really does have talent. An
the amount of carbon emit- impromptu talent show was hosted
ted to get these items onto in the Grade 0 classroom after
our shelves. Local is lekker school on Monday. Brilliantly pre-
and helps keep our carbon sented by Devon Wilkes, the acts
ranged from funny faces (Jadon
footprint in check.
Speelman, left) to brilliantly choreo-
graphed dance routines (Fatma and
Khadija Ben Azouz); from comedians
a
o. z (Ruben Venter) to a ‘not to be missed’ rendition of Justin Bieber’s Our Pre-schoolers produced a colourful
oo ls.c “Baby” (Matthew Blair). Main judge (aka Randal) Cameron Blair hand-printed eagle picture in Bush Lore
s ch
r oss agrees that a winner was hard to pick. Clearly, if you want your
nc class this past week.
her kids to make the big time, aftercare is the place to send them.
out
w.s
ww
News from the Boarding House
Green Awards On Sunday 30 January, a group of boys from the
boarding house went to the Swadini waterfall.
The following Green Awards They had fun jumping off the lower part of the
were presented at assembly waterfall into the deep, crystal clear pool. Ac-
on Friday 4 February: Grade cording to Mrs Wiggill, who took them, they were
all very well behaved and enthusiastic about the
1 – Jemma Henning; Grade 2 beautiful environment in the forest. Our girls in
– Joshua Fairhead; Grade 3 Tamboti Lodge also appear to be making the most
– Chloe Henning; Grade 4 – of their time together. The photo alongside shows
them playing “twister” in the common room.
Rhandzu Ngobeni; Grade 5
– Angella Trzeciak; Grade 6
– Jamie den Dunnen and
Grade 7 - Rebecca Mool-
man.