Felixton College

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Train up a child in the way he should go - and walk there

                                                     yourself once in a while (Josh Billings)

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MESSAGE FROM THE HEADMASTER

We all seem to have hit the ground running as 2010 as got off to a flying start.  2009 ended well with our Matric class achieving some of Felixton’s best results yet.  On the downside we had out first candidate not qualifying, a candidate who passed all other subjects comfortably but fell 3% short in English after an uncharacteristically bad exam day; a sombre reminder of the importance of each individual exam.  On the up-side we had 27 subject ‘A’s’ and 54 B’s, from only 33 candidates.  This is a total of 81 results above 70%, up from 64 the previous year.  We also had 20 candidates qualify for entrance into a Bachelor’s Degree and a further 11 qualify for entrance into a Diploma.  Well done to the Class of 2009 and out best wishes to the Class of 2010 which promises to achieve the best IEB results yet from any school in Zululand.

I need to express my sincere apologies for the terrible state of our pool.  I am certainly no pool expert but am learning on a daily basis.  After much testing and expenditure of effort and chemicals over the past few weeks we have been advised by a local pool company that the water in the pool is unusable.  Apparently this tends to happen in large pools after a number of years.  The high level of “Total Dissolved Solids” is rendering any chemical treatment ineffective.  Dissolved solids cannot be filtered out so the only solution is to discard the water and refill the pool.  This will be done as soon as possible so that swimming lessons can resume.  We do apologise for this unacceptable disruption of our sporting programme.

A number of parents have asked why we have compulsory Saturday schooling on our calendar this year.  Saturday schooling has never been our policy at Felixton and it is certainly not our intention to introduce it.  However, 2010 is a extraordinary year and we all have to break from normal policy and make sacrifices to host the wonderful spectacle which is the World Cup.  All schools have been asked to take a 5-week mid-year holiday, also a break from normal policy.  When we decided on our calendar for 2010, we did out best with the given constraints to protect as much family time as possible while securing adequate academic time during the year.  Two days of Saturday school were the best solution we arrived at.  I would like to assure you that this will not be the norm and that 2011 will be business as usual again as far as the calendar is concerned.

K.S. KRIGE
HEADMASTER

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WELCOME TO.........Miss Lyndsay Collocott, who joined us as a Senior Primary Intern this term.  Lyndsay matriculated from Creston College and has a Batchelor of Social Science Degree from the University of KZN Maritzburg with honours in Psychology.
................Mr Walter van Rooyen is no stranger to most of us as he was in the Felixton College Class of 2009 and has returned as a Gap Student.  Walter's main area of focus will be the Computer Centre and he will be coaching sport as well.

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SWIMMING
Last week Felixton College hosted a social gala at Empangeni Town Pool.  St Catherine's, Holy Childhood, Grantham Park and Mtunzini all joined us in a wonderful afternoon's swimming.  Our swimmers swam very well and we were delighted to secure a few first places.  The following swimmers all achieved a first place; Bradley McNally, Tristan Fernandes, Damon Welsh and Ruben Kok.