Brescia House School - Secondary School

Overdue books and Holiday Loan slips

noreply@blogger.com (Brescia House School) — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 02:00:37 PDT

All books are due back on Thursday 22nd March. Holiday Loan slips will be available as from Wednesday 28th March from both the Resource Centre and Bateman Hall; they are to be filled in and signed and returned before books for the holiday can be taken out. Girls may take up to 7 books. Anyone with overdue loans will not be able to take books out for the holiday period.

Please note that holiday loans are to be returned during the first week of the new term.

Any books not returned that were due back before the end of February 2012 will be charged to the school account.

Mini- Model United Nations Conference

noreply@blogger.com (Brescia House School) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 06:04:26 PDT

A mini- Model United Nations conference was held in the school hall, Friday 16 March.
This conference was sponsored by the South African Institute of International Affairs and aimed to demonstrate a possible meeting of the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation. The topic discussed was mother tongue education and the preservation of traditional languages.

Seven schools participated, including Florida Park HS, Heron Bridge, St. Stithian’s Boys’ and Girls’, the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy, Holy Family College, as well as Brescia House. These seven schools provided teams to represent twenty different countries. Members of the various teams were responsible for researching their particular countries’ policies regarding the stated topic, preparing a written position paper on that policy, speaking to present that policy to the meeting and then, negotiating with other countries to arrive at a common statement about the issue. Twelve Brescia House girls represented, the People’s Republic of China, Indonesia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Zinhle Ngema was selected as the third best speaker of the conference and the girls representing Indonesia (Caroline Fairon, Nyaradzo Muzembe, and Kendyl Renzulli) were named as having presented the best position paper. Further Model United Nations conferences will be held, later this year.

The accompanying photos show the Brescia House teams, in action.

Mother Daughter Tea

noreply@blogger.com (Brescia House School) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 05:42:52 PDT

On Saturday 17 March the grade 11 Matric dance fundraising committee hosted the Mother Daughter tea in the school hall. The theme this year was ‘Oriental’ and the hall was beautifully decorated by the girls. The guests were entertained with tranquil music and a talk on the relationships between mothers and their daughters. Thank you to all those that attended!

Dance

noreply@blogger.com (Brescia House School) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 04:50:26 PDT

Dani and Tayla were chosen to participate in the next round of the National Eisteddfod (NEA) with their choreographic piece that they entered in September last year. The event took place on Friday 2 March 2012 and they have now qualified for the quarter finals.

Inter-House Tennis

noreply@blogger.com (Brescia House School) — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 22:38:52 PDT

On Tuesday the 13th March, the Brescia House girls split up into their respective houses: Laurus, Brescia and Merici. Girls were chosen to represent their house on the steaming hot tennis court underneath the beating sun. They were split into two groups: seniors and juniors with each group consisting of six girls in three couples. Games were played until the first couple reached four games in their favour.

The theme for the day was 'Astounding Aerobic Athletes', where the Matrics out shone the rest of the girls with their fabulous outfits. Outfits consisted of whistles, head bands, crazy wigs and bright coloured tights. Megan Treacy painted her whole body yellow for Laurus! The support was greatly appreciated and the spirit was fabulous. The grade 8s and Matrics had the most supporters and majority of the crowd were fellow "Lauricians". All supporters were given a tasty ice lolly to keep them going for the afternoon.

The final results were as follows:
Seniors: 1st place - Brescia (15), 2nd place - Merici (14) and 3rd place - Laurus (13).
Juniors: a tie for 1st place - Merici and Laurus (21) and 3rd place - Brescia (2).
Overall results: 1st place - Merici (35), one point behind them in 2nd place - Laurus (34) and in 3rd place - Brescia (17).

The girls played exceptionally well and a lot of fun was had throughout the afternoon.
Jess de Kock, Laurus House committee

Camp Out

noreply@blogger.com (Brescia House School) — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 22:31:34 PDT

The Brescia House School annual Camp out took place on the 2^nd March 2012 from 5pm- 8am the next morning. The committee decided on the theme “Peace Out” to let everyone show their inner hippy. With the supervision of Mrs Maclachlan, Miss Mafunganyika and Mrs Foster and the help of the Gr11 pupils and the committee’s parents, the night was enjoyed by all with over 120 girls attending. With music, movies, prizes, Steers burgers for supper, pancakes, an all-night tuck shop and a lot of laughter and fun shared by all, the Camp Out was a great success.

Public Speaking

noreply@blogger.com (Brescia House School) — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 21:53:46 PDT

On Thursday, 15 March, four Grade 8 girls: Chiara Madonna, Angelica Iacovitti, Kiara Bahadur and Celine Cooper participated in the Speech and Drama College (SA) High Schools’ 51^st Public Speaking Festival. The girls achieved an ‘A’ symbol and the adjudicator referred to them as ‘A world-class team with talented speakers….’ and of having ‘such command of public speaking techniques.' We look forward to hearing more from these proficient young ladies.

Sports News

noreply@blogger.com (Brescia House School) — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 01:18:51 PDT

Open Water Swimming

Samantha Young took part in the Island Swim on the 4 March and came 3rd in the 1.6 swim. Samantha also competed at the CGA Open Water Championships on 11 March and came 4th in the 3km and 3rd in the 5km swim.

Kirsty also took part in the CGA Open water championships held at Florida Lake and came 8th in the 3km race.

Samantha Young and Kirsty Hyslop have been selected to represent Central Gauteng at the South African Open Water Championships to be held in April. Congratulations

Diving
Nicole Gillis competed in the CGA Diving champs last weekend and achieved the following outstanding results:

In the Under 17 & 18 year age group:

1st in 3 metre synchronized diving competition
2nd on 1 metre, 3 metre and 5 metre boards

In the Open age group:

1st in synchronized diving competition
1st on 1 metre board competition
2nd on 3m and 5m boards

Nicole has qualified for the Nationals in the 17/18 year old age group (Junior Nationals) as well as qualifying for the Senior Nationals Open Age group competitions.

Equestrian
Well done to all our riders who represented Brescia House School at the SANESA 1st Qualifier.

Alison Horsfall
Siobhan O’Neill
Rebecca Meeser
Brigid Coulter
Courtney Roux
Jamie-Leigh McLoughlin
Stephanie Hiltermann

Here are some of the outstanding results achieved:

Siobhan O’Neill: Dressage Level 1 (Prelim Test 2) – 6th
Rebecca Meeser: Performance Riding level 4 (Open) – 1st
Stephanie Hiltermann: Equitation Level 3 – 1st , Dressage Level 3 (Novice Test 1) – 2nd, Showjumping Level 5 (90cm) – 5th

Inter House Gala

noreply@blogger.com (Brescia House School) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 04:54:05 PDT

The inter house gala was a fun day for everyone as Merici, Brescia and Laurus pulled out the best of the best of their swimming and diving talent to compete against each other and establish which house was the champion of the pool. The day started off with some amazing, jaw-dropping diving which left everyone in awe of the talent of our divers and the high difficulty levels which they were able to execute so perfectly. Then all attention shifted to the swimming pool as all of the houses prepared their swimmers. As the starting gun went off for the first time the swimmers leapt off of the blocks and the air exploded with war cries from each house cheering their team on. It was an exciting day which was enjoyed so much by everyone that we had to leave the last few races until the following Monday morning to spread some of that house spirit into the week that lay ahead. In the end the results were as follows:

Diving results

1^st: Merici 53 points

2^nd: Laurus 45 points

3^rd: Brescia 22 Points

Swimming results:

1^st: Merici 379 Points

2^nd: Laurus 277 Points

3^rd: Brescia 249 Points

Best spirit

Laurus

Overall Results:

1^st: Merici 432 Points

2^nd: Laurus 322 Points

3^rd: Brescia 271 Points

Natural Science

noreply@blogger.com (Brescia House School) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 01:32:21 PDT

The Grade 7 classes made models of the different planets in the Solar system for Natural Science. These models were suspended in the atrium to scale. Some girls also made models of the earth to show the internal structure.

MDC Barnyard Event

noreply@blogger.com (Brescia House School) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 01:19:09 PDT

Barnyard is coming up on the 20th of March 2012 and the tickets are R145 pp. The show is “Big Top Rock” and will be held at the Barnyard theatre in Cresta. There are food baskets available for only R65 each and they feed two people. Please return your reply slips as soon as possible to a Barnyard representative with money or proof of payment attached. Your support is greatly appreciated as it is the last Matric Dance fundraiser for the year.

Inter High Gala

noreply@blogger.com (Brescia House School) — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 22:15:47 PDT

INTER HIGH DIVING
Our team did extremely well to come 5^th out of nine schools at the Inter High Diving competition held last week.

Nicole Gillis came 1^st and Michelle Mostert 3^rd out of 18 divers in the U19 section. Making them the top divers in Gauteng!

INTER HIGH SWIMMING
Our team did extremely well at the Inter High Gala held at Ellis Park. They managed to maintain their position in the prestigious Premier Gala. Well done to our team.

Sports News

noreply@blogger.com (Brescia House School) — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 22:22:47 PDT

TENNIS

We would like to congratulate Michelle Erasmus on being selected for the U19 South African Tennis Team. We are extremely proud of her.

ATHLETICS

Christin Thomas in action at the CGA meeting held on the weekend. She achieved a personal best of 12,09 in the 100m sprint.

INTER HOUSE SWIMMING AND DIVING

Results:

Junior Individual Medley	M Date Line
Senior Individual Medley	S.Young and N. Gillis
U13	J. Dittmar
U14	T. Rennie
U15	C. Buck
U16	T. Dominy
Open	N. Gillis
Junior Victrix Ludorum	T. Rennie
Senior Victrix Ludorum	N.Gillis
Individual Diving Trophy	M.Mostert
House Trophy	Merici

Sports News

noreply@blogger.com (Brescia House School) — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 06:44:08 PST

TENNIS
Well done to the tennis teams who won their matches against St Stithians’ College. This was the last official match of the season. The A team won 4 of their 6 league matches while the B team were victorious in 5 of the 6 matches. The girls enjoyed a very good season and played all matches in a great sportsmanship manner. The school can be very proud of the tennis girls.

HIGHLAND DANCING
Yael Raeburn has qualified for the 2012 North West Gauteng Highlands dancing team. Congratulations.

Public Speaking

noreply@blogger.com (Brescia House School) — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 06:10:28 PST

Brescia House is currently taking part in the Speech and Drama College (SA) Public Speaking Festival which runs for most of the first term. It is the college’s 51st anniversary.

On 28 February the two grade 9 teams spoke at Johns College against St John’s and St Mary’s. The first team – Alice Drozdov, Celestine Weber, Emma Gore and Akhona Khumalo- spoke on the topic Incredible Connection: where technology and humanity meet. The girls spoke very well and received a B+. The second team – Tarashai Maharaj, Reedemai Govender and Natasha Mostert - spoke on the topic: The power us all and received an A.

The grade 11 trophy team - Robyn Symons, Cindy Freidman and Jessica Welsh - spoke on the topic: Escaping Reality. They competed against St Theresa’s’, Deutsche Schule, Marist Brothers (Inanda and Linmeyer) and Mondeor High. The team spoke very well and they achieved an A symbol.

On the 1st March the grade 7 team competed against: Sandtonview, Christian Harvest and Hirsch Lyons. The grade 7 team consisted of Abigail Mills, Dayna Smith, Nikita Lledo and Ashton Parker. Their speech was entitled: The power to be your best and they achieved an A. Danielle Scrutton (head of public speaking) was the MC at this event.

Congratulations to all the teams on the excellent results and good luck to the other teams which will compete over the next few weeks.

Sports News

noreply@blogger.com (Brescia House School) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 21:24:14 PST

SWIMMING
Samantha Young competed in the Sterkfontein 1500 Open Water swim in Harrismith. She came 3rd in the 5km swim and 2nd in the 3km swim. Samantha also participated in the Level 2 Central Gauteng Swimming Championships held recently. She achieved the following results:

100m Free – Gold
200m Free – Gold
400m Free – Gold
200m Individual Medley – Gold
100m Breast – Silver
200m Breast – Silver

Suzanade Pina swam in the CGA Level 2 Champs at Delville recently .She won a bronze medal for 50 breaststroke in a time of 39.07. Well done.

HOCKEY
Congratulations to the following girls who have been selected to attend the next round of the South Gauteng provincial hockey trials:

Aimee Anticevich , Jordan Dittmar , Kristin de Decker, Brigid Coulter, Roxy Keeping.

TENNIS
We played a very strong Trinity team and unfortunately, both teams lost. Some of the games were rained out too.

The A team lost 24 – 34 while the b team won 36 – 27. This was a very close result with St Dunstans winning overall by 1 point.

On Saturday our team will be playing in the inter high tennis tournament. The first four seeded players will represent the team. Good luck to those gilrs.

Our last match of the season will be played on the 6 March at St Stithians College.

KARATE
Victoria West competed in the Eastern Gauteng Karate Trials recently in the Cadet division. She won a gold medal for Kata and a silver medal for Kumite.

From The Headmistress' Desk

noreply@blogger.com (Brescia House School) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:13:14 PST

22 February 2012

Dear Parents

What a fabulous half term this has been!

We hosted a most successful and enjoyable Open Day on Saturday the 11th of February and I wish to extend sincere thanks to staff, parents and pupils who gave willingly of their time to make this event a success. It is always such a pleasure to engage with our confident, articulate and gracious young girls and to show off their skills to prospective parents. We thank you for the loan of your daughters – they are a credit to you and to the school.

Our visitors were impressed with the range, breadth and depth of what Brescia has to offer in the spiritual, academic, cultural, sporting and community service aspects of the school. An Open Day gives us all the opportunity to reflect and to remember how fortunate we are to be able to enjoy this teaching and learning environment - beautiful and pristine buildings and grounds; highly qualified teachers; a most favourable teacher/pupil ratio; well-resourced classrooms; an extensive range of sports being catered for and talented musicians and artists in the Arts and Culture department. Our new buildings, the renovated and new classrooms and the lift which is being erected are indeed impressive. Our visitors enjoyed the added benefit of the cover of the atrium during the brief period of rain.

We came second in the Catholic Schools gala on a Tuesday. This was a phenomenal feat for our swimmers who have worked hard all season to achieve this very well deserved success. They have been challenged by being unable to train owing to the rain and subsequent sand damage to the pool. Thankfully, our pool is crystal clear and operational again. Thank you to our spectators who made us so proud as staff! Compliments abounded for our well-mannered girls and their neat presentation. I think our girls may just be starting to realise that the Brescia hat is coveted by pupils from other schools.

Brescia House was well represented at the Equestrian Show at KEPS in the different disciplines we look forward to receiving these results. Please do visit the blog for some stunning photographs.

Both our teams won every match in the Squash games versus St Theresa! I know they are hugely pleased with this achievement – as are we all.

The Wizard of Oz was a superb show! Congratulations to ALL who were involved in the production. It is a mammoth undertaking and commitment to ensure the success of a show this size. The girls and their teachers have worked tirelessly to perfect acting, choreography and voice. The visual effects were impressive and Miss Sham is to be congratulated on the creativity and heart of this special production. Mrs Jacobs has spent many late evenings with the girls to ensure that the songs were second nature and flowed as an integral part of the musical.

The back stage and lighting (with the help of Mrs Auchterlonie) are an essential part of any good play – scene changes were quiet and seamless and the complex lighting requirements were managed with aplomb.

A special thank you goes to all the staff who assisted with ticket sales, front of house and advertising and also to the grade 11 group who ensured that the audience remained focused on the show owing to full tummies.

The Matric Dance Fundraising events have thus far been most successful and I wish to congratulate the grade 11s for the level of support and team spirit exhibited in planning for these events. I have been impressed by the manner in which conflicts have been managed and the level of learning that is taking place on all fronts. Of importance is the girls’ understanding of the lessons they are learning and here the feedback from their events has been pertinent and relevant and I know they will take these lessons into the next event and so ensure even greater success going forward. I take this opportunity to thank in particular Mr Maclachlan and Mrs Morkel for the tremendous help they have been in assisting the girls with their events.

On Friday 10th Feb, the Gr10 girls ventured out on the annual geology trip, under the guidance of Mr Auchterlonie. They discovered things they did not know about the koppie in Lonehill and ventured along the geological timeline at the Walter Sisulu National Botanical Gardens before the rain forced a very quick jog back to the bus. They had to do resort to looking at the final outcrop out of the bus window, as the rain had set in. However, they arrived back at school in good spirits – clearly having had a good outing.

Staff members have all been engaged in attending the IEB Regional Conferences.

It seems almost ludicrous that I am already wishing you a restful half term. However, in the frenetic pace of the first part of the term we have hardly stood still to realise the passing of the term. Do take time to enjoy this period of relief with your daughters. If you are travelling, travel safely and return well rested to complete the term.

Kind regards

Benedikte Nott

Headmistress: Secondary School

“ Lord Jesus, I open my heart and my life to the influence of the Holy Spirit, and pray that your love will be reflected in my life.”

Sports News

noreply@blogger.com (Brescia House School) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 21:25:38 PST

SQUASH

The First and Second Squash team with their coach Mr Mark Dunn. Matches are played on a Friday and the teams practice at the Bryanston Country Club.

The teams are entered into a league and so far have won one, drawn one and lost one game.

MIDMAR MILE

Bianca Lombaard and Nadia Lombaard swam the midmar this year for the first time.
Bianca completed it in 53minutes and Nadia in 38 minutes. Well done to both of these girls.

Grade 10 Geography Outing

noreply@blogger.com (Brescia House School) — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 21:33:14 PST

Friday 10^th February was an exciting day for Mr and Mrs Auchterlonie - thirteen girls were put into their care for an entire school day! We, the Grade 10 Geography class, headed off to Lonehill koppie, where we inspected all the fascinating rocks that have been right under our noses for as long as most of us could remember. We now know that it is a granite tor.

Then we packed ourselves up and headed back to the bus, to go to our next destination - the Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens in Roodepoort. I was super-organised for this particular part of the visit: I had my binoculars, and my bird book, ready to see the Verraux Eagles that have nests near the waterfall at the edge of the gardens.

As we arrived the weather looked as if it was going to hold out for us, so Mrs Auchterlonie could have her photo of all of us in front of the waterfall, but unfortunately the weather did not co-operate. We got as far as taking an informative stroll through the rock garden, following the formation of all the rocks through the ages, ending up at a plaque set in the path showing us the arrival of humans. We then started walking to the waterfall, but the rain beat us to it and we had to scramble back to the bus.

Our third stop was one we all looked forward to. No, it was not another place to look at rocks, but the magical, incredible, “Home Of the Chicken Pie”. We ordered our meals, ate fast and ran through the rain back to the bus. We then headed further down the road to look at the changing landscape and the cutting in the rocks, dolomite. We saw my favourite type of weathering on these rocks, elephant skin weathering. It’s even fun to say.

Definitely a day to remember.

Ailish Dale

Brescia House School is featured in" Education Southern Africa" Magazine

noreply@blogger.com (Brescia House School) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 07:27:17 PST

Geography in Action

noreply@blogger.com (Brescia House School) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:51:00 PST

On Open Day the Grade 10 Geography class transformed paper contour maps into 3D models of a waterfall and an island. They let their creative sides reign and created 2 wonderful landscapes.

Sports News

noreply@blogger.com (Brescia House School) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 21:31:33 PST

INTER CATHOLIC GALA
Brescia House School swam in the annual Inter Catholic Gala held at the Delville Swimming Pool on Tuesday 14 February. There were 15 girls schools participating and our team did extremely well to come second behind Holy Rosary School.

Our girls also achieved the following 1st places:

N Gillis

U17 Back Individual

N Gillis

U17 Fly Individual

T Dominy

U16 Free Individual

S Young

U17 Free Individual

S Le Roy

U17 Med Relay

S De Pina

U17 Med Relay

N Gillis

U17 Med Relay

S Young

U17 Med Relay

S De Pina

U17 Free Relay

S Young

U17 Free Relay

N Gillis

U17 Free Relay

T Farrell

U17 Free Relay

Our grade 7, 9 and 10 girls came along to support our swimmers and were outstanding ambassadors for our school. Some of our matric girls lead by our Head Girl, Jessica de Kock, and our two Deputy Head. Girls, Megan Treacy and Lucia Martinengo, did a sterling job as the cheerleaders. Thank you to all who made it such a memorable event.

MIDMAR MILE
Kirsty Hyslop did the 10km Speedo Challenge at Midmar on Thursday 9 February 2012 in a time of 2 hours 57 minutes and was the only South African lady swimmer to swim in this event. She did the non-corporate 1 mile relay on Saturday 11 February 2012 where her team placed 3rd overall. Her individual time for this event was 25:01. On the Sunday she did the actual Midmar Mile in a time of 27:08 and was placed 62nd overall in the women 14 to 30 year old age group.
Samantha Young participated in the Family race in the Midmar Mile and was the 1st Female and 13th overall winner in a time of 24:13

In the 14 – 30 year old race, Samantha was the 4th 16 year old and came 30th overall with a time of 25:35. Well done Samantha.

Alexa Vichos, Emma de Kock and Leigh Furness at Midmar Mile

Greening Our Schools Conference

noreply@blogger.com (Brescia House School) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:29:17 PST

Kimberly Stegmann and Megan Treacy attended the greening our schools conference on the 8th February 2012. This proved to be a stimulating and enriching experience. The aim of the event was to provide Catholic schools with concepts and possible action plans to ensure the development of ecological awareness and involvement in a school environment. Contributing to the betterment of the environment is not a daunting undertaking; instead we are encouraged to make small differences that will “lead to greater changes.”

- By Kimberly Stegmann (Head of Committee)

The Wizard Of Oz

noreply@blogger.com (Brescia House School) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:29:58 PST

Rehearsals for Wizard of Oz are progressing well, and excitement is mounting as opening night (15^th February) approaches. The lesser-known version of the much-loved story, about the adventures of Dorothy in the Land of Oz, has some delightful humour and catchy songs. It promises an enjoyable evening of entertainment to young and old. Below are some of the backdrops from the play.

Sports News

noreply@blogger.com (Brescia House School) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:30:16 PST

SWIMMING
We wish all the girls who are swimming the Midmar Mile this weekend the best of luck.

DIVING
Under 15

Kate Foster	17th
Emma Jo Wardle	13th
Lauren Wakefield	7th

Under 16

Michelle Mostert	1st
Stephanie Henderson	16th

Open

Nicole Gillis

2^nd

Well done to all the divers and we wish them luck for the competition to be held at Parktown Girls’ next Monday.

TENNIS
The tennis girls enjoyed a wonderful day at Bryanston High on Tuesday 7^th February. Games were played in a very sporting manner and the girls interacted well with each other. Brescia won both the A and B section games. Well done to both teams.

EQUESTRIAN
Rebecca Meeser was awarded the Chocolate Orange Trophy for the Most Promising Junior (Showing) at the GHS awards evening. She will be competing in the Horse of the Year 2012 next week and we wish her the best of luck.

We wish all our girls who are riding in their first inter schools equestrian show the best of luck.
.


N Gillis	U17 Back Individual
N Gillis	U17 Fly Individual
T Dominy	U16 Free Individual
S Young	U17 Free Individual
S Le Roy	U17 Med Relay
S De Pina	U17 Med Relay
N Gillis	U17 Med Relay
S Young	U17 Med Relay
S De Pina	U17 Free Relay
S Young	U17 Free Relay
N Gillis	U17 Free Relay
T Farrell	U17 Free Relay