Dear Parents,

Third Term: News

Supervised Homework

We are into the third term of 2018.
There has been one major new development: Supervised homework.
All the classes will have an hour of supervised homework; supervised by their class teacher and assistant teachers, who will help make sure the pupils are doing their work correctly and will pay special attention to pupils who work slowly or are having difficulty with a given task.For grades 1 and 2 the period ends at 1.30 and for grades 3 to 7 the period is from 2 to 3 p.m.

We have introduced this Supervised Homework period because we realised that many parents come home late from work and then have to cope with homework when they and their children are already tired. Also it gives children a chance to finish work they may not have finished in class. Altogether, we see that the benefits over the long term will be huge. It should mean that when the children leave school at 3p.m. they will be free to follow other activities such as playing and reading.It will also benefit the teaching in the school. The teacher will now have a class where everyone has done his/her homework and progress will be more productive.

New Teacher

We want to welcome a new member of staff – Mrs. Zubeida Khan Khaqan.
She is a qualified counselor and a qualified teacher.
She has already helped us considerably in dealing with troubled children and children who are bullies or are being bullied.

The School Hall

We are finishing the school hall finally, thanks to the Civvies money that we collect every Friday, and a very generous donation.
The children are allowed to wear civvies on Friday for a E5 charge. Every little bit helps!
Once the hall is completed we will have Ballroom Dancing classes, Karate classes, Judo classes and Gymnastics classes. Also we will be able to let out the hall for various functions.

The growth and developments we are witnessing at the school would not be possible without the support of you, our valued parents. We are truly grateful for your contributions to the school.

Thank you so much. Have a pleasant term!

Kind Regards

Joy Farrell                                                                                           Frances Farrell

Principal                                                                                              Administrator

On Friday the 6th of July, four ponies came to our school and all of our children had a ride around our football field. It was a fun day for everyone.  All of us fell in love with the horses.

The construction of our School Hall is continuing. We are building the walls, the ceiling and a small tuck shop.

We would like to speed up the finishing of this project. If there are any contributors there willing to help us, YOU ARE MORE THAN WELCOME! Please contact the School or Mrs Farrell directly; our children and our entire School family will be forever grateful.

We are very excited to share the news!. The library shelves are being done and soon an expert will be joining us to set up our School Library.

Every year The Little School takes an orphan into Grade 0. The School pays for that child’s education from Grade 0 to Grade 7.

So far we have paid for the education of eleven children who started in Grade O and have gone right through to Grade 7. That is a total of 8 years of school fees for each child – 88 years of school fees!

We could take more orphans into the school if we had funding.

The School can only pay for a limited number of children from our own coffers.

Besides the education the School provides, some of the very poor children, who are not housed in orphanages, need funding for school uniforms and books and school outings.

Help for these children would be greatly appreciated by the School. We do have a charity, not for profit, account, at FNB in Mbabane. It is called The Emantjwele School Charity.

Emantjwele means “little chickens” and we regard these children, that we educate, as our little chickens. Some of them are already in high school.

Parents or any kind person or company who can find it in their hearts to contribute money or services to the school will have their names or companies on a plaque in the school hall, to be kept there for all to see for ever.

Every little bit will help.

Dear Parents,

We have come to the end of the first half of the second term, and an eventful one at that.

Early in the term, we started our “Mile a Day” and it has been very successful. First thing every morning the whole school meets in the assembly hall and students and teachers run the perimeter of the school. We have noticed a huge improvement in the health and fitness of the children and the teachers have seen an improvement in alertness and involvement in lessons. Well done everyone!

Leading on from that, our soccer team played against Premier School and did very well and our hockey team was invited to play in a hockey tournament at Enjabulweni, against five other schools and was noticed and praised for their performance and potential. I’m sure the running improved their fitness.

This term we have had the good fortune to have Mrs. Khan-Khagan who is a volunteering on our staff. She is a qualified councilor and is studying Educational Psychology and has been of great assistance to both children and staff. Other new staff members are Mrs. Judith Veerkamp, a retired teacher who has been volunteering in grade one and Mr. Thabiso Mhlanga who has been assisting in grade seven. Mrs. Lindiwe Dlamini is our senior Siswati Teacher. These teachers are all welcome additions to our staff.

The Ministry of Education is holding a Spelling Bee competition in July. The grade sixes have been chosen to take part and have received their spelling lists. Help them study hard.

We have finally managed, (thanks to all those who wear civvies and buy hotdogs and popcorn on Fridays) to have saved enough money to start the first phase of finishing our assembly/sports hall. I will add here that if any parents are able to help in any way, financial or otherwise, it would be most welcome and would earn them a plaque with their name on it in the finished hall.

On that note of fundraising, we would like to hold out Family Fun Day later in the term (dates to be announced). Again any parents who would like to volunteer to help would be most welcome and can leave their names with their child’s class teacher. Any suggestions of other means of fundraising would also be most welcome, as we want to finish our library and build a Practical Arts classroom and eventually a swimming pool. Any suggestions and advice would be much appreciated.

 Have a lovely break and keep running!

 Frances Farrell

Keeping fit

Coming back

Every morning the children and teachers at The Little School
 run "A Mile A Day".
After morning prayers all the children run around the school
 grounds.This takes about five to ten minutes. We have found
 that this morningexercise session has a very good effect on 
the child's mood and 
ability to focus in class, besides being beneficial to their
 general health.

These children are collecting reeds for their projects from our wetland with Mr Motsi, the practical arts teacher and Mrs Simolline Chagwinya, the Grade 7 teacher.

Children going into the wetland looking for suitable reeds

Children stripping the reeds for their projects

Mr Motsi checking the reeds.

Mrs Simolline Chagwinya helping her class.