As we approach the last few months of this year, iThemba School has been truly blessed.
Firstly thank you to everyone of you for the support you give to our iThemba children either through sponsorship, donations, fund raising or being there to help them.
Our two classes, Sunflowers, 3-4 year olds and Busy Bees, 4-5 year olds, have continued to enjoy a year with caring teachers and assistants. It has been a year where we have been able to establish our principles and policies that will take us into the future.
Our greatest blessing was being able to appoint a Principal/Grade R teacher at the beginning of the third term. Jean Louw has stepped into this position and with grace and enthusiasm has organised the teachers with effective programmes and is busy setting up the Grade R class for next year.
The results of her hard work can be felt the minute you step into the school and the children are responding well to the changes. Our current children with a few extra will continue next year as a Grade R class and a 4-5 year class. We will not be having a 3-4 year class until 2015.
The children are also benefitting greatly from the support given by members of St. Peter’s who come in and work with 3 or 4 children to enrich and improve their English. We are so grateful for this extra help.
Our Garden Project with the parents of iThemba and the support of a St. Peter’s Bible Group, took off at the end of July and we now have a garden blooming with a variety of vegetables that is helping to feed the children. We hope to expand this in November and plant more vegetables and fruit. We are fortunate to have a group from St. Peter’s who are willing to help us with the garden. At the end of August the children were given a planting workshop with the help of Ida from St. Peters. Most of the seeds have sprouted and we will be transplanting them in November.
Each month the children are given a birthday party to celebrate those children who had a birthday in that month. We are able to do this because of the wonderful support from Anna who supplies us with cupcakes and our special children are given crowns and candles to blow out.
Last week we took the children on an outing to Kirstenbosch Gardens and this could not have been achieved without the offers of cars to transport the children. Once again we thank all those from St. Peter’s who gave up their morning to assist. It was a first time visit for all the children and it was a pleasure to see their delight and enthusiasm with nature.
And all those lovely T-shirts that they were able to wear on the outing were the hard work of fundraising by Yvonne of St. Peter’s. She has also managed to raise funds for blankets and kitchenware.
Finally, you can find us on our website, www.ithembaschool.org or Facebook at Ithemba School.
We are indeed truly blessed by the various gifts that are being given to the school.
With grateful thanks,
Ann, Jean, Staff and children.