“Language is the blood of the soul into which thoughts run and out of

which they grow.” (Oliver Weddell)

English, Afrikans and Zulu are remarkable languages and their origins are rooted through many cultures and centuries. Montrose Primary has thrived on enhancing the appreciation for these three official languages through a variety of educational and stimulating activities and events. Whether it’s ‘Hello’, ‘Goeiemore’ or ‘Sanibonani’, the Montrose learners have had and will continue to have many opportunities this year to be immersed in a world of language based activities. Presently, English is our home language, with Afrikaans being the school’s first additional language and Zulu the second additional language. The Zulu learning area took on a greater academic focus two years ago and so learners spend more time now as a result, preparing for and writing Zulu assessments and preparing for oral and reading assessments.

 

We have some exciting language based events this term. These include:

 

Interhouse Written Language Challenge

On the last day of this term, Friday 30^th March, all children from grade one to seven will write the ‘Interhouse Written Language Challenge’. The written challenge tests the learners’ reading, comprehension and language skills. The top learners in each grade will receive a certificate for their outstanding performance at assembly early in the second term.

 

Montrose Spelling Bee

On Tuesday 27^th March, learners from the Intersen Phase will be participating in the ‘Interhouse Spellathon Knockout Challenge’. They will be competing against one another for a place in the Montrose Spelling Bee event in the second term. The Montrose Spelling Bee will be a new event for Montrose in 2012.

 

Montrose Grapevine Newspaper 10^th edition 2012

It is with great excitement that we will be publishing the 10^th edition of the Montrose Grapevine Newspaper in 2012. 2006 saw the launch of the very first ever school newspaper. This has certainly been a newspaper, which grabs the reader’s attention. Why not? It contains a variety of news and activities for young and old. From teacher news and interviews, to sporting and cultural events, to movie and book reviews, to educational facts and activities to games and competitions. The paper is written by the children for the children of Montrose and it contains 20 pages of school news that grabs you. The Montrose Grapevine continues to be the start of something wonderful at Montrose Primary school and we are blessed to a team of dedicated and resourceful learners from grade 3 to grade 7. This has in essence, been a contribution from learners of all ages.  We are proudly developing the journalists of the future, so encourage your child to attend the Newspaper Club.

 

Montrose Primary School initiated the Interhouse and Interschool Debate seven years ago. 

The debate provides the learners with valuable life skills and gives them the opportunity to meet and compete with others in a friendly and open forum while developing their public

speaking skills around controversial motions.  Every year, we are impressed by the high standard of the arguments-both prepared and impromptu. Debating Club has taken place

once a week and the children were given the opportunity to learn debating skills and to participate in formal debates. During the last few years, Montrose has competed against;

Norwood, Craighall, Rivonia, St Stithians, Wendywood and Blairgowrie at the Interschool Debating Tournament.

So, encourage your child to learn debating skills and participate in informal debates. From next term, the learners will begin preparing for the Interhouse and Interschool Debates.

 

Montrose Primary School Speech Festival

It is with great excitement that Montrose will once again hold the Montrose Speech Festival and Competition. Montrose Primary already embraces public speaking skills through our annual Poetry Fortnight, presentations at assemblies and the Interhouse and Interschool Debating Tournaments. However, the 2012 Speech Festival and Competition will provide every learner in the school from Grade One to Seven the opportunity to be involved and to develop their speech writing and public speaking skills.

Learners will receive their topics in March of this term and will have the opportunity to prepare during the forthcoming school holidays and will present their speeches next term followed by the final rounds and presentations of the top speeches at a series of consecutive assemblies.The first term of 2012 has started off with a bang with an in-house in-service training course on the Thrass spelling and Starfall reading programme which our Foundation Phase teachers incorporate into their teaching of spelling and phonics.The rest embraces the popular annual Mug, Rug and Slipper Evening, which celebrated its 6^th year in 2011. It is a fun and educational evening for the participants and the audience. It consists of a quiz of questions which tests the learners’ knowledge and skills across all learning areas.

As part of the Literacy Week celebrations in September, the learners will select a character from their favourite book and dress up as this character. They will also present a short speech to their class about their character-telling the class more about their book. This way, learners will get to motivate their peers to read books which they are passionate about.

We will also enjoy the annual, ‘Hooked on Books’ show, which entertains all our learners from Grade RR right through to Grade 7.

Hooked on Books visits the school in September to coincide with the, ‘Book Character Day’ activity.  These activities will also form part of the national ‘Literacy Week. celebrations’ The show promotes the learners’ love for books; fiction and non-fiction, song and poetry.

The popular ‘Hooked on Books’ show will also open the learners’ world to new publications and will entice the learners by acting out scenes from various publications. Thereafter, the learners will withdraw the newly promoted publications from the school’s media centre in order to find out more about each story.

This is a super way to get learners interested in books and passionate about reading.

On the first Friday in September, the entire school will participate in the annual national language benchmark assessment, the Sacee Language Challenge. The paper is made up of a variety of multiple choice based questions which will assess the learners’ language, comprehension and reading skills.

The learners always do us proud and our results annually compare most favourably with the results of our surrounding private schools.

The fourth term will embrace us with Pressure Productions, Interschool and Interhouse Debate. We will also enjoy the annual Grapevine Fortnight. During this period, the learners will complete activities around the school newspaper.

 

This is going to be a busy year full of language and learning.

“English is a fully language, that explains why we park the car on the driveway and drove our car on the parkway.” (Author Unknown).

We are essentially preparing and equipping your children for the future.

 

Mrs. N. Ralph (HOD Languages)

 

 

Dear Foundation Phase Parents/Guardians

Re: Differentiated Reading Groups and Driving Reading at Home

It is with great excitement that the school will be introducing differentiated reading group sessions for the learners as part of their academic school programme.

Due to the fact that the learners come into the system from various reading stimulated backgrounds, so they are at various levels in terms of their sound, word recognition and reading fluency, expression and comprehension skills.

The decision has been taken to divide the learners in the grade into reading groups following comprehensive reading and comprehension baseline assessments, which the teachers conducted during the course of January.

As of next week, during the reading sessions, the learners will leave their form class teacher and attend a reading lesson with another teacher in the grade. This teacher will control your child’s reading and readers for home. Your child will do shared reading and writing activities during these lessons based on readers that are pitched at your child’s reading and comprehension level.

Therefore learners of similar reading and comprehension abilities are grouped together during these reading sessions.

Our strong readers will have the opportunity to read challenging books and to complete stimulating reading and writing activities with learners of the same level, thereby encouraging competition.

While, our weak readers will cope more effectively with shared reading and writing activities that are pitched at their level and pace.

As a learner shows significant progress, then teachers will move the child to an upper reading level.

Grade 1 and 2 learners will attend three reading sessions per week, while our grade 3 learners will only attend one differentiated reading session per week. The allocation of periods in the Foundation Phase for grade 3 according to the CAPS curriculum has unfortunately only allowed for one session in grade 3 per week.

Reading is a skill which starts from an early age. With reading, a child builds up a bank of vocabulary and an understanding of the content of what they read. Ultimately, they read for meaning. I would like to request that all parents come on board and support the school with promoting reading at home. Please take your child off the computer, the Internet, the Sega games and away from the television and make them read every evening aloud to you. This way, they learn to read with greater fluency and expression and develop a greater understanding of what they are reading.

Reading impacts on all learning areas. A child’s who reads poorly struggles with assessments-they interpret questions inaccurately and they present with a slow work pace, sometimes never finishing assessments.

In a world that is saturated with technology that seems more exhilarating than picking up a book, it is essential that we keep the love for reading alive.