FROM THE HEADMISTRESS’ DESK
As we are on our second term holidays we can look back on a very successful term. Students and staff have been involved in a wide range of events and activities and once again we have enjoyed and celebrated many successes.
A highlight for the past term has been watching the children’s performance on stage. It is always a proud moment to see children up on stage singing and acting and this year was especially fantastic. The children have surpassed themselves this year. All were involved and gave their best. Thank you parents for the unwavering support during the two performances.
Ndebele Teacher
During the course of the second term a new teacher (Mr S Dabengwa) joined us as a Ndebele teacher who will be teaching Grades 3-6 and help with afternoon activities. We welcome Mr. Dabengwa and hope he will adjust with ease to the Centenary family.
Tennis Courts
The school would like to thank the Board of Governors and the PLC for a job well done on the timely completion of the two tennis courts. Term 3 will see most of our pupils playing tennis and I can assure you everyone is excited.
The 2 complete all weather multiple-purpose tennis courts
Fees
As agreed at our fees meeting each child should have paid at least 75% of the school fees when school opens to enable us to run the school smoothly. Please refer to the circular to all parents dated 7 August 2019.
District and Provincial Awards
At the District and Provincial Awards Ceremonies, Centenary school was given the Overall Best Primary School Shield for the district as well as the province. The shied can be viewed in the Headmistress’ office.
Other certificates given were the following:
1. Certificates of Excellence
a) Best Performing Primary School at Grade 7 in 2018
b) Best Performing Primary School with highest percentage of candidates who scored one in English.
2. 100% pass rate in the following subjects:
a) General Paper
b) English
c) Agriculture
d) Mathematics
e) Ndebele
The head Girl and Head Boy, showing off the trophy for Best Performing Primary school in the Bulawayo Metropolitan Province, for the 2018 Grade 7 ZIMSEC results
We are looking forward to another great term. Our hard working teachers are always committed to building a school of excellence with their main focus on the child. We request that you actually participate in your child’s education.
To have a catch up with
some of these please read our newsletter below.
Happy reading!
SPORTS SUMMARY
Netball
The netball season was a highly successful one. Both the 1st team and fillies had impressive performances throughout the term. The senior team only lost 2 games in the regular season. To cap a marvelous netball season the senior girls finished 4th out of the 11 schools that attended the Inter Schools netball tournament. Dione Dzimba, Thapelo Nare, Mitchell Gonouya and Rochelle Mwale deserve special mention for their efforts in the success of the team.
The 1st team (in yellow), against Portland during the term
The fillies girls went one better than the seniors. At the Inter schools they managed to finish as runners up, losing to REPs in the final. Euodia Hando was exceptional with her shooting and creative and precise passes. Riyannah Sanangurai was voted the best defender in the fillies category after putting a brave and impressive defending performance throughout the tournament.
For the 1st time the school also had the grade 3 team playing in regular fixtures and at the netball tournament. Understandably without perfection and cohesion as a team, the grade 3 were able to showcase their netballing skills and gained valuable experience which should help them as they pursue their sporting goals. At the tournament the team managed to string two positive results.
Soccer
The soccer teams had a difficult season this year despite kick starting the season with impressive victories against Portland. The team lost their way after crushing defeats to REPS and Masiyephambili Junior. These defeats seemed to have taken a toll on the team’s confidence and they found it hard to recover from the confidence sapping defeats. Andile Moyo and Nsikelelo Sibanda deserve special mention for being selected to the provincial team.
Rugby
This term saw the introduction of rugby as a new sport, though the teams didn’t play any matches, a couple of training sessions took place at the school. Hopefully the coming year will see the boys showcase their rugby skills during matches against other schools.
Hockey
The school has continued to make tremendous progress and maintain a high performance standard in hockey. Both the boys and girls teams showed incredible skill and posted a string of impressive results throughout the season. At the Midlands Christian School hockey tournament played in Gweru the senior boys team finished runner up to Goldridge after a grueling battle. Key to the success of the boys team was Emmanuel Sibanda who was voted the Most Valuable player of the tournament, Munashe Chamunorwa who showed exceptional dribbling skills and Angelo Gweredza whose goalkeeping skills gave the defenders assurance and allowed them to play with a lot of freedom. Onesimus Ngwenya deserves special mention for being selected to the provincial hockey team,
The girls team also showed tremendous skill and courage by finished 3rd out of the 6 schools. The team was ably led by Dione Dzimba whose incredible ball control skills dazzled many throughout the season. The other pillars of the team were Thapelo Nare, Mitchell Gonouya , Rochelle Mwale, Umphile Nunu and Courtney Banda. The team also put up an exceptional performance at the Jen Townsend hockey tournament. The team was unfortunate to finish runners up to eventual winners SOS after winning 6 of the 8 games played at the tournament. Dione Dzimba also deserves special mention for being selected to the provincial team.
The colts and fillie hockey teams also had a good hockey season. The fillie girls only lost 2 games in the regular season thus narrow defeats to Whitestone and a touring Dominican Convent-Harare team. The team showed tremendous skill and fighting spirit. Players who deserve special mention for their efforts are Riyannah Sanangurai, Praisethee Mashamba, Eudia Hando and Tanatswa Mhere. The colts also had a fabulous season managing to post positive results in more than half the games they played. Taking into consideration the performance of the junior teams, the future of hockey in the school is surely in good hands.
Centenary School Play beats a proud Drum!
On the 17TH and 18TH OF July Centenary School presented two African themed plays which dazzled the audience with humour, song and dance!
On Wednesday the 17th Centenary School presented their Infants play “Mvundla the Trickster”. It followed the humorous adventures of a clever rabbit named Mvundla. The backdrop and props of a rural African village setting was a spectacular depiction showcasing an authentic atmosphere which brought the play to life. The children were a delight and put forward a performance full of zest and humour!
On Thursday the 18th the stage was bedazzled with the Junior play production “Son Of The Soil” which was an original adaptation of the story Lion King. The play had a truly African atmosphere brought to life by the magnificent scenery, the stage was transformed into an authentic African Village with scene changes to an African savannah. The play had an ensemble of characters dressed in traditional costume who complimented each other to create a cast that was able to keep the audience entertained throughout the performance. The performance had all the elements of a first class production, humour, tragedy and excitement!
Parents and Guests thoroughly enjoyed the plays and the jovial atmosphere!
This year’s productions have been superb and we would like to thank all those involved for making it such a great success!
ECD A
In class we have learnt letters F to N, patterns, numbers 1-5, matching,
objects in length, size, shapes, time, money, food, musical instruments, water
uses, plants, different types of transport and shelters. We have visited the
garden numerous time so learn about vegetables and watch their progress.
The children enjoyed the play rehearsals
and were very excited to be involved in it.
They have had an interesting term and we thankyou the parents for all your
support.
Trip to Animal City
On the 20th May, we left at 8.45am and arrived at the Animal City
after 9.15am.
Patrick was our guide and he related really well with the children. We stopped
at the cattle and sheep pens first and it was interesting seeing the braham
eating from the toughs and there was 1 calf with a heffer. We stopped at the
sheep pens to watch them drinking and the children imitated the sheep bleeting.
Next we went to the other part of the farm. The children sat
on the benches to eat and drink and were very excited.
We watched the ducks walk up to the pond and they swam around for a while. Next we fed the baby rabbits with greens and looked at the tortoises. We saw the adult rabbits chickens and adult pigs eating and the baby pigs in the pens. Last was the goats and the turkeys.
It was an educational trip which the children thoroughly enjoyed.
ECD B
This has been a very busy term. We all enjoyed learning new words and writing our letters. At the beginning of term we planted beans. It was interesting to watch the seeds grow roots and leaves. We transferred the seedlings into the school garden where we took turns watering. We also made volcanoes that erupted during one of our lessons about volcanoes.
A simulation of volcanoes
Our class visited the Animal City Farm. We saw many animals and even fed a few. One brave turkey tried to steal our sandwiches! Some of us fell asleep on the way back.
ECD Bs, Feeding turkeys at the Animal City
Grade 1
Grade ones also visited the Animal city to consolidate what they learn in class. The children were very excited to see the variety of mostly farm animals and birds. The highlight was when the pupils were taught how to count the age of a tortoise!
Grade Three
This term Grade 3s visited a farm at Kesington where pupils learnt a lot in consolidation of their Agriculture lessons, including chicken and goat breeding.
Grade 4
Being the custodians of the school orchard, the grade 4s continued to look after the fruit trees by watering and weeding them. They even went on to harvest some sweet oranges towards the end of the term!!
Harvest time! A good harvest of sweet oranges!!
GRADE 5 SCIENCE ‘EXPO’
On the 2nd of August we had an exciting science expo in our classroom. We displayed our electric circuits and did a lot of experiments with different kinds of materials to check if electricity would flow through them. My favourite part was when we took photos and videos. By Ayandiswa Mloyi
Science fair at school was exciting and educational. My mind lit up when my friend and I made the following discoveries after we had connected our circuits together:
- None of the circuits worked if we switched on one switch. We had to press on both switches for the two circuits to work.
- We also discovered that if we put an extra cell between our circuits the bulb from the circuit connected to the positive terminal became brighter than the circuit connected to the negative terminal. The result was vice versa when the positive side faced the other circuit. By Tinthswalo July
Young Scientists in the making!, during their grade 5 class Science Expo
My experience making my circuit board was difficult but it was worth it. It helped my friend, Tinthswalo and I learn more about science and technology. I figured out that the bigger the battery the brighter the light. By Talent Tambo
My cell did not have enough voltage so I paired up with Hope. Together we made many discoveries. That was my best day this term. By Retsepile Nare
My science project was an electric circuit in a box. The switch and the bulb are on top of the box. Inside it are three cells and wires. My gadget is very bright. It can light up the whole room so I can use it to do homework when there are power cuts. By Mwai Papalika
My project had a fan and bulb arranged in parallel circuits. It had two switches so the light and fan worked separately.
By Mayibongwe Ngwenya
GRADE 6
What a very hectic term this was as the pupils thrived to strike a balance between class learning, garden projects as well as sporting activities, not to mention the hard work towards preparations for the Cambridge Stage 6 Check Point Exams!
From the Agriculture projects, so much has taken place during the term!, from broiler chickens rearing to slaughtering and selling, tomato growing that saw a fairly good harvest of tomatoes sold at school, teaching the pupils enterprise skills.
GRADE 7
The class has continued to work hard in both classroom learning as well as various Agriculture projects.
The Mushroom project proved to be very interesting as there was initially a very steady flow of harvest, which unfortunately got disrupted by an invasion of rats!, resulting in a loss eventually.
The class also had other parallel projects of peas and beetroot growing this term. The harvest of both peas and beetroots has just been superb!!!
Strawberries continued to grow from last term and a few lessons have been learnt in terms of managing strawberry growing in order to achieve a good harvest.
CLUBS
Ballet
The girls and boys in ballet this term learnt many steps and dances. It was lots and dance moves of fun doing rises jumps and spring points. We worked at tandu, isolations and lifts as part of the steps.
Karate Club
This was another exciting term of Karate that saw an increasingly larger number of children participating. The members are yet to participate in the league competition that will see them earning different colours in belts i.e. white belt, yellow belt, red and black belt.
Karate is a disciplined sport which positively affects all areas of the child’s development, we have noticed that the children are more confident, focused, mentally and physically fit.
A big thank you to the parents for their continued support and look forward to another exciting term of Karate in the 3rd term.
Piano Club
The piano club has been in full swing this term with learners continuing with their lessons as usual. The infant’s piano club continues to offer learners one on one piano lessons in order to develop the learner’s piano skills. This term the club focused on helping the learners with left and right hand coordination which is crucial for learners as it is important for learners to play with both hands. The learners have been learning different nursery rhymes like Mary had a little lamb, Twinkle, Twinkle little star and Miss Polly. In order to motivate learners to play more tunes, the learner who finishes a song is given another one so that they are not held back. The club continues to groom the infants to play for performance and also to play as ensembles. The junior club this term has focused on more challenging songs which will be presented in this year’s prize giving day. The songs have required learners to learn chords which they can apply even to other songs. The club continues to welcome new members each term which shows the growth of the club.
Guitar Club
The guitar club continues to grow as this term saw new members affiliating to the club. Learners learnt to play chords and new strumming patterns which will help them play a wide variety of songs. The club focused of learning song for performance to be presented in this year’s prize giving day. The club continues to attract upper grades as most members are grade 5 and 6. The grade 3 and 4 are encouraged to affiliate to the club so that they are groomed early. Parents are advised to make sure that the learners take care of their instruments. Let us remember that in order for a learner to master an instrument practice, practice and more practice is the key.
Fire Drill
In line with the school safety policy, the
school undertakes impromptu routinely fire drills to ensure pupils are prepared in case of fire disaster.
Fire Drill during the course of the term