'Rope Skipping changed my life': Naeelah Davids

Naeelah Davids showing some impressive moves

Hi my name is Naeelah Davids I am 12 years old and come from a small community in Cape Town called Heideveld. I do Rope Skipping for a team called GCU and some of my friends, the reason why I've joined is because I did not know what would become of me without doing something with my life that I still have.

Rope skipping girls doing a group routine

GCU had done so much for me and the rest of the skipping girls. We didn't have to worry about clothing or shoes because they gave us these things. A few months ago us skipping girls had a huge competition, and that competition would tell us whether we could go further or not. We then brought silver and gold medals home with us, and when we arrived we heard we were going to Nationals in Johannesburg. We then needed some more money and our parents decided to have a cake sale at a football even on Monday, we sold enough cake to make some money. GCU have given us girls a big opportunity to do things that we told our self we couldn't so we thank all GCU people for making all this happen THANK YOU!!!!! 

GCU girls, Wardah and parents at the cake sale fundraiser

by Naeelah Davids
GCU girls

A winning end to a winning term!

The winning students with their certificates

This week saw the end of the Grade 4 - 7 projects. For the past 3 weeks the grades have been working hard on creating a poster or leaflet in groups on a province in South Africa. the students have done really well and have produced some impressive work! To show appreciation for their efforts and to award the work that fitted the brief most, students were awarded certificates and a treat as a prize. It is the first time the library has done something like this and I think I can speak for all when I say how proud we were to award those students today. Mrs Stewart thanked the library team for all their efforts and on a personal note I am truly proud of the work we have achieved this term. As part of our monitoring it has been important to get feedback from the teachers and whilst with everything there is always room for growth and improvement 100% of our educators felt that the library has had a positive impact on the school, so there is no doubt that we are moving in the right direction. We hope that this will be an incentive for projects to come and we are now busy thinking of new ideas for the final term of school so watch this space to find out what new projects lie for our students!

Grade 6A winning team hard at work

By Jennifer Pickett
GCU

GCU tutoring growing with every child!

Wardah reading a story to 2 Grade R's

GCU tutors in their 1st session

The tutors of GCU started a new project with the grade R and the grade 1 students of Woodlands Primary we introduced them to the Wordworks activities. They are now learning and playing with games at the same time. The kids enjoy the tutoring as they get to read a story, write, draw and play games with the alphabet and simple words. Working with the young children and seeing how much fun they have when they are in tutoring makes me feel very proud of my-self to think that I am helping these children better their reading skills and help them to be more confident in their school work. Seeing how positive they are when entering the class and when we ask questions and they answer so readily you can’t help but smile. The Wordworks program is going to make the learners more excited for school and learning. In the short time we have done this program I have experienced that with a little planning, a story, a game and an activity that suits their age they always want more.

Yolanda and her grade R's having fun with letters

By Wardah White

GCU Tutor

New Garden, New Beginnings!

Monday morning bright and early we started with the woodlands garden along with our German friends.

Revamping the garden was always going to be fun and we started to remove all papers and excess weeds that was in the way, patching up areas that needed patching up such as the huge garden net.

The learners of woodlands primary stepped in and gave us a helping hand, the atmosphere in the garden was great and fresh with the wonderful smell of fresh cut grass upon us. Everyone that worked in the garden started bonding and talked freely to one another and this was our sign of new beginnings.

Seeing a learner so excited about a garden and that to the coaches was something out of this world and a feeling that not even words can describe and many of these kids are truly talented with their hands its so amazing to watch kids come together and be part of such a huge project.

A new garden comes with new beginnings for Woodlands Primary School, this garden should be a place of hope for these young ones as we continue to go forward in faith GOD bless     

By

GCU coaches

G.C.U Wolves Basketball Triumph!

On behalf of our basketball team we would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to each and every one for their great support during the basketball league. The under 12 girls made it into finals and came second in the league. Next year we will be going for gold, also, Aden Fancensie and Nina Rhoda both made it through to the Western Cape basketball team, where they will be having their tournament played during the month of December in Bloemfontein (exact location will be posted), playing against all other provincial teams in South Africa, just shows hard work does really pays off. As we all know, the exams are coming up soon and this is where our younger girls of GCU need to work hard and study so they could get an opportunity to apply for Western Cape Sports School. At this school they mostly focus on sport codes that the younger kids are good at and also give excellent education.The league is officially over but we are still running practice sessions during the week getting ready for the next season. I would like to thank Coach John Goliath and Mario van Niekerk for granting me this opportunity working with these young girls and to the G.C.U staff thank you for your great support.











By L
GCU Basketball coach

Skipping girls gain 10 medals in the Western Province Trials!

Some of the rope skipping girls and their well deserved medals

The GCU Rope Skipping Team recently went to the 2012 Western Province Rope Skipping Trials Championships, a competition run by the Western Province Gymnastics Association (WPGA). The Team which comprises of 11 girl’s from Heldeveld put in an amazing performance winning a total of 10 medals!

Zandre Sass ready for action!

As of the Team’s coach (Sbu), the Team has been training very hard for the past few months. It was more and more training during gym rope skipping sessions, there was a goal and the goal was to give out top performance and good results for the Championships. It was surely going to be a tough competition, since it had been a long time that the girls had participated in any Rope Skipping competition. There were also rope skippers who were their first time competing, but through the hard work and lot of training the Team have done GCU, Heideveld and myself proud.

During the 2012 WP Rope Skipping Trials Championships, the GCU Rope Skipping Team won 10 Medals in Overall. The medals consist of Gold, Silver and Bronze. It was indeed the toughest competition here in the Western Cape, all the skippers that qualify at the WP Trials gain access to compete at the National Level Competition known as the SA Rope Skipping National Championships.

The next challenge is getting the GCU Rope Skipping Team of all who qualified from WP Team, to get to the Nationals 2012. They still have power & courage to represent WP Team at the 2012 SA Gym Games. Let’s support and help all who qualified to represent Western Province, either Joburg or Durban.

The girls have done us proud; now let’s help them to compete at the 2012 SA RS Championships. They will represent us, their community, the Western Province as well as the whole Western Cape Province! Well done girls!

Sbu Mabele, Caoch

By Sbu Mabele

GCU rope skipping coach

Meet Library Assistant Laaiqah

Laaiqah and the grade R's putting on their best 'granny' performance

Hi, I'm Mrs Laaiqah Safter, I'm an assistant librarian at Woodlands Primary School. I attended Woodlands Primary myself and now my children also come here. It is an honor working with the kids here and knowing that the library is giving them so much. I had an amazing experience today with the grade R learners. I always try to pick a book that is relevant and interactive for them. I know that for many of these learners they do not always have stable environments at home but grandmothers are usually a permanent fixture in a child's life, so what better than a book called 'My grandma is wonderful'. I kind dressed like a grandma, with my glasses, a scarf and my granny cane, I even tried walking (hobbling) like a grandma. WOW! The enjoyed it so much and they couldn't wait to join in with the actions. It is so important at this age to make a story come to life, awaken their imaginations and give some context which they can put it in. We finished off our lesson in making cards for our granny's. It was a great reading, acting and art session all rolled into one and their behaviors was top marks! It is so exciting for us that these children in grade R will now go through school with a library right on their doorstep and really the only way is up from here!





By Laaiqah
GCU Library Assistant