ST JOSEPH’S COLLEGE,
BLOEMFONTEIN
Telephone (051) 436-6550
Fax (051) 436-6827
stjoe@mweb.co.za
106 Waverley Road
Bayswater
Bloemfontein
9301
St Joseph’s Christian Brothers’ College
is still holding a very prominent place on the Free State map. The past
year has been a good one for us in many aspects and many members of our
community have excelled in different fields.
Relationships are the foundation of human
existence and here at CBC, although time and space separates us, we
strive to keep relationships alive through communication. For this
reason we are sending you some recent news.
Looking first to the staff -
The stork has been overworked at CBC
Bloem! He delivered beautiful little baby girls to Mrs Wendy Rankhotha
and Ms Hloekile Botsane, and then Mr Roelof Kotze, his wife Lizette, and
son Warren, were triply blessed with two little boys and a little girl.
The babies were born very prematurely, but after 111 days of hospital
visitations the Kotze family is all together at home. Many mornings
Roelof does not look very bright-eyed, so we are sure that he is looking
forward to the holidays more than the rest of us so he can catch some
sleep!
Mrs Pam van Zijl has become a
grandmother, for the second time, to a beautiful baby girl, Amber.
On a sadder note, Mrs Korff’s husband and
Mrs Janet Muller (past English teacher) are both suffering from cancer.
Mrs Marais (new English teacher) and Mrs van Bosch have recently lost
their fathers. Your prayers for all these teachers will be appreciated.
Moving on to our learners -
Our Music Department is flourishing and
many learners brought back awards after they had participated in the St
Michael’s and St Andrew’s Eisteddfod. One of our matrics, Ntsebo
Lerotholi, was the winner of the Bloem News Audition for the Spontaan
2006 Singing Competition, and we have the largest number of learners of
any school in the Free State in the Bloemfontein Children’s Choir. This
choir was privileged to go to Sun City and be part of the Huisgenoot
Skouspel where they performed in front of 24 000 people.
Our Matrics of 2005 did us proud, earning
40 distinctions, 35 on the Higher Grade and 5 on Standard Grade. This
earned us a place in the Top 50 Schools’ list. Two of our matrics, Tzu-Hsuen
Ou and Ron Chen took 1st and 4th places respectively in the Sasol Amesa
Mathematics Competition, and Tzu-Hsuen came 5th in the Free State
National Youth Science Olympiad. Four of our learners were placed in
the Top 100 of the Free State Science Olympiad and two in the Top 50 at
the Science Convention. A number of learners did very well in the
Conquesta Olympiad.
The Debating Team reached the semi-finals
in the SACEE Provincial Debating and took 4th place out of 26 teams in
the Model United Debating Competition.
We replaced cricket with athletics this
year, and Kananelo Motaung was the Under 13 champion in shotput and
represented the Free State in Durban. Gugu Mafongosi came 6th in the
javelin final at the Zonal Athletics Meeting. Josephine Anie won the
Bergman’s Section in Archery.
This year we hosted the senior boys and
girls hockey tournament from 18—20 May. It was a bitterly cold weekend,
but there was much warm camaraderie. Our girls not only walked away
with the bronze, but two of our ladies, Tumi Pitse and Tshegofatso
Molahloe, were selected for the SACBC side.
Thando Nkwane was chosen for the Southern
Free State Under 13B Hockey team and Keamo Modise for the Southern Free
State Under 13A Hockey team.
We have also decided to broaden our
horizons, and for the first time we are entering a Netball Team into the
Inter-CBC tournament. Mrs Steinman has agreed to take on the task of
preparing an eager team of players.
Mohau Tlhapuletsa has been chosen to be
an ambassador, not only for CBC, but also for SA. He has been chosen as
an exchange student and will be heading off to Germany at the end of the
year.
Our staff attended a workshop in Assisi
in May, run by the Catholic Bible Foundation. We have had the honour of
having the Archbishop officiate at two of our masses this term, one of
which was a “Care of the Teacher” Mass as decided upon by the S.A.
Catholic Bishops’ Council. Members of staff from St Joseph’s, St
Bernard’s Mariasdal, St Patrick’s Lynchfield, Shannon, Assisi Primary
School, St Lawrence Jagersfontein and St Mary’s were present. After the
Mass, sixty two beautifully framed long service awards were handed out
and then a family day followed.
A past pupil, John Lee, visited us from
Canada a few weeks ago and videoed the school and reminisced over the
Brothers and “the good old days”. He matriculated about 1958 and is a
geologist.
Mr Darron Ferraris, the Chairman of our
board and a CBC Old Boy, was recently awarded his MBA (Magna Cum Laude)
from a British University. We are very proud of him.
They say that change is as good as a
holiday, but after all the physical changes at CBC, a real holiday will
be needed. Our school has been undergoing a facelift, with much capital
development taking place on our campus.
Based on our very good matric results of
2004 we were placed in the Top 50 Free State schools and earner
ourselves a R150 000.00 cash bonus. Our toilets were modernized and
change room facilities were built for both boys and girls. The hall
toilets were also modernized and we have glass wash basins! Wow! The
entire quad has been paved, as well as the road in front of our hall and
area in front of the Pre-School. The latter is also very proud of a
snazzy new notice board on which each little tot’s birthday appears on
the right day. At the time of writing a covered walkway is being built
from the hall to the office block.
We are also currently busy with the main
entrance to the school—first impressions are important.
We have only had one fundraiser this
year, our annual St Patrick’s Dance, which was a great success socially
and financially. I am sure the PTA must have something up its sleeve
for the next two terms.
You have heard from us, we hope we’ll be
hearing from you.
Greetings from Bloemfontein CBC!
MR WALLY BORCHARD
MRS GLYNIS WALKERLEY
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