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MUSIC IN THE HILLS THIS WEEK

St Anne’s Diocesan College pupils Ashley Markham and Rebecca Erskine have been selected to go to Zambia and Zimbabwe as part of the South African Pony Club later this year. Due to the difficulties relating to transporting horses out of South Africa, the girls will compete on borrowed horses. The selection process takes this in to account; candidates are evaluated on how versatile and adaptable they are as they will be competing on unknown horses. During the trials in February, the girls were required to ride several horses that they had never ridden before, over a course of jumps and doing dressage. Their riding skills and knowledge of theory was assessed by experts and they were interviewed and rated on their ability to be good ambassadors for South Africa. The successful candidates from the KZN selections were put through to a national panel who eventually selected four riders for each team. Ashley was chosen to represent SA on the Zambia team which competes in April 2017 and Rebecca was chosen to represent SA on the Zimbabwe team which competes in July 2017.

 

News supplied by St Anne's Diocesan College.

Grace College Grade 8 pupils, Cole Baker and Sebastian Homan, proved to be tough opponents in the Pietermaritzburg Schools’ C League Chess Tournament recently. Cole achieved a first place and Sebastian secured a third position. Cole went on to participate in the Pietermaritzburg Schools’ Open Chess Tournament and achieved an impressive second place.

 

Pictured: Sebastian Homan (left) and Cole Baker

 

News supplied by Grace College.

Form 4 St Anne’s Diocesan College pupil, Alice Perrow, and her father, Mark, paddled the Dusi Canoe Marathon recently, finishing in 199th position overall, 9th mixed doubles and 2nd father and daughter team.

 

It was the toughest modern-day Dusi since the construction of Inanda dam in 1990, and according to her proud dad, Alice got through it admirably.

 

Due to low water levels on Day 3, the athletes effectively had to run/walk 20km from Inanda Dam to Mango rapid.

 

Temperatures were in excess of 40˚C resulting in several crews landing up in hospital with heat stroke and dehydration.

 

Although Alice did not participate in the school training sessions due to clashes with her horse riding, she increased her fitness through cross country and trained on weekends.

 

Congratulations to Alice for completing both the Dusi Canoe Marathon and the 2017 Drak Challenge.

 

News supplied by St Anne's Diocesan College.

01 MARCH 2017
MUSIC IN THE HILLS THIS WEEK

Every year around this time, cubs and scouts around the world take the opportunity to remember Lord Baden-Powell for his forward thinking of how to teach children life skills and in ways of, not only improving themselves to be good and upright citizens of this world, but learning ways to improve the world.

 

News supplied by Cowan House Co-educational Preparatory School.

As I type this our landline and internet are both down, and we are not sure when Telkom will be repairing it, so please bear with us if you are trying to get hold of us.

Time: 7pm, R25 entry, food and soft drinks available, BYOB, visit www.mith.co.za for more details and directions.

Rehearsals for the upcoming stage production, Happy Natives are underway at Grace College under the direction of Pauline Cronje, Head of Drama. This satire by Greig Coetzee was selected because it is local, relevant and edgy.

Giving Teens the opportunity to find out what they are capable of, to develop skills in their interest areas, or find new interests through participating in up to four different skills based camps per holiday per year.

Developing new friendships, sharing what they are learning and enjoying themselves as the camps are at the same venues – Jackie Cameron School of Food and Wine and Cordwalles Preparatory School – both of whom have been incredibly supportive to this initiative for teenagers in our community.

The BrandCafe, primarily a branding and web design studio, organizes holiday camps focused on teenagers (9yrs – 18yrs), exposing them to new skills and building their confidence in their capabilities.

BrandCafe has found wonderful, experienced facilitators in their skill set who want to teach and pass their knowledge on to the younger generation, something that has been slowly slipping away over the years due to increasingly busy lives for both parents and children.

We are lucky to have people who wish to take time during their holidays to do this.

 

TEENcamps range from COOKcamp with Jackie Cameron to an ARCHIcamp with Laurianne Steere Architects to PHOTOcamp with Linda Louw.

The full list of TEENcamps for 2017 are:
1. COOKcamp with Jackie Cameron @ R1,600 / 2 day camp
2. ARTcamp with Brent Dodd @ R1,600 / 2 day camp
3. BARISTAcamp with Terbodore @ R1,800 / 3 day camp
4. ARCHIcamp with Laurianne Steere Architects @ R1,800 / 3 day camp
5. PHOTOcamp with Linda Louw @ R1,800 / 3 day camp
6. ITcamp with Yasean Khan (coding) @ R1,600 / 2 day camp
7. MODELcamp with Karen Edwards @ R1,800 / 3 day camp
8. IMAGEcamp with Mel Klute@ R1,800 / 3 day camp
9. SINGcamp with Cat Simoni & Paul Spence @ R1,800 / 3 day camp
10. CREATIVITYcamp with Sarah Browne @ R1,800 / 3 day camp

Dates for 2017 (per holiday)
1 - 2 April, Sat – Sun (COOKcamp only)
3 - 5 April, Mon - Wed
3 - 5 July, Mon - Wed
25 - 27 Sept, Mon - Wed
11 - 13 Dec, Mon - Wed

 

News supplied.

Grace College’s Life Orientation Teacher, Kathryn Fannin, organised another successful Careers Evening at the school during which the Grade 11 pupils were able to engage with representatives from top Tertiary Establishments to discuss possible career paths.

 

Pictured at the event are: Ashley King, Kathryn Fannin (Grace College’s LO teacher) and Toni Hemming

 

News supplied by Grace College.

On 1 March 2017 Laddsworth Primary School turned 114 years old.

 

 

In 1920 there were 60 pupils, these numbers grew and a school was built, the school was where the current complex is across the road from Laddsworth. In 1989 330 pupils walked across to the current premises.

 

Laddsworth currently has over 560 pupils and continues to uphold the strong values and ethos that which are a hallmark that our school has been building on for so many years.
We celebrated our 114th year milestone in fine fashion with the pupils and staff enjoying and extended tea break and delicious birthday cake to mark this special day.

News supplied by Laddsworth Primary School.

 

Pictured above are:

In Front: Christina Heafield
Second Row L- R: Patrick Gibson, Tayla Street , Gabby Kleu, Emily Wilson, Brett Gotte
Third Row L-R: Charlotte McKenzie, Lily Strydom, Faye Firth, Hannah Howes
Fourth Row: Amileh Nxumalo, Samuel Wessels, Keira Joseph

 

and below are:

Front Row L-R: Mikha Sabatta, Lauren Atkins, Casey Mosdell , Ciaran Hornby, Daniel Slabberts ,Tristan Shaw
Back Row: Mr Gavin Lambooy (Headmaster), Mr Neelan Pillay (Deputy Headmaster).

 

St Anne’s Diocesan College recently hosted the Independent Schools’ Tennis Tournament in Hilton.

 

The St Anne’s team won their round robin pool matches to finish at the top of their section and faced Herschel in the finals.

After a tightly contested round of matches, St Anne’s were the ultimate winners of the tournament.

 

Back Row: Jade Harty, Brooke Rossiter, Storm Veenstra

Front Row: Sophie McDonald, Megan McDonald, Jessica-Lee Redfern, Daniella Rhodes

 

News supplied by St Anne's Diocesan College.

2557.

 

The number of days remaining for Cowan House Grade 1 pupils, to still be children.

 

Cowan House believes in protecting childhood and they would love to share with you why.

 

If you are curious, Cowan House is open for exploration from 09h00 to 10h30 on Saturday 11 March.

 

Contact Tracey Wood: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

News supplied by Cowan House Preparatory School.

Pravin Gordhan presented the Budget Speech 2017, under challenging economic conditions both globally and locally. Some significant changes were implemented this year affecting both individuals and companies. Can an economy continue to survive on a less than 1% growth rate?

 

Mr Gordhan highlighted that GDP was 0.5% this past year. Some major contributors to slow growth is, a stagnant global economy and inconsistency in local policy, the uncertainty is affecting investor confidence in our beautiful country and thus slowing growth. The new target for GDP in 2017 is 1.3%. This rate of growth is not something to jump up and down about, considering the slide in the currency last year and inflation rates impacting households.

 

Debt continued to rise to R2,2 trillion, with an interest bill of R169 billion per annum. The concerning point is that budgeted expenditure of R1,56 trillion remains higher than budgeted income of R1,41 trillion. Which means South Africa will go deeper into debt this year. Is this good business planning? Remember when budgeting for your business, income needs to be higher than expenses. This is a basic principle that will create a profitable business. This is an over simplification for running a country but the principle remains. Income higher than expenses produces profit which reduces debt.

 

The dividends tax increase to 20%, this next financial year, has a dramatic impact on the way business manages profitability. Internationally a dividends tax of 15% is seen to be the norm. The 20% increase will have an impact on companies and it will be interesting to see how international investors respond when they find they are earning 5% less from their investments. After a difficult financial year ending 201702 business is already under pressure. An increase in dividends tax could push business owners to increase salaries, if possible, and pay higher personal income tax.

 

Salaries above R1,5 million will now be taxed at 45%. Bracket creep on the tax table means a number of other salary brackets are also going to feel the pain.

 

These two moves are very interesting in the light of needing to encourage greater local and foreign investment. There were repeated calls for us, as South African's, to understand the need to take the hard hits now so that the debt can be reduced. At the same time these changes and other international tightness are going to put pressure on international investors to really consider whether South Africa is the place to invest. The thought process of Mr Gordhan is however understandable considering the difficulties he and his team are facing in trying to reducing governments waisted expenditure. We all have a role to playing in making our economy grow. We should spend this year working really hard to try achieve a better growth rate.

 

Asset development and expension should be focused on establishing programs that create growth in the economy. Grant and other project funding should create sustainable business entities. Income, Grants and Profitability should be used to expand and ensure stability of business and projects. Is government funding creating sustainable opportunities or endless pits that need to be sustained by taxpayers funds?

 

View Personal Tax Changes here.

 

http://www.sars.gov.za/AllDocs/Documents/Budget/Budget%202018/Budget%20Tax%20Guide%20A4.pdf 

 

News supplied by Business Soul Accounting.

 

 

On Monday 20 February 2017, Mr Robin McIntosh from the Hereford Group, presented Savanna-Belle Fyvie, a Grade Five pupil at Laddsworth Primary School, with a cheque for R20 000, for winning the National Liberty Life Drawing Competition.

Savanna-Belle won the Regional Liberty Drawing competition in November last year, and from there her drawing was entered into the National Competition.

Pupils had to draw a picture of what they want to be when they grow up. Savanna-Belle’s picture shows she wants to be a teacher when she grows up.

Well done Savanna-Belle, we hope the R20 000 will be an investment for your future education.

 

News supplied by Laddsworth Primary School.

Congratulations to Nick Tillim, James Wood and Christian Deare on their selection into the KZN U18A Water Polo Team. They will be participating in the Currie Cup National Tournament in Stellenbosch next month.

 

News supplied by Hilton College.