WORLD READ ALOUD DAY
On the 3rd of February the school, together with the Library Assistants from the Alicedale Makana Library held a world read aloud session for the Grade3 Pupils. The session was held at the school and one of the Library assistants read a story to the Kids about a Turnip. Children really enjoyed the story and also participated in the acting out of the story.
Looking forward to working them again.
29 November 2021
Sifunda Kunye Literacy project hosts annual writing camps for our partner schools but due to COVID we were unable to host our annual writing camp.
However, Sifunda Kunye launched an writing competition for our partner schools, together with our newsletter clubs and English faculty members at our schools our competition was successfully run.
Competition details was to write a short story themed “Where there is a will there is a way”
Top achievers from our partner schools were from St Matthews High School and Hendrik Kanise combined school.
Our 2021 writing competition winner was Natasha Mpondo from St Matthews High School in Keiskammahoek.
Congratulations to all learners that wrote in to our competition, keep on exploring your creative side.
History of Sifunda Kunye Writing Camp:
Innovative Writing Camp Empowers Learners
Eighty learners from four area schools explored creativity, learning, and self-expression in an intense writing camp over the weekend. The camp was sponsored and hosted by the Sifunda Kunye Educational Project, a local public benefit organization that has been active in the King Williams Town district since 2008.
Sifunda Kunye invites 10 to 15 learners from each of its partner schools in the King William’s Town District and Grahamstown district participate in these camps. This past weekend, learners from St. Matthew’s, Xolani, Richard Varha, Toise and Hendrik Kanise combined Schools spent an intense 3 days (Friday-Sunday) focusing on a specific theme, completing personal works, and submitting them for peer critique. This session’s theme was “Dreams are made of…” and learners were encouraged to express what dreams and ambitions means to them in essays, poems, and group discussions and drama. Participants received guidance from a talented group of volunteer facilitators, student leaders, and the Sifunda Kunye staff. .” Participants submit their work for inclusion into a published student journal at the end of the camp. The journal is a unique opportunity for many to see their work in print.
Learners and teachers are continually impressed with the writing camps. Participants relish the opportunity to engage in an in-depth weekend of imaginative learning. They enjoy improving their language and writing skills in a fun and creative venue outside of the classroom. Teacher’s enjoy witnessing the progress these young writers make over the course of a weekend.
The Sifunda Kunye Literacy Project’s writing camps have been successfully running since they first launched in August 2014. Sifunda Kunye is a non-profit that relies on donations and grants to support its literacy and technology programs in Eastern Cape schools.
6 November 2021
We celebrated the completion of our annual facilitators program with a prize giving and a BBQ. The learners and faculty had loads of fun.
Sifunda Kunye is proud of all our hardworking facilitators that dedicated their time every Saturday at our literacy center.
Sifunda Kunye wants to thank Mr Kirben Rajopaul and Mr Dustin Hoffman from Premier FMCG/Star bakery for recognizing our learners hard work.
Thank you for making the facilitators feel extra special by donating; lunch boxes, stationary, buffs, bread, caps and bags to all our facilitators. Sifunda Kunye, Hendrik Kanise Combined School and all our facilitators appreciate the donation received.
The mission of Sifunda Kunye Education Project is to have a positive impact on education and the individual lives of learners of all ages through the implementation of technology programs, literacy programs, and capital projects at deserving schools across South Africa.
We would like to thank our 2021 facilitators for positively impacting the lives of all ages through dedication and commitment to your role you play at our literacy center every weekend.
We wish all our facilitators, faculty, staff, donors and learners a Merry Christmas and a prosperous 2022.
We know that literacy is one of the big underlying problem for many of our school learners. This programme is aimed at developing a love for reading, books and stories. Through creating a culture of enjoyment to read we support literacy programmes and will be improving children’s ability to read. Simply put – we support reading clubs, because we believe it’s the best way to improve reading and writing skills.
At the end of the day, there are really endless benefits of joining the reading club. They encourage teamwork, foster a child’s ability to listen and react, create a sense of community around books – and so, so much more. We are so excited to have added the Sifundakunye Community Reading Club to our schedule, and hope to welcome more kids to a group very soon.
We would also like to welcome this very enthusiastic group of new facilitators to our reading club family. This years is very interesting as we have boys also as facilitators, and believe me when I say they are very happy about being in the club and they have been a breath of fresh air since they joined.
We hope for nothing but good things this year.
Heritage Month in September and Heritage day on 24 September in particular is celebrated annually to mark our nation’s diverse culture and heritage. This year the theme was “Celebrating South Africa’s living human treasures.” . At the school we celebrated this year’s heritage day by doing a Jerusalema Dance challenge that has been keeping people busy globally. The President Cyril Ramaphosa also urged the country to take part in the dance challenge to reflect on the difficult journey we have all travelled, to remember those who lost their lives because of the Corona Virus and to quietly rejoice in the remarkable and diverse heritage our nation.
“The people’s relationship to their heritage is the same as the relationship of a child to its mother” John Clarke
Clean water is one of the few things in life that never fails to live up to expectations. It is difficult to overstate the importance of having it and it’s probably impossible. Clean water changes almost everything. This is why access to and management of clean water is very important. Sometimes we find ourselves struggling to get water as the community of Alicedale is facing serious issues with the shortage of water.
That is why the Sifunda kunye water sanitation project has helped us very much. They installed more than 5 JOJO tanks at the school.
Words cannot express how grateful the school is to Sifunda kunye.
Only 24 hours, yet so much goes in that time span. You go about your day, going through the boring and often dramatic evets. How often do you stop to realize that each hour of your day is packed with life-changing wisdom? Sure, there are big events that punch you in the gut. The lesson from those are hard to ignore, but there are also many mundane things that happen in a day that also have a lot to teach you if you become aware of them.
Hendrik Kanise was one of the schools invited in Makana to view the Webb Ellis Rugby World Cup at the Grahamstown’s Indoor Sports Center. Rugby coaches and players also got a chance to to rub shoulders with the Springboks captin Siya Kolisi and hooker Bongi Mbonambi. Siya Kolisi said a few words of inspiration to the audience. Hendrik Kanise learners and faculty would like to thank Sifunda Kunye for financial assistance for transportation to attend this one in a life time opportunity.
Our learners were over the moon with joy, a never to be forgotten experience.
Our school participated in this year’s Sifunda kunye Sports tournament that was help at Toise Senior Secondary school at Kwanonkcampa. We had two teams in the tournament for Soccer and Netball and both those teams played 4 matches and won 3. With the 3 matched that we managed to win we came in 2nd place and that gave us an opportunity to get Silver medals. St Matthews came in 1st place and theyrecieved Gold medals, then Richard Varha came in 3rd. and they received bronze medals.
Thank you to Sifunda Kunye organization for organizing these events and allowing us to partake in them. We do not only form bonds with other schools, we also form interminable relationships.
25 February 2020
World Read Aloud Day was created as an opportunity for people all around the globe to celebrate the joy of reading aloud, and advocate for literacy as a fundamental human right that belongs to everyone. Over the last ten years, World Read Aloud Day has evolved into a global movement of millions of readers, writers, and listeners from communities all across the world coming together to honor the joy and power of reading and sharing stories and continue expanding the definition and scope of global. On the 25 of February the English Teacher Miss James and The ICT facilitator organised a Wold Read Aloud Day where Mrs Gxamza read book written in isiXhosa called “Kutheni inja isoyika isiphango.” and one of the reading club facilitators read a book called “My grandma is WONDERFUL.”.
The kids enjoyed it very much and we are looking forward to next year’s one.
