Recent blog posts

School in Action Tours

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Please note that we regret to inform you that School in Action tours are now closed.

 

 

Pinelands High School NSC 2022 Top Achievers

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We are immensely proud of our Top Achievers who all produced A Aggregates with 5 or more Subject A’s.  Kaneez Abbas achieved a phenomenal 8 Subject A’s). Rachel MacIntyre, Aaliyah Sonnie and Safiya Abrahams all scored 7 Subject A’s. 

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The 2022 Grade 12 class produced a Matriculation Pass Rate of 99%, a Bachelor's Pass Rate (University Entrance Pass) of 87% and 41.8 % of all NSC Subject results were either an A or B symbol.

 

Pinelands Students Excell at the International Science Fair

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Success at the International Science Fair for Pinelands High School.
 
We congratulate Joseph Gibbon and Matthew Redfern (both Grade 11) who recently won gold medals (80-100%) and were awarded Best Project in the Chemistry and Biochemistry category at the recent International Science Fair held in Gauteng last week. A total of 253 of South Africa’s top researchers and innovators competed alongside 17 international young scientists from Brazil, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mexico, Mozambique, Turkey and Zimbabwe.

Sarah Parker (Grade 11) received a bronze medal for her project in the Engineering category.

Their projects were selected as Technology Innovation Agency Winners out of a total of 270 at the ISF. The award includes an invitation to attend a one-week bootcamp, and the opportunity to receive funding to further develop their projects, supported by the Technology Innovation Agency.

We are very proud of these young scientists and of our Physical Sciences and Life Sciences Departments and their staff.
 
 

The Boy Who Fell From the Roof Opens 3 August 2022

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It is so exciting to once again be producing a dramatic production.  Next week the school presents Juliet Jenkin’s “The Boy Who Fell From The Roof”, a story about love, death, friendship, being queer, and growing up. The play is directed by our Head of Drama, Ms Tara Notcutt. 

This universal coming-out tale is set in Cape Town, South Africa and sees the boy, Simon, and his best friend, George in their final year of school. We meet Simon's mother, Patricia, and Leonard, a university student. These characters tell you about their relationships with Simon, supported by a large chorus who help to tell the story. 

The play was first presented in 2005 as part of the Artscape New Writing Programme and has been performed to great acclaim at the National Arts Festival in Makhanda and the Hilton Arts Festival in KwaZulu-Natal.

You can read more about the play in this week's Tatler.

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Pinelands High School, in conjunction with the Epoch & Optima Trusts, is offering an exciting opportunity to aspirant Mathematics and Physical Sciences teachers for the 2023 academic year. Applications will also be considered for a possible English subject
internship position.

Applicants must be planning to study for their PGCE through a recognised distance learning institution in 2023 (e.g. UNISA, NWU,
Stadio Embury). Final selection will be dependent upon acceptance to one of these institutions.

See the detailed vacancy here.

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Biodiversity Garden Growth

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At the beginning of the year, Nature Connect #NatureConnectSA awarded Pinelands High School with a Stodels nursery gift card.  This was awarded to the school in recognition of our progress in and commitment to Biodiversity education during 2021. Nature Connect is a Not-for-Profit that supports the preservation of Cape Town’s unique and biodiverse natural heritage through education, training and conservation initiatives.

Last week we were able to use this gift card. A section of the school grounds which previously only had a few trees and some grass on it was cleared and has been transformed into a 'Fynbos Examples' bed. This bed will be extremely useful when we teach ecology to Grade 10 Life Sciences students. 

This bed is the newest addition to our Biodiversity Garden.  This garden has been designed to teach specific aspects of the Natural and Life Science curricula. For example earlier this year Grade 8 students could see ecological vocabulary in action. The garden creates an outdoor classroom for engaging in the practical learning of environmental topics.

Besides providing an educational outdoor classroom, this area contributes to the preservation of Biodiversity and has created a beautiful space in the school grounds for both students and staff.

The pictures show the donated plants, the area before the plants were added and the newly planted Fynbos Examples bed. #NatureConnectSA

@natureconnectsa

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Grade 12 Visual Art students in Action

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Grade 12 Visual Art students in action earlier this week. The theme for Visual Art in Term 2, Matric 2022 was 'Play'. We set a relatively open topic for Grade 12 students to encourage them to work in the medium and subject of their choice. Matrics may work in any Visual Art medium such as painting, drawing, sculpting, animation or videography. As always the Visual Art students are directed to create artworks that are personal, original and meaningful. #WeAreProudlyPinelands #VisualArt #Creativity #LoveArt #Paint #Painting #Art

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Tagged in: Art PAINTING Visual Art

Play Time - A Stop Motion Animation by Gemma Trench

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The theme for Visual Art in Term 2, Matric 2022 was 'Play'. We set a relatively open topic for Grade 12 students to encourage them to work in the medium and subject of their choice. Matrics may work in any Visual Art medium such as painting, drawing, sculpting, animation or videography. As always the Visual Art students are directed to create artworks that are personal, original and meaningful.

This is Gemma Trench's response to the topic and her first attempt at stop motion. This is a natural progression of Gemma's art which has always carried with it a strong sense of narrative. Gemma built and painted the set and characters herself and then 'filmed' the artwork by taking a considerable number of photographs. The final stop motion contains 1760 individual photos and at least 15 hours of filming.  This is after all the sets and characters have been made.

 

Eco Club Pop Up Thrifting

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Our Eco Club organised a very successful Thrift Fair at the end of May.  Students were given the opportunity to reduce their carbon footprint and keep up with the thrifting trend. They brought clothes from home and exchanged each item for something donated by someone else. 

Fast fashion is having a horrendous impact on the environment. Landfills are filling up at an unsustainable rate and we all need to make little changes to our lifestyle to do our part. Second-hand clothes swaps have taken the world by storm and are becoming the ‘new’ in-thing with thrift shops and fairs popping up in all the trendy neighbourhoods. 

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Forging A Future

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The latest edition of Forging A Future (our quarterly newsletter for Alumni) is out.  Read it below.

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