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Awards Epoch & Optima Trusts

Euncie acknowledges the substantial support provided to Mathematics in 2009 by the Epoch and Optima Trusts. Support in 2009 amounted to R 440 000.

“ The Epoch and Optima Trusts are independent trusts, founded by Anglo American, to disburse funds for the furtherance of excellence in maths and science school education. In response to the consistently poor maths results in South Africa’s schools, the Trusts have a combined funding of some R 40 million a year for the next three to five years to make practical interventions, working directly with schools that are able to deliver. The major focus will be to strengthen achieving, but under-funded, public secondary schools to produce growing numbers of learners with strong maths passes. The strategy is to move money quickly to where it can best be used to maximize impact.”

“ The public Schools Maths Challenge aims to increase participation in maths, improve the quality of maths passes and increase access for disadvantaged learners. The programme complements government’s efforts in this area, and particularly the Dinaledi Schools project. Grants awarded are based on detailed budgeted spending plans submitted by the schools for spending on teachers’ salaries, as well as resources such as textbooks, calculators and computers.”

“ The Trusts operate under independent boards of trustees and benefit from the 10 years of experience gained by their fund managers, Tshikululu Social Investments, South Africa’s leading corporate social investors.”

Awards news...

Eunice’s award winning computer teacher, Mrs Sarietjie Musgrave, is in the news again. Last year she was a finalist and eventual runner up in Microsoft’s partners in Learning Innovative Teachers’ Forum 2008 held in Hong Kong. This international achievement earned her substantial press coverage and national recognition in South Africa.

As a result of her success in 2008, Mrs Musgrave has been invited by Microsoft to travel to Washington DC in June to interact with other winning teachers and to attend and participate in the US National Educational Computing Conference ( NECC – www.iste.org)

Mrs Musgrave’s winning project was a learner initiative named “ Spread the Sunshine” which encouraged students to better understand the importance and functionality of technology in improving the lives of the disabled.

Mrs Musgrave – trained as a special needs teacher – started off her teaching career at a range of schools in London on her working holiday where she had her first taste of the value of computers in education. At Eunice since 1997 she has pioneered computer literacy.

In the old matric system she had every single Grade 10 girl doing the Matric Computer Studies SG exam with great success. In the new NCS matric her 60 Computer Applications Technology girls achieved 21 A’s…..

Closing function news...

At Closing Function ( Prizegiving) last year Dessi Nokolov, then in Grade 10, was awarded the Eunice Board Medal on the strength of her inclusion in the South African team which won the Pan African Mathematics Olympiad in Benin. Dessi was one of three students on the continent to be awarded gold medals.

Once again, Dessi, now in Grade 11, was selected by the South African Mathematics Foundation to represent her country in the same Olympiad in Pretoria ( 19 – 26 April 2009). National colours in Mathematics with a blazer just like Graeme Smith’s! Even Pythagorus would be proud.

Hockey news:

All indications are that Eunice’s recent tour to Argentina was a great success. Judging by the enthusiastic response of our girls they loved Buenos Aires, its incredible shopping, its unique delicacies, and its distinctive dancing.

Our hockey girls relished the tough competition – they played in an international tournament for top regional and club sides, not schools;

The tennis girls particularly enjoyed their association with the Vilas Club ( Guilermo Villas) and the opportunity to play on clay.

The U/18 hockey girls missed the tournament final by a goal average whisker and ended third. The scores were:

By all accounts the girls showed tremendous team spirit and sang their way through the streets of the city on the last night of the tour. Mr Leon van Rensburg, Mrs Emsie Bouwer and Mrs Louise Reinecke all confirmed that this was the tour of a lifetime.

Latest Eunice Protea...

The latest Eunice Protea is Christi Potgieter from Luckhoff who was at Eunice primary and then Eunice High for just a year before moving to Johannesburg and home schooling to further her tennis career. Christi, ranked 848^th in the world, has just been included in the three member South African Federation Cup team which will participate in the Euro-Africa Group Two segment in Turkey.

As a matter of interest South Africa won the Federation Cup in 1972. The coach of that winning team was Dr Jackie du Toit who, at 82, can still be seen coaching on the Eunice Courts. A true gentleman and a smart and energetic one at that.

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