During the Open Afternoon, each department put on a fabulous display. From exploding experiments in Science, getting creative in Art and DT, puzzling times in Mathematics to the English Department where visitors were invited to flex their creative muscles and try their hands at composing six-word stories.  We discovered that we have some promising young writers in Blantyre hopefully heading our way soon.

An animal attacked. She went silent.
The old lady swallowed a fly.
Adrian ate a burger. Yum! Yum!
Had a fish; let it go. 
Speak up! A bloody, silent mystery.
Saw a sunset and walked away. 

Thinking about the Open Evening, Dulmi Dissanayake in Year 10, wrote this poem reflecting on why she loves Saints school life.

Saints schooling life is truly a bliss, 

Learning in classes that we would never want to miss, 
Each led by the dedicated teachers we know so well, 
Teaching us to paint, speak, write and even spell, 

With each day comes a new lesson, we learn so much, 
From our educator's knowledge and their human touch, 
Like parents our teachers educate us with all they have got, 
Maximizing their effort within their teaching time slot, 

But that does not mean recess is any less fun, 
When we can have our meals, play with friends and run, 
Socializing with friends from different walks of life, 

The special events and competitions in school are entertaining too, 
Getting prizes for storytelling, spelling and the pictures we drew, 
So many fun events like canteen day and many school field trips, 
Fun activities to strengthen bonds and priceless friendships, 


School life is simply so joyful that it truly is bliss,

People say 
Learn to Live 
Let us change that a bit 
Live to learn 
As life is a school 

and learning is living
 

As a Global Social Responsibility member school, we continue our efforts on raising awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals. On Wednesday, four of our boarding students, Ayankha, James, Mada and Martin, along with three teachers, travelled to Ndirande to help with the campaign to eradicate cholera in Malawi. In response to Global Goal number 3 and 6, we met with a large group of residents in the village of Mpembu, in Ndirande, to share information on how to stay healthy during the cholera outbreak, and then distributed Water Guard (chlorine) to purify their drinking water.

Nearly 200 families attended, and each one took a bottle of chlorine. Each bottle of chlorine will be enough to purify several hundred litres of water. The chlorine was bought using money donated by our SAIntS community on charity fund-raising days such as mufti days.

 

The school clinic will be open next Friday 17th February 12 - 2pm. Please come and receive your first or second oral vaccination. #stopcholera

 

Good news! Our caterers have received approval from the DHO so we will be reopening the tuckshop after half term.
In next week's edition I will include the new menu and prices.
 

We will hold a non-uniform/mufti day next Friday 17th February, MK2,000 and all proceeds go to our whole school charity, Operation Smile.

Another alumni, Candice Phiri, one of our 2022 graduates, is completing some work experience with us in the English department. We extend a warm welcome to Candice as she experiences SAIntS 'from the other side'!
 

Our Senior students started off House competition season for term 2 with their Ultimate Frisbee. After a fierce battle between the four, here are the results;
 

Position	House
1	Michiru
2	Soche
3	Chiradzulu
4	Ndirande

 
Here are the upcoming House competitions for next week:
 

Day	Competition
Tuesday 14th February	Intermediate Mixed Dodgeball  *Normal House afternoon for Chiradzulu and   Michiru and Teams only for Ndirande and Soche
Wednesday 15th February	Junior Mixed Rounders  Intermediate Mixed Dodgeball  *Normal House afternoon for Ndirande and Soche  and Teams only for Chiradzulu and Michiru

 

With a new set of students this term we have been working on some portraits and photoshop skills to get started. After just a few weeks the students are creating some great abstract portraits. 

Students who are in their second round of the club are pushing their skills further and using more sophisticated techniques. Like Max Tayler who has created a very clever rendered doughnut.
 

Year 12 students are busy in group support session to revise for their Mathematics mock exam next week.

Year 10 Chemistry students carrying out an experiment to investigate the reaction of acids. 

To ease the pressures of having to sit for IGCSE exams this year, the business department decided to give the year 11 a second taste of business studies paper 2. This week the IGCSE business class not only celebrated very good second mock results but also good hope for what is to come.

This week has had the Year 9 history class study, learn and research on the worst dictator of the 20th century. The historians were grouped into teams of 5 and had the task of bringing to surface evidence that best supports their selection of the worst dictator to have ever lived. The winning team created a rap song that  outlined the mistakes and atrocities committed by both Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. It was incredible to see how much evidence they brought to the table. This is the kind of team that is more than ready for deeper challenges in IGCSE history.

 

Year 10 Design and Technology students are learning about the different properties of materials and also different wood joints. This helps them explore the skills needed to assist students to make a Trinket box. The project allows them to also learn about QC (quality control), QA (quality assurance) and manufacturing diaries. Watch this space for the final outcomes.

Year 9 Spanish had fun today playing a game called Sentence Stealers- they had to try to ‘steal’as many sentences from their classmates as possible by saying the correct chosen sentences . It was noisy but fun and they have unwittingly practised the key phrases and structures so many times they are now firmly embedded in their long term memory!