St Johns College students up-date

The High School scholarship programme is going very well and we are very pleased and proud to say that St Johns College had a 100% matric pass rate in 2010 and was voted one of the top schools in the Eastern Cape!  One of their students got 7 distinctions, and another student got 6 distinctions!  They have been in the Daily Dispatch newspaper as well as on SABC 2.  Well done to Mr Magaqa and his team!

Three of our students finished grade 12 (matric) last year, namely Hardy Gaqa, Khanyisa Nyubatyha and Sandi Tshemese.  Hardy, who attended Pato JSS before St Johns College, passed with 4 distinctions – for Maths, Xhosa, Life Sciences and Life Orientation!  He has applied to Wits University to study Mining Engineering this year and he is waiting to hear back from their financial aid office.  Hardy will be one of the lucky few from our area to attend university.

Khanyisa and Sandi went to initiation school for the month of December and they are now ‘Amadoda’ (Men)!  At this stage they are “abarhwala” – wearing khaki clothes, with red clay on their face and bodies, black headbands and a stick!   Khanyisa is in the process of applying for a bursary at the South African Wildlife College to study Conservation and Environmental Management.  Sandi is trying to get a bursary to study Land Surveying, but unfortunately things are not looking too positive……computer training is his next option and there are bursaries available at the MSC college in Mthatha.

We have 3 new students who joined the programme this year.  Nomvana Khalipha from Coffee Bay JSS who is being sponsored by Coffee Shack Backpackers;  Sihle Qhuva from Pato JSS who is being sponsored by the Sandra Tracy Trust and Seluya Papana from Mathokazini JSS who is being sponsored by donations from Chris Hattam (2nd time to donate to the programme – thank you Chris), Leigh and Carrie Coppernoll from Vilazakazi in the US and Gemma from Australia.

Unfortunately one of the grade 11 students did not pass the year end exams in 2010, so she is off the scholarship programme.  We have a total of 7 students on the programme this year.

We will be hiring Maths and Science tutors for all our students for the first 2 terms of this year, as most of them are still struggling with these subjects and it is an incredibly big jump going from a rural JS school to an academic school in Mthatha!

At our student parent meeting in December 2010, two prizes, sponsored by the Sandra Tracy Trust, were given to the students.  The prize and certificate for the most improved student for 2010 went to Sibonisiwe Hambisa and the award for the top student for 2010 went to Hardy Gaqa.  The students were well chuffed with this new initiative – thank you to Bill Tracy for coming up with the good idea.

A big thank you must also go to Hardy Gaqa, who assisted the Sustainable Coffee Bay team by taking the new grade 10’s uniform shopping in Mthatha in mid-December (chaotic time of year!) and then also escorting the new students and their parents on the 1st day of school to ensure that they all got beds and were sorted in the boarding house.  This is much appreciated!

Our new students have settled in well at St Johns and our returning students are right back into the programme.  We wish them all the best for 2011!

A humongous thank you must be said to all the sponsors out there who have made this possible!

Yours in education – Dawn

Scholarship Fund update

One thought on “Scholarship Fund update

  • 30th January 2011 at 2:32 am
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    Thanks for the detailed newsletter. You are doing great work. We were particularly pleased to see that Khanyisa Nyubatyha successfully completed his time at St John’s College and is moving into a good field if possible. It’s good to hear our sponsorship in 2009 has borne some fruit.

    Best Regards, Norm

    Reply

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