Dear Parents

We are filled with excitement as we look ahead to our upcoming 100 Aker Wood Concerts on 4 and 5 June in the Junior Preparatory Amphitheatre (outside venue). The children have been working incredibly hard in preparation, and we cannot wait to share these special performances with you in our beautiful outdoor venue.

Concert Dates & Times

Thursday, 4 June @ 09:00 – 10:00
Grade 000 & 00
(Tiggers, Piglets, Honey Bees, Pooh Bears & Roos)

Friday, 5 June @ 09:00 – 10:00
Grade R
(Christopher Robins, Edward Bears, Kangas, Owls & Rabbits)

Please note that our Grade R ballerinas will perform on both concert days. However, Grade R ballerina families are kindly requested to purchase tickets for the Friday concert only, allowing all the Grade 00 & 000 families the opportunity to attend comfortably within our venue capacity.

Each family will have the opportunity to attend the concert on their child’s grade day. Due to limited space, we are realistically able to accommodate three tickets per family. Seating is unreserved, and doors will open from 08:30 each morning. This allows our team time to complete seating arrangements, sound checks and technical preparations before welcoming parents into the venue.

On concert mornings, we kindly ask that all children arrive at 07:30. This gives staff enough time to help children dress comfortably and enjoy a light fruit snack before the performance begins.

Please note that there will be no extra murals during the concert week, allowing sufficient time for rehearsals and performances. Rest assured that all eight payable lessons for the quarter will still be completed by the end of the term.

After the concert, staff will assist the children in changing out of their concert attire. If you would like to congratulate your little one afterwards, we kindly ask for your patience while all children are dressed before joining parents in the garden area. Parents are welcome to take their child home after the performance, should they wish, but please communicate this with your class teacher beforehand. For children remaining at school, a fun and engaging remainder of the day has been planned.

Parking for the concert days will be available at:
• 91 Raats Drive
• 50 Wood Drive
(Junior and Senior Preparatory faculty parking areas)

We kindly ask all parents to please refrain from parking on neighbours’ driveways or verges (pavements). Illegally parked vehicles may be clamped or fined and can cause unnecessary frustration for our surrounding community.

Thank you, as always, for your support and enthusiasm. We are looking forward to two joyful mornings filled with music, dancing, smiles and wonderful memories.

A Healthy School Environment

With the change in season and colder weather, we see an increase in illnesses. Any child who is unwell or taking antibiotics must stay at home. We appreciate that this can be challenging for working parents, but preventing the spread of infection to other learners and our teachers remains our priority. 

Cake Sale – Thank you!

A heartfelt thank you to all our parents for the wonderful cake sale contributions today, it was a busy one! 😀

A Peak Into Our Week 

Crackerjacks

Our Magical Autumn Week! 🍂✨

What an enchanting week we’ve had exploring the magic of Autumn! Our sweet little children have been captivated by the falling leaves and changing colours, which sparked some wonderful conversations about the world around us. Together, we became nature enthusiasts  - crunching up crispy leaves to sprinkle over our handmade autumn trees, and turning our garden treasures into natural paintbrushes. From leaf stamping to tearing and pasting cosy leaf coats onto our recycled brown paper squirrels, our classrooms have been filled with endless giggles, creativity, and pure joy. Our children absolutely loved exploring the textures of the season this week!

Grade 000

This week, the Tiggers and Piglets continued with our Wild Animals theme and thoroughly enjoyed exploring the wonderful roars and sounds of nature. Our art activities this week saw the children creating beautiful African sunsets using paint and cling film. The Tiggers mixed shades of red and orange, while the Piglets explored yellow and red to create vibrant orange tones. By pressing and moving the paint beneath the cling film, each child created their own unique patterns and textures, making for a wonderful sensory art experience. To complete their masterpieces, the Piglets created adorable marble-rolled tigers, while the Tiggers carefully added striking lion silhouettes against their sunset backgrounds.

Taking our play outdoors was especially lovely this week as we enjoyed the warm winter sunshine and explored the falling winter leaves beneath the beautiful trees in our gorgeous gardens. The children delighted in crunching through the leaves, collecting them and watching them drift through the air. During gross motor activities, the boys and girls practised their throwing and catching skills using a large ball, as well as trapping the ball under their feet when it was gently kicked towards them. These activities helped to strengthen coordination, balance and concentration while encouraging teamwork and active play.

Grade 00

This week, the Grade 00 had so much fun learning all about reptiles. We explored different types of reptiles, spoke about their unique features, and discovered what makes them special. The children especially enjoyed learning that reptiles are cold-blooded and have scales on their bodies.

For art, we had a wonderful time creating colourful chameleons while practising our patterning skills. The children used different colours, shapes, and patterns to decorate their chameleons, showing lots of creativity and concentration.

It has been such an exciting week filled with learning, creativity, and lots of reptile fun.

Grade R

This week, the Grade Rs have been practising and consolidating many of the important knowledge and skills we have been developing throughout the term. We have learned new Jolly Phonics letters, explored new numbers and continued building our confidence and articulation while preparing for our exciting upcoming concert. We hope you are all looking forward to watching our wonderful performances.

The warmer weather allowed us to spend time outdoors, where we practised positional vocabulary and developed our locomotive skills. We skipped forwards, jumped sideways, hopped diagonally and ran backwards, all while strengthening coordination and body awareness. On wetter days, we moved indoors and focused on activities that supported hand-eye coordination, shoulder strength and core stability through balancing, throwing, aiming and bunny-jumping activities - all important foundational skills for writing and posture.

Numeracy learning has remained a large focus across Grade R this week. Through hands-on, play-based activities, the children explored concepts such as counting, number recognition, doubling, halving, odd and even numbers, patterning and measuring capacity. Using tools such as measuring jugs, syringes, counters, pegboards, snap cubes and whiteboards, the children were encouraged to think mathematically while learning through play and discovery.

Each classroom enjoyed exploring these concepts in different ways. Some children experimented with measuring and capacity in water play activities, while others built numbers using playdough and snap cubes, created patterns with pegs, matched quantities to number names and practised counting on from ten using ten frames. Movement games involving odd and even numbers were a particular favourite and brought plenty of excitement and laughter to our learning.

We continue to encourage the consolidation of these numeracy skills at home through simple everyday experiences such as baking, bath-time play with measuring containers, board games, counting activities and outdoor play. These meaningful experiences help to reinforce a strong mathematical foundation while keeping learning enjoyable and engaging.

Maths truly is so much fun!

Owls House Box Construction

This week, the Owls House children stepped into the exciting world of occupations through a creative box construction activity. The children first became little architects, carefully planning and designing their ideas on paper before bringing them to life. They thought about different people who help us in our community and the buildings connected to their jobs, such as hospitals, police stations, fire stations, and shops.

Once the planning was complete, the classroom transformed into a busy building site! The children became builders, using a variety of boxes and recycled materials to construct their creations. They worked together, solved problems, and used their imaginations while developing important fine motor and spatial awareness skills. To complete the activity, the children painted their box constructions, adding colour and detail to make their buildings come alive. It was wonderful to see their creativity, teamwork, and excitement throughout the process. We are so proud of the Owls House for their hard work and fantastic creations!

2026 Information 

2026 Dates

Summer Quarter: 20 Jan - 26 March 

Autumn Quarter: 8 April - 24 June 

Winter Quarter: 22 July - 23 Sept 

Spring Quarter: 14 Oct - 4 Dec 

2027 Dates

Provisional 2027 Quarter Dates

Summer - 19 Jan - 18 March

Autumn - 7 April - 23 June

Winter - 21 July - 22 Sept

Spring - 6 Oct - 3 Dec

Autumn Quarter Important Dates

AUTUMN QUARTER:

29 May: Build your burger with Chef Kerry 

29 May: Slipper Day - Reach for a Dream Foundation (R20 debited to your account)

30 May: Open Day

1 June: International Children's Day- Movie & Pop Corn (Grade 000 - R) in the hall

Crackerjacks Music & Marshmallows in their classes

  Happy Birthday Kerry Kemp

2 June: Happy Birthday Chanay De Klerk

4 June: 09:00 - 10:00 May Play (Grade 000 - 00) 

5 June: 09:00 - 10:00 May Play (Grade R) 

11 June: Individual photographs for Grades 000 & R 

12 June: Individual photographs for Crackerjacks & 00         

15 June: Reports sent to parents 

16 June: Public Holiday: Youth Day 

17-23 June: Report Feedback Meetings Grade 0000 - R

18 June: Bee Keeper Show (Grade 00 - R)

19 June: Cake Sale: Grade 000, Crackerjacks and Grade R (Owls) Cake Sale 

21 June: Father’s Day

22 June: Cultural Assembly (Grade R ballerinas to attend)

24 June: Winter Olympics and R20 ‘entry’ 

24 June: Last day of the quarter  

29 June: Happy Birthday Litho Voxeka

NASA Astronaut Dorothy “Dottie” Metcalf-Lindenburger to Headline Public Event at Parklands College

Cape Town Highlight of the National Space Tour 2026

Cape Town, South Africa - Former NASA astronaut, educator, and STEAM advocate Dorothy “Dottie” Metcalf-Lindenburger will visit South Africa for the Space Tour 2026, running from 22 July to 4 August 2026 across Cape Town, Gauteng, Durban, and selected remote communities.

As part of the Cape Town leg, Metcalf-Lindenburger will headline a public presentation evening at Parklands College on Monday, 3 August 2026, from 18h00 to 20h30, a rare opportunity for learners, families, and educators to hear directly from a NASA astronaut about life in space and the future of exploration.

Tickets: Book here on Quicket

Presented in partnership with Living Maths, the tour will bring world-class STEM inspiration to schools, universities, science centres, and communities nationwide including underserved and remote areas where learners often lack access to global role models.

Metcalf-Lindenburger flew aboard Space Shuttle Discovery on the historic STS-131 mission to the International Space Station in 2010, serving as Mission Specialist 2 and robotic arm operator. The mission delivered over 27,000 pounds of equipment to the ISS and travelled 6.2 million miles during 238 Earth orbits. She was also part of the first occasion on which four women were simultaneously in space. A former earth science and astronomy teacher, she was selected by NASA in 2004 through the Educator Astronaut Program and was the first Space Camp alumna to join the Astronaut Corps. She later commanded the NEEMO 16 underwater exploration mission and today champions STEAM education globally through Dottie ML, LLC.

Steve Sherman, Chief Imagination Officer of Living Maths, said the tour is about possibility. “When young people in South Africa meet someone who has travelled beyond Earth, it changes the way they think about their futures. Curiosity and talent are universal, opportunity is not. This tour is designed to help bridge that gap.”

Metcalf-Lindenburger added: “Science and exploration thrive when young people are encouraged to ask questions, solve problems, and imagine boldly. I’m honoured to share experiences from space exploration, teamwork, and discovery with audiences across South Africa.”

Tour Dates: 22 July – 4 August 2026

Public Event: Parklands College, Cape Town, 3 August 2026, 18h00–20h30

Tickets: quicket.co.za

Media & booking enquiries:

Steve Sherman, Living Maths

steve@livingmaths.com  |  +27 83 308 3883

Conclusion

We look forward to building your burger with Chef Kerry for next Friday’s lunch. The children will have the opportunity to choose their own toppings, creating a meal to suit their individual taste buds.

The concept of a “build your own burger” (BYOB) originated in early 20th-century American diners and state fairs, where vendors such as Charlie Nagreen and Frank Menches allowed customers to customise plain ground beef patties with bread and local condiments. This DIY tradition later inspired the global gourmet burger movement of the 21st century.

We are excited for this fun culinary experience, along with Slipper Day and the children coming cosily dressed in their pyjamas, in support of the Reach For A Dream campaign.

Enjoy the weekend!