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End 2011 Report:
This has been a both challenging and overwhelming year for me. In the past 11 months, I have discovered more about myself than I have my entire life. The jump from grade 10 to grade 11 was a huge and was in a way the best life experience I’ve had.
This year was academically challenging. The standard of work was a lot higher and the time periods given to finish assignments were a lot shorter than grade 10. I feel I did not put in my best effort into my work and the drop in my marks clearly reflects that. I however have been working very hard to get the best marks I can this term.
Maths and Physics are by no doubt the subjects I did the worst in this year. A group of my friends from school and myself have agreed to have a few afterschool sessions during the week, where we can study everything together. This has been very helpful because I have gotten A's and B's for all my Maths and Physics assignments this term. We also agreed to meet on Saturdays.
I started reading a book called The DaVinci Code wriiten by Dan Brown last week. I don't read a lot but this book is by far the most difficult book to understand that I have come across. There was a movie of the book that was made in 2004. I have probably watched the movie 5 times and still do not fully understand what is going on.
I think it is safe to say that my recent reading activities are what influenced the increase in my English mark. I have been performing well in English and I have been making a compelling effort to keep this.
I am also planning to start a maths-tutoring group. This will aim to tutor children from disadvantaged schools. I am planning to make this happened next year and that's only if I can manage my workload. This is something I strongly believe I should do, as it would be giving back to my community.
My biggest goal next year is to prevent the drop in my work ethic (which proved to be my downfall this year) and work incredibly hard from the first day of school. I would like to study at the University of Cape Town and I am aware of the fact that I have to get very high marks in order to make it.
It is clear that I have not participated in much this year but I am however planning to do much more next year. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Kay Mason Foundation for giving me this opportunity to explore high school life at such an overwhelming high educational level. I would also like to thank the KMF staff and donors for making everything happen.
Mid-2011 Report:
These past two terms have not been easy in any way. Grade 11 has been very academically challenging for me and this so far has been a year where I have produced my worst set of results and that is something I am not proud of at all.
Academics
I have experienced a lot of difficulties in many of my subjects but Physical Science is by far the one subject I am struggling most with. Dropping the subject has come to my attention but I am not willing to do so because I do not give up on something very easily. I have however made a promise to myself and my mother that I will maintain full focus on Physical Science and other subjects in order to produce the results I am capable of because it is very critical to do so.
I have attended some of the extra lessons offered at school and they have helped but I need to do more myself to ensure that I improve upon my marks. Another subject that I have done badly in is IsiXhosa. I am not very strong when it comes to language but another factor that influenced my Xhosa mark is the fact that we got a teacher a month before we wrote exams and this meant the teacher had to rush through everything in order to ensure we were ready but this only made it difficult as we did not have enough time to work through everything and understand. I have however made a promise to myself to work on Xhosa too.
Sports
I have not been active regarding sports for the past two terms. I am angry at myself for not doing so because sport is something I have been passionate about since primary school. The reason is simply because of the amount of projects and homework I have to attend to in a short period of time.
I, however have started going to the gym four times a week. This is something new I have tried and I am immensely enjoying it and I am not planning to stop it because it is the only thing I have to keep me healthy.
Social
These past two terms have been overwhelming. In the first term, we went to the Holocaust Museum in town as a History excursion. It was the most emotional outing I have ever been to. The museum has tour guides that had people close to them who experienced the Holocaust themselves and that emphasized the whole experience as they were not merely telling us what they heard had happened but instead what they saw and knew from personal experience. That was certainly an experience I will remember for the rest of my life.
There was a Leadership Camp that took place on the 21-23 June which promised to be a great experience too. I was however unable to attend due to financial circumstances.
Grade 11 has been overwhelming as it has been a huge step up from grade 10. It was something I expected but I was not able to adapt to the demands the step came with. This half of the year has given me a taste of what the real world is like and from that I am ready to give it my best shot. I will, with no doubt improve my marks and achieve the best that I can.
WHO I AM:
My name is Thando Nombande and I am 13 years old (will turn 14 years old on the 6th of September 2008).
I live in a big township where mostly black people live. I live with my mother, sister, aunt and cousin.
I attend Camps Bay High School which is a nice school. It has a beautiful view of the sea and mountain. I started attending this school this year and I am in Grade 8.
I have settled in well at the school and have made a couple of friends. I have participated in my favourite sport, which is cricket. I am a right-handed batsman and I also qualified to play for the under 14 A-team – which is one of my greatest achievements for this term.
I was also the vice-captain and I must say being captain is not the easiest job to do. The guys I worked with were really immature. They just did their own thing. When you tell them to do this, they do that. I was so ready to quit being captain, but realized that not all people are the same. In the end, the experience taught me a lot about handling people.
My other favourite sport is my winter sport which is hockey. I last played hockey at primary school, which was last year, and I was the best goal scorer in the history of my primary school. I hope to achieve the same at Camps Bay High.
I hope you enjoyed reading about me.
LATEST NEWS:
This year I am in grade 9 which is very exciting. The work we get is a bit too much but I am always up for a challenge. I have worked very hard this term and I have produced a balanced set of results. I’m in the top mathematics class which is a good accomplishment but a bit difficult because everyone in the class is very competitive, so I have to work even harder to compete with them.
This year the school is going to have a heated pool and I’m going to be part of the fundraisers to finance the building of the pool. It will mean so much for me to learn how to swim if the pool is heated.
The school started pre-season training which is something that rarely happens at our school, but it is a good thing because we get to prepare for term.
This term I have not participated in any sports because things have been hectic and I have had a lot of projects to do in quite a short period of time so sports had to take the backseat for academics. Next term I will be playing hockey for the team and I hope very much that I will be the team’s captain as I was last year. I would really like to play provincial hockey, it’s hard to get there but I will try my best to achieve my goal.
I have not broken any school rules and I’m planning to keep things that way. I am really enjoying the school.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity.
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