Northwood, being the early bird, celebrated Arbor Day on Friday. Northwood’s Environmental Club learners together planted the tree of the year, the Jacket Plum (Pappea capensis). The tree which belongs to the litchi family is evergreen and grows up to 8 metres – hoping to provide shade at the midday break. The red tasty fruit are edible to both animals and to the boys of Northwood. Moreover the tree has medicinal properties which can be used for nose bleed, baldness and ringworm treatment. The tree has a sweet scent attracting game and has been used in the production of soap, preservation of jams and jellies. Arbor Day celebrations will continue at Northwood on Monday with Justin Govender bringing about an awareness of the importance of the preservation of our flora and the ripple effect it has on our fauna. Learners will also be encouraged to continue to recycle paper at the school which is an ongoing project to sustain our biodiversity.
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Northwood Learner Leads Financial Literacy Speech Contest
Northwood are very proud of Philani Thusini, a Grade 11 learner, who came second in a province-wide Financial Literacy Speech contest held on Wednesday 19 September 2012 in Esikhawini. The event attracted entries from 1500 schools throughout KZN and he ended up a mere one point behind the winner at the finals, in front of the MEC of Finance, Mrs Cronje, and the HOD of Education. Philani received a thunderous applause for his speech on Financial Planning. He concluded his speech by saying, “Failing to plan is planning to fail” which was then quoted by the honourable MEC Ina Cronje in her closing address! His prizes included a full bursary for a diploma in Information Technology with PC Training and Business College, a laptop, an 80cm flatscreen TV, a DVD player and a Postbank account with R300. The school was also awarded a monitor.
Boarding
Bruyns House Boarding Establishment is named after the then Chairman of the Governing Body, Mr John Bruyns, who was instrumental in the design and building of the boarding facility in 1994.
The small, exclusive boarding facility is situated on Upper Campus next to the gymnasium and swimming pool. It is spacious and modern, with commanding views of the sports fields and a panoramic view of the sea from all rooms. The establishment is run by a full time Director of Boarding; Senior Housemaster and 6 duty masters.
The house can cater for up to 70 boys spread across grade 8 to grade 12. Boys are housed in dormitories of 6 in grades 8 to 10 and dorms of 2 to 4 in grade 11 and 12. Boarders are the backbone of any single sexed high school. The proud tradition of camaraderie, lifetime friendships and a caring community built by the boys over the recent history of the house has encouraged parents to enroll their boys into the boarding establishment.
The Northwood Boarding Establishment prides itself with a warm, friendly home from home environment for boys from all areas who will make a meaningful contribution to the life of the school. Self-discipline and mutual respect are encouraged at Bruyns House, which envelops an environment that is conducive to both academic learning and all round achievement.
Catering, cleaning and laundry are outsourced to specialist companies. Mandate Catering is charged with feeding Bruyns House as well as the Sharks Super Rugby team and the Amazulu Football team. Specialist dieticians have created a balanced diet to cater for all boys in the establishment.
Matthew de Sousa is Northwood’s Green and Gold Talent
Northwood are very proud of grade 11 player, Matthew de Sousa, who was recently selected for the South African U18B hockey side at the U18 Inter-Provincial Hockey Tournament in Johannesburg. In this year’s Indoor Hockey season, Matthew, the captain, never lost a game!
Steve McManus, also in grade 11, was the top goal scorer at the same tournament.
Judo Champ
Stedon Venter, in grade 11 at Northwood, fought his way into the South African Judo Team on Friday, 10 August 2012. He will be representing his country at the Junior African Championships to be held in Botswana in October 2012.
Update:
Stedon came 4th against 11 other countries at the Junior African Championships held in Botswana in August and has been selected to represent South Africa at the Zone Six Youth Games to be held in Lusaka, Zambia from 04 December to 17 December 2012.
Busy Brass Band
The Northwood Brass Band, made up entirely of school boys, has played at three high profile events over as many weeks.
Mrs Gail Teunissen, the Headmistress of Addington Primary School, and an educator of 42 years experience, was paraded into the school and serenaded by the Northwood drummers to mark her retirement on Tuesday 31 July 2012. This was a bitter-sweet affair, celebrating the incredible life of service “Mrs T” has given to the school and community.
There was little room to rest as eleven of the band members moved straight into rehearsal for the Corobrick Orchestra 2012, performance held on Sunday 5 August – a massed orchestra put together every year at UKZN Westville, under the baton of well-known conductor Richard Cock. A challenging program including classical and popular pieces, allowed the band boys to really show their talent, and earned the band and Northwood a commendation from the Maestro himself.
As if this wasn’t enough, the whole band joined forces with the Brass Band from Ferrum High in Newcastle on 11 August 2012, to perform at the well-supported Highland Games up at Fort Nottingham in the KZN Midlands. Performing both marching and concert displays, the combined band performed incredibly well, giving a great showing next to the SA Army Band and the KZN Pipe Bands, even receiving an invitation to perform at the annual “Music from Scotland” evening at the end of September. The band ended a very successful weekend with a snowball fight on the way home.
Bamboo Sushi Lounge Excellence Awards
Assembly at Northwood School on Friday 17 August 2012 saw the inaugural presentation of the Bamboo Sushi Lounge’s Excellence Awards. Every term Bamboo Sushi Lounge will honour thirty of Northwood’s top contributors with a certificate which entitles them to a term’s “eat as much as you want” contract at the Umhlanga restaurant. Albert Liu, an old boy, saw this as a fitting way to encourage the learners to excel and to recompense his high school alma mater. This term saw the top three academic learners in each grade receive certificates along with rugby and honours recipients, Science Expo and World Knowledge Olympiad winners, Chess achievers and First Aid Service contributors.
Northwood win the D&D Chess finals
On Friday 17 August the Northwood chess team competed in the Durban and Districts High School Chess League Finals held at Clifton. On the day of the tournament, the boys made a conscious decision to bring the trophy home with one of the boys saying, “It’s Mr Jordan’s last year and we are taking the trophy for him!” Compared to Glenwood Boys High School’s team of ten, which included five grade 12 boys and an additional five reserves, the Northwood Chess Team appeared inexperienced.
The team of three grade 11’s, two grade 10’s, two grade 9’s and three new grade 8 players surprised Glenwood, in the third round, with a victory of 34 out of 40 and a three point lead. After Round 3, the tournament director (Glenwood’s Mr Jonathan Bentham) decided that Northwood was the clear cut winner and that there was no need to have more than four rounds. He also made a point of mentioning that it took ten years for Northwood to beat them!
The final results were as follows: Round 1 – Northwood beat St Henry’s Marist College 10-NIL, Round 2 Northwood beat Westville Boys 10-NIL, Round 3 Northwood beat Glenwood 5,5 – 4,5 and finally in Round 4 Northwood beat DHS 8,5 – 1,5. Northwood’s winning team, listed as per their board numbers, was: 1. Yasteel Devnarian, 2. Luke Joseph, 3. Thomas Meadows, 4. Yetish Ramsurrup, 5. Shayur Hansraj, 6. Kyran Appana, 7. James Meadows, 8. Taish Ramkisson, 9. Ukyle Bezuidenhoud and 10. Deshaj Parthab.
CONGRATULATIONS to the following boys who have been selected for the KZN side for 2012 and will represent KZN in Cape Town from 15 to 21 December at the Junior Chess Championships (SA Trials 2012):
Shayur Hansraj (tied 1st place at the Closed U16) U16A
Kyran Appanna (U16A)
James Meadows (U14B)
Yasteel Devnarrian (U18A)
Ukyle Bezuidenhout (RESERVE)
Taish Ramkisson (RESERVE)
Northwood play soccer against Zimbabwe’s Peterhouse
Northwood’s 1st soccer team played Peterhouse Boys from Zimbabwe on Saturday, 18 August 2012 at Michaelhouse. A great free kick from Cameron Du Plessis put Northwood on the scoreboard 1-0 at half time. Peterhouse soon came back with a great goal in the 2nd half to make it 1-1. Stephen McManus scored late in the 2nd half with a left footed volley to win this competitive game 2-1 for Northwood.
Northwood’s New Head of Rugby
Northwood School welcomed La Lucia resident Swys de Bruin to its coaching fraternity recently when he accepted the position as rugby Head Coach.
Swys will continue in his position as Head Coach at the Sharks Academy and The Sharks High Performance Programme while coaching the Northwood boys. He will be taking on the school’s “Rugby: 2013 and Beyond” programme aimed at getting the school into the top rugby ranks.
Swys started his rugby career as the 1st team coach at Durban North College, where he was also deputy principal, in the early 90’s. His talent was quickly spotted and he was taken on by the KwaZulu-Natal Rugby Union where he coached the U21 team to victory in his first year, 1997. He then went on to coach the Wildebeest (the former Sharks XV) to a semi-final in 1998.
He has since coached Griquas at Currie Cup level, the KZN U19 and U21 teams and the SA U21 team. Swys has also served as a national SA U19 and U21 selector.
Besides coaching the Northwood 1st team, Swy’s role will be to provide leadership in rugby coaching, working closely with coaches across all age groups.
He said schoolboy rugby was a real passion of his, particularly within his own community.
“We want to encourage parents in the area that they don’t have to travel for a good rugby school. It’s right here. Northwood has a proud rugby history and I believe the school has the potential to become a top rugby school and I am excited to play a part in achieving that goal,” he said.
Northwood’s U19 Softball Superstar
Recently Dale Moolman, in Grade 12 at Northwood, played in the ITP U19 Softball Tournament held at Queensmead Hockey Stadium and was selected for the U19 Softball Squad to play in the World Series in Argentina in November 2012.
KZN High Schools Cricket Trial Squads
Northwood celebrates the selection of eleven of their boys to the KZN High Schools Cricket Trial Squads. Johnny Riekert, Dale Van Der Merwe, Nazeer Jaffer and Sereshon Moodley will represent the school in the U17/ U19 squad and Yetiesh Ramsurrup, Junaid Syed, Gavin Williams, Shimal Harichurn, Chris Wallace, Tyler Smith and Julian Tromp in the U15 squad.
