December News

 Our Market day was a great success. It was supported by the whole farming community For example, family, friends, farm owners, community workers, local businesses and people living in the community. We raised R3000 while spending only R100. We are so grateful for the support from the Farm owners and local businesses.  Your generosity is making a difference.

The support from the community continued at our Graduation and Concert. We had about 180 people present. This was an exciting time for Graceland but also a sad time as we are now saying goodbye to our 4-5 year old class. They are leaving Graceland to go to Grade R.  We wish them all the best and pray that God would guide and protect them on their new journey. We would like to thank Devon Valley Hotel for providing us with eats for the evening, Devon Valley Primary for providing us with sound, chair and tables and also Mr. & Mrs. Ruest for putting up the curtain railing.  We really appreciate you.

At our last session for the year of the 14 – week course that we are currently busy with, presented by Bonita Daniels from Bronne Sentrum; Graceland was declared the pre-school that implemented the programme the best amongst its peers. We are excited to be a part of the learning programme and can already see the positive difference it has made in the children’s learning. Well done Graceland teacher’s for your hard work.

It’s Christmas time again and our children have been blessed to a part of the Operation Shoebox project. It’s been amazing how people want to give to Graceland, to the point where Graceland is blessing another school that doesn’t have any gifts. A BIG, thank you, to Tracy English for working with Tokai His people to make sure that our children have gifts for Christmas.

2012 has been a year of transition for Graceland.   A teacher, Angeline De Jager, left because she feels that her season of working with children is over. The principal of Graceland Elizabeth Solomons stepped down from her position as principal after 7 years of being principal, she feels happier as a teacher and Graceland is happy to announce that she is still with us as Head - Teacher. We have a new principal at Graceland, Simoné Van Der Berg.  After being at Graceland for 6 months, she has settled in nicely and is very happy to be a part of the Graceland team.

After our Graduation and concert the Head of the Farmers Association Administration team can’t stop talking about the work Graceland is doing in the community.  This is opening doors for Graceland and creating new opportunities for relationships and partnerships.  It has been amazing to see how Graceland fits into the Greater community of Devon Valley.  We are very excited about 2013 and can’t wait for the new challenges, adventures and friendships it will bring.

As we say goodbye to 2012 we thank every person who supported Graceland, whether, in funds, kind or time.  Every little gesture of kindness towards Graceland is appreciated.  Thank you for a great year!  Till next year, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

October News

This month we want to make sure we say a couple of public ‘thank you’s! Firstly to Distell for the basic computer training that they offered two of our teachers at Graceland during the September school holidays.  This empowers the teachers and increases the quality of the children’s pre-school foundations.

Secondly, at our High Tea in March, Rosmarie Ruest heard about Graceland Pre-school for the first time.  Since the event she and her husband have donated doormats, three washbasins with plumbing, new toilet seats, shelves in each classroom, hooks for the children’s bags, hand towels, three first-aid kits and puzzles.  They have not only donated things but they have also given of their time.  Mr. Ruest worked with our Caretaker to put up the hooks, shelves, fix the toilet seats and do the plumbing for washbasins. So thank you Mr. and Mrs. Ruest from Kyburg Farm! We appreciate the effort you have put in to make Graceland a safe and beautiful school to be at for our children. May God bless you.

We are proud to announce that Graceland Pre-school is registered with Association of Christian schools International, ACSI.  Two of our teachers went along to ACSI annual conference.  They had the opportunity to attend workshops on how to create an environment where the children learn good values and morals, which is very important to us here at Graceland.

On 12th October 2012 Graceland’s learners went on an outing to Bosch Ten Huis in Stellenbosch. This was the second year that Graceland was invited to a Christmas Party hosted by students. The children enjoyed themselves very much.  They participated in different variety games of which the Jumping castle was one of their favorites. They received a boerewors-roll which they enjoyed thoroughly. Finally, the children received an early Christmas package and they were excited to see Santa Clause in his red suit. We would like to say thank you to all the students who were involved and to Anri Mouton and Sanmari Marits who organized the whole programme. Sanmari volunteered at Graceland in 2011 and is still involved at with us even though she has a busy life as a student. Thank you very much for everything that all of you have done for us. We appreciate it very much.
We have our Market Day coming up on the 31st of October. Please do come and support us if you can.

We thank God for every person who has taken up time, effort and funds to bless our children at Graceland.

August News

This month the teachers at Graceland celebrated Women's day with some of the mothers of Graceland at Middelvlei farm in Stellenbosch. A special speaker from Paarl, Hawaqua Youth Prison addressed the women of Devon Valley on women and drug abuse and how to handle it and find help.  The teachers were able to engage with parents and learn something new.

Two staff members are currently taking part in an exciting Leadership and Management programme with Bronne Sentrum. It's only for the month of August but the knowledge gained will definitely add to the success of our school. Thanks to Bronne Sentrum we are able to uplift the staff and create an excellence within our management.

We also had a special visitor from the Stellenbosch Police Department who assisted us with teaching the children about PEOPLE WHO HELP US. It was amazing to see the children's response to the police as they are taught to fear the police by parents and family members. We had the opportunity to teach the children that the police are our friends on whom we can call in time of need. A big thanks to Stellenbosch Police for their excellent service.

July News

This month a little boy, Ethan, from Jamestown invited Graceland to celebrate his first birthday with him. The children delighted him with songs and joined him in celebrating his birthday and he surprised them all with gifts.  The children loved it and it was such a blessing for them on his birthday.

Twenty children of Graceland were also invited to Azalea-Hof old age home to celebrate Nelson Mandela’s birthday on the 18th July.  They shared a meal of soup and rolls with the elderly and surprised them with song to finish off the day.  It was amazing to see the reaction of what a child’s singing could do to the elderly of Azalea-Hof old age home.   While they were at Azalea-Hof old age home the rest of the school was blessed with hotdogs by Distell.

It has been a good start to a new term and new challenges as Graceland has recently started a new curriculum.  We have a new teacher on board who is also standing in as acting principal, to assist Elizabeth during this time, as she is taking a break from her principal duties. Simone Van Der Berg has been a great addition to our Graceland family.

We thank God for his continuous hand of blessing on Graceland.  We would also like to thank everyone for keeping Graceland in their prayers as well as contributing to the success of our Pre-School.  May God bless each one of you.

June News

The teachers were recently trained extensively in PACE which incorporates Brain Gym and the Nelds approach and is a widely used curriculum. We are going to have a visit from the lecturer who is coming to see how we are applying what we have learned in the classroom. Let’s hope we can impress!

Also this month we want to say a huge thank you to Distell who sponsored rain boots for all of Graceland's learners for the winter as well as providing us with some yummy warm winter soup.  The children are very excited about the boots and have been wearing them proudly!

Finally, we recently heard that one of our previous learners Kay Jansen is going to take part in a spelling competition.  She is reading so well and she is only in grade 2. We are really proud because she started her pre-school here with us. Good luck Kay!

May News

A team from the USA, lead by Krissy from Thembalitsha, visited the school for three days (23-25 April). Lindsay, Brian and Heather were a tremendous support to the Graceland staff. Their programme consisted of spending the morning with the children singing songs, doing fun crafts and playing games. Something very special was when Brian (USA) shared his message with the children in English and Renette (Every Nation's team leader at Graceland) translated his message into Afrikaans so that the children would understand. Afternoons were spent assisting Leon in varnishing the veranda’s wooden beams. Although their time with us was short, their impact was significant. Their love for Jesus and care for the children and staff of Graceland displayed how much Jesus cares for his children, all across the nations.

 The team of students from Every Nation Church in Stellenbosch, who visit Graceland on a weekly basis, have spent the past few Wednesdays reinforcing the theme of colours with the children. They taught the children that the rainbow is in the sky to show that God's promises are true... in other words, that Jesus loves us all. Using different colours of fruit they also taught the children about the 9 fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). The children listened well and could name the different colours, as they had been taught by their teachers.

One of our lovely teachers, Angeline, is leaving and her farewell at the Devon Valley Hotel was a time to celebrate the good times that had passed at Graceland and remind each other of God's good plans for us as individuals, but for the community of Devon Valley as a whole. We thank Angeline for her commitment to Graceland over the past four years and wish her all the best for the opportunities which await her.

 Elizabeth and Jeanine visited a pre-school in Franschoek to get some tips and extend Graceland's network with other pre-schools. Anne Pederson is a dynamic teacher and principle, thus we were both able to learn from Anne's experience and tips. Allowing room for change always leads to growth. Graceland has grown tremendously over the past decade under Elizabeth and Thembalitsha's leadership and will continue to grow from strength to strength so that the children of Devon Valley may reap the benefits.

Thank you to everyone who was a part of Graceland's successes during the month of May. We have updated our ‘Needs List’ if you are interested in making a valuable contribution to the running of the school and the education of the precious Graceland children. Contact info@thembalitsha.oeg.za to get hold of a copy.

April News

Beshrin in his Graceland days

The fruits of our labour are truly starting to show! Last year some of the first little ones we taught graduated matric! Amongst them was Beshrin Van Niekerk. Beshrin is the eldest of four children and grew up in Devon Valley. He has fond memories of us and can remember singing ‘Father Abraham had many sons’! He told us that as he was studying it was often a battle with so many siblings and he often had to wait to do homework until late at night when everyone was asleep. But his hard work and dedication has paid off and he is now studying at Cape Town University after receiving a bursary to study IT. We are confident that a bright future is ahead of him and are thankful that we are able to offer a fantastic head start in education to children like Bershrin, whom otherwise may not have been able to attend preschool. If all the children we care for grasp hold of the opportunities in front of them, like Beshrin has done, then there is so much potential for their generation to shake the bonds of poverty and we will be reassured that we are on the right path of ‘restoring hope by developing people to a point of self-reliance’ as our mission statement declares! Exciting times!

Beshrin, a successful student!

March News

The Graceland girls doing their thing

This month we were very excited to host our Fancy Hat Tea with the Queen (of Graceland). Over 100 ladies attended this wonderful event on the terrace of the Devon Valley Hotel, Stellenbosch. The sun smiled down on us and everyone who attended wore a beautiful, and sometimes unique, hat. Ambient music was provided by the girls from Wholehearted and we listened to addresses from Laura Collura, the Director of Education for Thembalitsha, Amanda Nortje, the funding manager and Elizabeth Solomons, the ‘Queen’ of Graceland. Mrs Berger, who owns Seaton Farm, the land that Graceland sits on, gave a moving speech about the history of Graceland and how she became involved with the project. We were fortunate enough to enjoy some tantalizing treats provided by the Devon Valley Hotel: yummy cakes and scones and delicate sandwiches. The hotel also presented us with a cheque for R11895 which are the profits from their Giving Room initiative! It is safe to say that the event was a huge success. Thank you so much to all those involved who made the day so special and particularly to the Devon Valley Hotel for providing the tasty tea party and the stunning venue for free. It’s people like you who make the difference.

To see more photos from the day visit our Facebook Page.

The preschoolers impressing

The winner of the most unusal hat.

February News

Well, we are surviving the summer heat thanks to our new covered outdoor area (and Rick and Eve Beeton). It really does make a difference to have somewhere to be outside in the shade. We have also got two volunteers who are doing community service from Gimnasium Gior. They are helping to paint the building so we are going to look very clean and fresh by the time they are done.

This month we have also been blessed by a lovely lady called Yvonne who has started volunteering with us every Monday to help us with focused sessions for the children’s gross motor skills. She is doing a fab job, thanks Yvonne!  We have also been invited on a course to learn more about teaching gross motor skills by the Clamber Club in Somerset West. It’s always great to have the opportunity to learn more. I look forward to telling you all about it in next month’s news.

Finally, please support our Fancy Hat Tea which is happening in a couple of weeks. See the invite below for further details.

January News

We are back open and running full steam after the summer holidays. We now have 51 children and we have our first ever set of twins so we are keeping very busy as you can imagine! Unfortunately we have a lot of ill children at the moment. There seems to be a few different viruses flying around and I don’t think the hot weather helps so please pray for their swift recovery.

The new shaded area in progress

We have to say a very big thank you to Rick and Eve Beeton who have donated the money for us to build a roof over the play area. It’s going provide some very welcome shade as the hot weather continues. Also thank you to those of you who donated toys and books over Christmas. It’s always great to have some fresh stimulation for the children and a change of things to play with. It helps keeps their minds and imaginations active.