November News

The best gift a teacher can receive for Christmas!

In 1999, two little girls, Abigail Adams and Bernadine Van Wyk, started school at Graceland together in the 3 – 4 year old class. They were at Graceland for 2 years together before separating and continuing their schooling at different primary and high schools. Thirteen years later they reconnected at Bergzicht Training where they are both currently completing a course in Early Childhood Development.   

Abigail Adams (19)

“I dropped out of school when I was in Grade 10 but I didn’t give up. It is a privilege for me to be able to do my practical at Graceland because I had the best preschool teacher (Elizabeth) ever! And now I can say I am preschool teacher too.”

 
 
 
Bernadine Van Wyk (19)
 

“I finished high school last year, 2012. I am currently studying Early Childhood Development and am loving it. I never thought I’d find myself at Graceland again but here I am. It’s a great honour to be able to do my practical with teacher Elizabeth. She has inspired me to be the person I am today. Graceland may have changed a lot but the love for each child still remains.”

Both of them can’t stop speaking of how being at Graceland created a love for learning and how it was and is the best preschool with the best teachers ever! They also say that Graceland was the only option for a preschool if you want to learn from the best.

As this year comes to a close we thank each and everyone who have given in time, in kind and in funds to Graceland. Meeting the 2 beautiful young ladies have not only been a gift to us as teachers at Graceland but also to you who have supported and believed in Graceland. This is what we hope for every child at Graceland. Their circumstances may not have changed but who they are and the decisions they make has.
 

Let us continue to work together in the hope that we will be able to celebrate more children like Abigail and Bernadine. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!

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.