Choir

Early in January 2011 Mr. Tungay auditioned 50 children in Grades 3 and 4 for the Thembelihle choir. Only 22 were able to sing in tune at that stage. These 22 boys and girls aged between 8 and 12 years of age were then formed into a choral group. The remaining children were told that they could re-audition for the choir at any time they wished and three have since joined the choir and are progressing well.

The choir is being taught to read musical staff notation, breath control and vocal development with highly accurate pitching of notes. Their ability to read and pronounce difficult words in English has developed swiftly with the policy of teaching pupils the meaning of every word as they go along. As a result their ability to read and sing in perfect English is developing each boy and girl into more confident, well-spoken children.

The choir uniform is a blue T-shirt with a distinctive logo of staff notation bowed in the form of a rainbow with a musical note on the G Clef denoting the youngsters are trebles.

The school has been lucky enough to have been donated a 42-inch TV unit, a DVD player and sound and amplification equipment by Rotary Club of Mooi River. This is used by Mr. Tungay, Dr. Hansen and Julie Wilkinson to develop wider appreciation of different styles of singing. The video equipment has allowed the choir to:

Listen to other talented children’s choirs including a Zulu orphans’ choir and the Howick Prep School choirs.
Watch features on the Life of Jesus which illustrate the religious background to some of the hymns they have learned.
Tell the difference between melody and close harmony.

The children have memorised the following choral repertoire and can now sing most of this without having to refer to the words or musical scores:

National Anthem – Nkosi Sikelele Afrika | Enoch Sontonga
I vow to thee my country | Gustav Holst
Battle Hymn of the Republic | William Steffe
Suffer little children to come unto me | Philip Green
Jesus bids us shine | E.O. Excell
Jerusalem | Sir Hubert Parry
The Lord’s Prayer | Joseph Lees
Be thou my vision | Trad. Irish Melody
O perfect love | Nun Danket
Now thank we all our God | Joseph Barnby
Thank heaven for little girls | Frederick Loewe
Glow and Grow | McCartney
Danny Boy | Fred Weatherly
I love to go a-wandering | German Melody
Old McDonald’s farm | Arr. J. Tungay
Hallelujah Chorus | G.F.Handel

Solos

Bless this House | May H. Brahe
O for the wings of a Dove | Mendelssohn

A Rotary cheque for R400.00 has been submitted to the branch chairman of the Royal School of Church Music in KwaZulu-Natal, making Thembelihle eligible for all the services available to support the training and administration of a top quality choir.

“Our task is to lead children out of mediocrity with a fresh vision of what they can achieve in life – with enthusiasm and self-confidence.”

Eco-school program

Thembelihle is proud to have joined the Eco-schools program. Eco-schools operates in over 51 countries worldwide and is an international program of the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE). The program is managed locally by the Wildlife and Environmental Society of South Africa (WESSA).

Eco-schools is all about improving environmental management at schools, as well as promoting learning about the environment. This means that groups consisting of teachers, learners and community members get together and undertake a project to improve some aspect of environmental management at their school. This could range from saving electricity to starting a vegetable garden – the possibilities are endless! At the same time teachers draw on these practical projects to strengthen environmental learning at the school.

Thembelihle is very privileged to be situated in Howick – just down the road from the WESSA offices and we are looking forward to working with them on developing our first project.

For more information on WESSA and the Eco-school project look at their website: http://www.wessa.org.za/index.php/Programs/Eco-Schools.html

Social outreach

Our primary aim at Thembelihle to is make a positive difference in the lives of underprivileged children in the Howick community. We do this by trying to find as many people as we can to sponsor the school fees of our children. We also work with the department of social welfare and are able to provide a nutritious lunch for all of our pre-primary school children. Unfortunately at the moment we do not have the funds to provide a meal to a primary school children – but we hope this is something we will be able to offer in the future!

We believe we have touched the lives of many children and their families. Here are a few stories about some of our children and their experiences at Thembelihle.

Mpilo lives at Mpophomeni township with his uncles and aunt. Mpilo is six years old but he is part of our 4 – 5 year old group as he has cerebral palsy and cannot walk. His mum died of tuberculosis and we do not know the whereabouts of his father. Due to his disability it was extremely difficult for his family to find a school in the area which would accept him. However his uncle and the social worker approached Thembelihle and we are delighted to have him as one of our pupils. When he started at school his teacher battled to deal with him as he was not used to being with other children and he was still in nappies. With lots of love and care all this has changed. He now crawls around happily on his own and plays with all the other children. They no longer think of him as any different to themselves. When he is in his wheelchair the other children only wonder why he gets to ride around in a special cart and they never get a turn! Mpilo can now hold crayons and scissors but he still battles to cut along the picture lines. He enjoys himself immensely at school and joins in all the activities. Lately he has even started to spontaneously answer questions in class. His teacher loves having him in her class and believes that Thembelihle has helped him a great deal – emotionally, physically and intellectually. We are working with the department of social welfare and an occupational therapist – hopefully one day soon Mpilo will have a knee board, knee pads and sturdy boots and a frame to help him pull himself up to play in the sensopathic trays – perhaps he will even one day have the operation he needs to allow him to stand and walk with crutches… But until then he will just keep smiling and coping and loving every minute of being part of a busy, exciting school day, surrounded by friends and caring teachers and a taxi driver who swoops him up and takes him safely back home.

Sindiswa is a very special girl. When she started at Thembelihle she was being raised by her grandmother in a local squatter camp. No matter how difficult her circumstances were at home, she always had a smile that lit up the classroom and she had a wonderful happy spirit. One morning she walked in Helen Barge’s class with her head held high and a shy smile on her face. Helen knew that there was something that she should notice and so studied her hair (no new cut or style..) her clothes and shoes (nothing different..) Then Sindiswa turned her head and Helen saw she had two white plastic clips (the ones that are used to keep bread packets closed) clipped on as earrings. Wearing them clearly made her feel like a princess. She was so happy when Helen complimented her on how beautiful she looked – a reminder of how little it takes to make a child happy! Sindiswa was able to attend our pre-primary school because an elderly lady from our Church was paying her school fees for her. Sindiswa even called her “granny” and they built up a wonderful relationship over the years. Mrs Proffit often popped into school to see her and gave her loads of the love and attention she needed. Sindiswa is now at “big” school and when Helen saw her recently she was delighted to find that she has grown into a confident young person who still tries her very best – she remembers her “granny’ with great affection.

We have many wonderful staff and teachers at Thembelihle – one of our favorites being Liz, a volunteer from Howick who is a retired nursing sister. Some say she is hearty enough to frighten Tyrannosaurus Rex into cowering submission, but the children love her and flock around her like oxpeckers. Liz noticed that a young Grade 2 boy turned his head away each time his teacher was speaking and she realized that he was hard of hearing, turning to catch some sound with his better ear. She induced our local audiologist to give him a free hearing test which showed that he was almost completely deaf but with enough hearing in one ear to benefit from a hearing aid. No sooner said than done…..our little boy came back to school with his new hearing aid. Later that confusing day the class went to a singing lesson and his teacher caught a look of pure delight and amazement on his face as the heard the sound of music for the first time in his life!

Liz also zoomed in on a little Grade 1 fellow who is almost blind. Our headmistress Anne had thought him mischievous as he turned his head to look at her out of the corner of his eye, or he looked from beneath a lowered brow when she spoke to him. Liz discerned that he was almost blind and whisked him off, in quick succession, to an optician and then to the ophthalmology clinic at Greys Hospital. His congenital cataracts were diagnosed, together with a congenital urinary tract disorder. He has had an operation to fix his urinary tract disorder, but the eye operation involved a two-day stay in hospital. His mother promised she would get to the gates of the hospital in order to get him admitted but it all proved too much for her as the distances she needed to travel were too great and she had other children to look after. In her usual no nonsense manner Liz set another date for the operation and as I am writing this Thobani is waiting in the ward at Grey’s hospital for an operation which may change his life forever – he is in our thoughts and prayers!

Art

Many of our children are extremely creative and we try to encourage them to develop their artistic talents. All of our teachers incorporate Art into their teaching programs. We are also very lucky to have Ted Smith, a well-known local artist, as well as other local art teachers, who spend time at the school encouraging the children to improve their artistic skills.