The 2012 Prize Giving Ceremony which took place on 1 December, was a very happy and relaxed occasion. Our Guests of Honour were past Governing Body Chairperson, Mr Alpheus Mdlalose and his wife, Ntombenhle. The highlight of the musical items was the Male Voice Choir - composed of SGB members, teachers and Grade 7-12 boys. This was a first for DSS.

A number of outstanding achievers were awarded at the ceremony:

Expo for Young Scientists Scott Ko. Msizi Mkhize and Zamakhiwe Nyembe received Honours.
ATKV Junior & Senior Olympiad Estelle Pretorius and An-Mari Fouche achieved Gold and Honours.
National Natural, Life & Physical Sciences Olympiads Jacob Allen, Estelle Pretorius, Madeli Marloth & Msizi Mkhize achieved Gold & Honours.
SAIMECHE Technology Olympiad David Geldenhuys, David Graf & Heinrich Marloth achieved Gold and Honours
SAICE Bridge Building Competition Luke Allen, Ioan Pop and Janek Stegen achieved Gold.
SAICE-WRC Water Equilibrium Bianca Coetzee, Ntengoenhle Memela & Zamakhiwa Nyembe achieved Honours
Speech & Drama Nokhukhanya Magawaza achieved Honours
Visual Arts David Geldenhuys achieved Honours
Athletics Daniel Bosman, Ester Coetzee, Jaco Coetzee, Rita Joosten, Heinrich Marloth & Philip Meyer achieved Gold
Athletics Benjamin Hlongwane, Gabriel Maphanga, Lizwilenkosi Maziya, S'khanyi Ngubane, Gabriel van Eeden achieved Honours

Sportswoman of the Year S'khanyi Ngubane
Sportsman of the Year Gabriel Maphanga
Senior Dux Anna Basson
aQuelle Make a Difference Award Onkarabile Moeti
Good Fellowship Anja Joosten & Lidia Meyer

Our final quarterly Award Assembly took place on 29 November. The Matrics handled the entire program with Anja Joosten and S'kanyi Ngubane as the Program Directors. Evan Stegen and Onkarabile Moeti did the Bible reading in English and Tswane. A number of musical items were rendered by the learners. The High School choir presented choral items.

Term 4 Award Aseembly focuses primarily on the academic achievements of the year. Subject Merit awards and academic half colours were handed out during this assembly. Bronze or Half Colour achievements in Olympiads, Speech & Drama, Visual Arts and Brass Band were also awarded.

Congratulations to all the achievers. Learners who achieved Silver & Gold Awards, Full Colours and Honours received their awards at the Annual Prize Giving Ceremony.

Christmas Concert 2012 was a first for DSS. The entire school completed their examinations on Thursday 22 November and the Christmas Concert took place the very next day. So there were many reasons for the learners to be merry!

Learners from Grade 4 to 11 were required to present something Christmassy to the school. They had limited time in which to prepare and many items were simply impromptu. The individual class concerts ranged from skits and quizzes to the singing of many traditional Christmas carols. The staff also presented a delightful Christmas song which they practiced inbetween marking, moderating and reporting!

The cherry on the top was an ice-cream for each learner. What a way to end examinations!

"Not bad, not bad, green noses for everyone!" became the motto of teachers and learners, in fact almost the entire school was eventually thinking about noses, painting noses, fitting noses and putting on noses! Yes, it was all about noses this year in our Junior School Stage Production which took place on 27 October.

Based on Max Lucado's wonderful tale, "I wish I had a green nose" our production certainly brought home the message that God created you for a reason and He'll always help you to be you.

Wemmicksville is a town of wooden toys which have been carved by Eli, the Great Toymaker who lives on a hill high above the town. Willy Withit arrives in town with great pomp and ceremony and convinces the toys that they would improve their looks if they followed his latest 'withit' – green noses. So the entire town goes green which makes Punchinello and his two friends Woody and Splint look different-weird. Pressurised by the crowd, Punchinello, Woody and Splint get their noses painted green and they feel great to be 'withit', initially.

But fashions change. Green noses went out of fashion and red noses were in. All the townsfolk had their noses painted red to be in with the latest 'withit'. But that also did not last very long. Soon the red noses were out and the next colour came in. Punchinello and his friends soon discovered that to be 'in' and not 'out' was hard work. They were so busy keeping up with the latest 'withit' that they lost all contact with their Friend and Maker, Eli.

But one day Punchinello said, "That's it, I should have listened to Eli!" He and his friends found their way back to their Maker who said, "I'll always help you to be who I made you to be."

Jan Pienaar Fighter

The Santam child art competition is currently in its 49th year, Santam's Child Art programme continues to add colour to the lives of thousands of children by providing a platform for young artists.

They partner with schools and art centres throughout South Africa to invite entries for the Child Art competition. An independent panel, judges the entries and selects 13 artworks to appear in our Child Art calendar for the following year. The calendar is made available to the public at R25 each and the proceeds are used to fund educator development (arts & culture) and art classes for children from previously disadvantaged communities.

This year Santam received over 6500 entries, and we are pleased that the following artworks submitted by DSS have been selected to feature in the Santam Child Art Web Exhibition. Only 220 artworks were selected for this exhibition, that means DSS entered 5% of the selected artworks. These artists will receive a certificate and a medal for participating. The Santam Child Art on-line Exhibition will be uploaded on the Santam website (www.santam.co.za) during the first quarter of 2013.

Learner / Category:
Jan Pienaar: 6 years
Minette Marloth: 6 years
Luke Bosman: 7-8 years
Ria Combrink: 7-8 years
Bongumenzi Nxumalo: 13 years
Philip Meyer: 13 years
Iliya Matveyuk: 14 years
Joseph Grobler: 14 years
Estelle Pretorius: 15+ years
Msizi Mkhize: 15+ years
EunJeoung Lee: 15+ years