AFRIKAANS:
STAFF: AFRIKAANS FIRST ADDISIONELE LANGUAGE (FAL) and HOME LANGUAGE (HL):.jpg)
The St Andrew’s College and the DSG Afrikaans Department staff:
Back row: André Bouwer, Deon Boshoff, Leon Jacobs, Alistair Ferreira, Gerda Oosthuysen.
Front row: Robyn Bouwer, Christa Snyman, Maretha Potgieter.
· Ms. Maretha Potgieter is the current Head of Afrikaans Home Language and has been teaching since 2002, after lecturing at Rhodes University for a couple of years. She enjoys teaching all texts – both reading and writing – and drama productions. Since 2005 she has lead the editorial team of the school newspaper, the Chiasmus and she is also involved in the Fish River Journey. She recently started a family with the birth of her baby boy, Alexander.
· Ms. Christa Snyman is the Head of Afrikaans First Additional Language. Ms. Snyman studied Drama at US and has been involved in theatre for many years before changing her career to teaching in 2002. She has a passion about anything Afrikaans and puts a lot of effort into lifting the profile of Afrikaans as a subject in both schools. Together with Ms. Potgieter, she organises many of the events listed below. She is committed to keeping on top of the latest curriculum changes and is very proud of the academic standard maintained by the Afrikaans department in the last two years.
· Mr. Leon Jacobs is a former head of department and has been at St. Andrew’s College for most of his teaching career. He is married to Ms. Anna Jacobs, a maths teacher at SAC. He loves poetry in particular, but enjoys teaching all literature. Mr. Jacobs has been very involved in rugby, athletics and the Fish River Journey. He has recently been appointed Transport Manager for SAC/DSG, but still teaches Grade 8 and 9.
· Mr. André Bouwer, also a former head of department, was born in Johannesburg, but nowadays he is an Eastern Caper through and through. He is also a lover of poetry and is very interested in new Afrikaans music. He is married to Ms. Robyn Bouwer and they have three daughters. He is involved in many extra-mural activities, such as the SAC Shack at Klipbaai (near Oyster Bay), and played a huge role in establishing the SAC Weights Room. Mr. Bouwer loves the ocean and especially enjoys rock and surf fishing.
· Ms. Robyn Bouwer has been teaching Afrikaans for twelve years and is also a keen geographer. She adores reading; hence she enjoys teaching literature, but is especially skilled as a second language grammar teacher. Ms. Bouwer is the Grade 9 GET Learning Area coordinator for First Additional Language and has been very involved with curriculum development for this. She is Master in charge of swimming at SAC and enjoys any activity that involves the sea. She has a passion for travelling and her dream is to tour through Africa in a Land Rover.
· Mr. Deon Boshoff is a bilingual Afrikaans speaking, English bred Zimbabwean. He really enjoys teaching short stories and novels, but has a special interest in second language grammar. He was Housemaster of Armstrong House for six years and, as Master in charge of Outdoor Education, heads the team organising the Fish River Journey. He is a keen cyclist and enjoys nature. Apart from all this he is a frustrated artist, designer and traveller (when money allows)!
· Mr. Alistair Ferreira is the newest addition to the Afrikaans Department and joined in 2008. He has 19 years of teaching experience and is originally from Uitenhage. He enjoys teaching a language and specifically prose. He loves taking his learners on a journey of discovery through the written word without physically leaving the class room. Mr. Ferreira is very involved in the life of the school assisting in squash, angling and tutoring in Upper.
· Ms. Gerda Oosthuysen is the DSG member of the Afrikaans Department and joined the staff 5 years ago. She obtained her BA degree (Honours) from US and her teaching diploma from UCT. She loves books, gardening and spending time with her two children.
WHY AFRIKAANS?
One of greatest gifts of our country is that we can learn a second language at school. People fought for it! But how do we decide which one to do?
• Afrikaans is a national language: Afrikaans is a language that is widely spoken in SA. If you can help yourself in Afrikaans, you can be helped everywhere.
• Afrikaans is an International language: Because of its Germanic roots, you can make yourself understood, and understand many European languages, including Dutch / Flemish, German and reading the Scandinavian languages like Danish, Norwegian and Swedish.
• Afrikaans is an academic language
• It’s a technical language
• It is a financial language
• It is an expressive language
• BEST OF ALL: It is the EASIEST language in South Africa
Our Mission:
We are committed:
• To actively promote and enjoy the use of Afrikaans in our school, our province and our country.
• To develop language skills towards spontaneous and effective communication in a variety of areas – be it through speaking, listening, reading and / or writing.
• To enjoy our cultural diversity and develop knowledge and sensitivity towards other cultures and languages.
• To promote critical thinking.
Our Motto:
You teach a culture when you teach a language
ANNUAL EVENTS:
The Afrikaans Evening is an evening sponsored by the Grahamstown Rapportryers hosted by Hoërskool P.J. Olivier and involves six of the Grahamstown schools. It is an evening of variety with dancing, acting, singing and generally just having fun in Afrikaans. This event is co-ordinated by Ms. Christa Snyman.
Onder andere woorde: An evening of poetry. A collection of the prescribed poems for Grade 10 – 12 are performed and interpreted either by dance, song or recitation. The evening has lovely Afrikaans traditional treats like koeksusters and melktert.
Bekgeveg is our annual public speaking competition. Contemporary and topical subjects are given to the learners and they prepare 2-3 minute speeches. There are different categories which include Best Junior, Best Senior FAL and Best Senior HL speaker.
Afrikaans Sokkies are becoming increasingly popular with the learners. There is normally a theme attached to the evening and the learners love dressing up and they have all practised their “langarm-moves” to perfection. Only Afrikaans music is played at these events and the learners dance the night away to Kurt Darren, Nicholas Louw, Die Melktert Kommissie and many more.
KKNK tour: This year a record number of 40 Grade 11 learners attended the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival in Oudtshoorn. It was a very successful outing with shows, music and a general immersion in the Afrikaans culture.
ACADEMIC PROGRAMMES:
Reading programme: This programme was introduced this year and it asks of each learner from Grade 8-11 to read one Afrikaans article per week whether it is from a newspaper, internet, or magazine. They have to keep a reading file where each article is filed with a list of new vocabulary they have learned from it. They also do an oral every Friday (or at the discretion of the teacher) on the article they read for that week. We encourage our parents to support this initiative during the holidays as well.
Teacher-training programmes: Our HOD’s attend the annual IEB subject conferences in February to stay informed about the new developments in the curriculum.
We also organise, in conjunction with Kingswood College, a Gader 12 poetry workshop presented by Tim Huisamen from Rhodes University. This aims to equip the teachers to teach the prescribed Grade 12 poetry in the best possible way.
We also attend and organise Cluster meetings with the schools in the area to assist and learn from each other.
Alistair Ferreira and Gerda Oosthuysen with the author, Anzil Kuhlsen,
who wrote the Gr 12 prescribed book, Zita.
She addressed the Afrikaans teachers at the IEB conference in February.
Grade 9 Afrikaans at Shamwari outing: Afrikaans Outdoors
ROKKIES EN FROKKIES SOKKIE 26 September:
Dit was weer sulke tyd by DSG en St Andrew's College. Balke toe! en Stoppie lorrie! Verlede Saterdagaand is daar behoorlik geskoffel op die maat van lekker Afrikaanse Sokkie-musiek. Die tema was Rokkies en Frokkies en almal het heerlik uitgehang in hul bontste frokkies en oulikste rokkies terwyl daar ook hier en daar 'n khaki-broek en lang sokkies te bespeur was. Die Afrikaanse Departement wat hierdie geleentheid organiseer, is baie tevrede met die gees wat daar geheers het. Oral was kinders besig om mekaar te leer en as hulle eers die "moves" het, was daar geen keer aan die swaaiery en draaiery nie. Buite die saal was daar konka-vure kompleet met malvalekkers vir die wat 'n blaaskans nodig gehad het. Die aand was 'n reuse sukses en volgende jaar maak ons weer so. Loslappie!
