PARENTS’ Association

Our annual PA Picnic was one of our first post-Covid events, and unsurprisingly, the turnout was incredible! The event augured well for a PA who hadn’t been able to host their usual events for over a year. They got on board for the family fun day when we officially opened the Multi-Purpose Sports Hall, providing boerewors rolls and chilled refreshments on a blisteringly hot February Saturday, and hosted an amazing and successful Golf Day at King David Mowbray. Funds raised were put towards the score boards and clocks in the Sports Hall and towards our new Grand Piano due for an early 2023 delivery.

Round Square is a network of 180 schools in 50 countries that shares a passion for experiential education built around six IDEALS of learning. St Cyprian’s School was the first African school to join this global network. Round Square students are encouraged to discover and develop their own unique capabilities through a range of experiences, activities, collaborative practices, projects and challenges, including social service projects, exchanges and conference participation.

At its heart, the Round Square approach is valuesbased and is designed to develop attitudes and insights that shape personality and strength of character. Membership of the Round Square network offers a framework of excellence and continuous improvement, along with structured opportunities to collaborate and share experiences with like-minded peers cross the world. This approach recognises that effective learning is practical, multi-cultural and collaborative, and infused through a range of extra and co-curricular activities. The goal is to shape the way the next generation of leaders understand, prepare for and respond to the world.

At our school, girls are encouraged to make a strong commitment beyond academic excellence to personal development and social responsibility. The Round Square ethos and culture informs the way that education happens at the school, from teaching and learning to annual integrated programmes at each grade level, where one or more of the IDEALS is interrogated and assimilated. After two years of no travel to conference, Round Square Conference 2022 courted high expectations and excitement.

This year’s conference was appropriately themed ‘Take Less: Be More’. After two years of pandemic, continuing global environmental concerns and expanding social justice issues, Oxford was the venue to discuss and become conscientized around these issues and our role in mitigating them.

We were privileged enough to stay in one of the oldest colleges of the University of Oxford, founded in 1263. To give a more visual perspective of this beautiful, authentic building, the dining hall in Harry Potter was inspired by the exact dining hall that we had our meals in. The first morning we gathered in New Theatre, which is ironically a really old theatre, along with over 1500 students from different places in the world. We listened to the incredible keynote speakers who spoke about fascinating topics that relate to our Round Square Ideals but seen in a real-world context.

One such speaker was Ben Fogle, who rowed across the Atlantic in 49 days without any rowing experience. Other speakers enlightened us more about topics like climate change and plastic pollution. After each session we broke into baraza groups where we discussed our thoughts, ideas and possible solutions to these world problems which was truly fascinating. This was followed by a formal cultural evening where we got to watch many talented performers. To end the day in lovely Oxford, we gathered in tents on the campus and made friends with people from Chile, Canada, Armenia, India and so many more places.

The next day we experienced a traditional treasure hunt around Oxford. We wondered what it must have looked like to the locals, seeing 1500 very competitive students running around their town in search of clues. The Irish dancing was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. We danced like our lives depended on it, not caring what we looked like or how sweaty we were.

Although we were sad to leave the history-filled Oxford, we were excited for our next adventure in Wales where we camped in tents with new international friends! The first morning we were walking along the breathtaking coastline by 6am to climb and jump off dramatic cliffs – the highest one being 7 metres! Ian, the head of Floogelbinder - the company that hosted us – gave us a lesson on seaweed, its diverse health benefits and how it can be an alternative to plastic. Another fascinating session that was unbelievable and still might be for some people, was the Bug Farm. Trying to comprehend the fact that crickets will be the future source of protein

– because it is much more sustainable than cows – was hard to grasp until we had bug burgers, bug spaghetti bolognese and cricket protein-powder cookies set in front of us.

This conference gave us the opportunity to create networks that reach across the globe. We learnt fascinating things that we were able to bring back to our school. We are motivated to continue to grow in our Round Square Ideals and practise the skills that we’ve acquired. We created the most amazing memories from this once-in-a-lifetime experience that we will treasure forever.

Thank you so much to Ms Glover and Ms Frayne who made this opportunity possible for all of us. This trip will stay close to our hearts for the rest of our lives.