In the Staff Room

The year 2022 has been an incredibly busy and eventful year in the WBJS staffroom.

Without question, there has been something in the water at WBJS as we celebrated four engagements and a wedding along with welcoming seven babies into our Wynberg family.

Congratulations to Mr Magerman, Mr Rousseau, Miss Strybis, Miss Saunders and Miss Cronje on their engagements this year. May the plans leading up to your big day go well and we look forward to seeing pictures of the special day in magazines to come.

Our best wishes go to Mr Van Der Walt, Mrs Abrahams neé Maree and Mrs Grant neé Fautley, who all got married this year, may you enjoy a lifetime of happiness.

Finally, congratulations to Mrs Sims, Mrs Knutsen and Mr Jappie on the birth of their sons and Mrs Pastor, Mrs Abrahams, Mrs Korck and Mr Ohlson on welcoming their daughters. We hope you and your family enjoy the special, exciting journey that lies ahead.

Celebrating a birthday is always a joyous occasion and we have been fortunate enough to celebrate three momentous birthdays this year. Mrs Isaacs celebrated her 40th, Mrs Sauls celebrated her 50th birthday and Mr Gerber, who has been at WBJS for 28 years, celebrated his 60th birthday. Your Wynberg family hope you enjoy many more happy and healthy years ahead.

Mr Poleman achieved a very special award during Term 3 as he was honoured by the Western Cape Education Department for 10 years of service in education. We thank you for your dedication and notable sacrifices over the years to help the Wynberg boys be the best they can be.

Our staff are not only an inspiration to our boys within the classroom but many times they are role models outside the classroom. In April, Mrs James had the honour of being selected for a Western Province Masters Hockey team that participated in the SA Masters Hockey Inter-Provincial Tournament in Cape Town.

Congratulations to Mrs De La Cruz for completing the Cape Town Marathon in 04h40m. She belongs to 0.001% of the population who are able to achieve this.

Congratulations to Mr Oosterwyk for completing his advanced certification in teaching.

Mrs Alfino published the second and third books in her “Game Ranger Grace & the Big 5 Feelings” series – a collection of childrens’ books that expand the feelings vocabulary and develops Emotional Intelligence.

Mrs Said was selected as Chairperson of the Marketing Association of Public Schools and participated as a panellist in the Rustenburg Girls’ Junior School Communication Conference 2022. The aim of the conference was to showcase the evolution of the dynamic school cultural environment through various Communication platforms, the conference was broadcasted on Cape Town TV.

Although the staffroom is normally a very happy place, we do at times have to say goodbye to colleagues, who become family. We are extremely grateful for the time, effort and expertise you put into continually growing our school. Sadly we needed to bid farewell to Mr Smith, fondly known as Freddie, who retired in March. Mr Wienand, who plans to move to Canada with his wife and Mrs Knutsen who leaves for Germany with her family early in 2023, will be greatly missed by their Wynberg family. We wish Mrs Roos and Miss Saunders the very best as they continue furthering their studies in education. We wish all those who have left us, everything of the best for their next exciting chapter and we know they will be successful and valued wherever they go.

With every maternity or departure, we see the arrival of some new faces, we welcomed Mrs Walker, Mrs Grant, Miss Scott and Miss Parker-Nance.

We also welcomed new learnerships Miss John, Miss Louis, Miss Hawthorne and Mr Kensley.

With the busyness involved in returning to daily life at a boys´ school, we would like to thank all of our staff who have shown true commitment and admirable resilience in and outside the classroom to ensure all our learners learn and grow through innovative, enriching experiences.