The importance of developing girls’ talents in a wide variety of activities has been well documented. St Mary’s supports the hidden curriculum by offering many co-curricular activities. Most of these incur additional costs for parents.

Junior Primary co-curricular activities programme

School-based activities (no cost involved)

Sport

Term I

Term II

Term III

Swimming/netball, hockey

Netball

Athletics/swimming

Tennis

Hockey

Tennis

Diving

Tennis

Diving

Rhythmic gymnastics

Rhythmic gymnastics

Rhythmic gymnastics

Squash

Squash

Squash

Soccer

Culturals

A variety of cultural activities are offered, including, chess, coding club and creative club. The activities may vary from term to term.

Senior Primary co-curricular activities programme

School-based activities (no cost involved)

Sport

Term I

Term II

Term III

Swimming/hockey, netball

Hockey

Athletics/swimming

Tennis

Netball

Tennis

Squash

Diving (dry land training)

Squash

Diving

Rhythmic gymnastics

Diving

Water polo (Grade 5)

Squash

Water polo (Grade 5)

Rhythmic gymnastics

Tennis

Rhythmic gymnastics

Rowing (Grade 7)

Soccer

Culturals

The teachers offer the girls a number of activities in which to participate. Some of these vary from term to term. Activities include environmental club, chess, embroidery club, literature club, creative club, SOCS (Sisters of Christ Society) Afrikaans fun reading, IT coding and study skills.

At St Mary’s we take the environment seriously. The Green Thinkers, the Junior School environmental club, was founded in 2009, with meetings once a week and the aim to encourage the girls, the school and parent body to take care of the environment. Important environmental days are highlighted, and the reuse and recycling of waste encouraged at school and at home.

The focus of the chess club is to promote chess awareness, develop the girls’ thinking skills and encourage them to play chess for enjoyment. The girls participate in inter-school league matches regularly. The Junior club participates in one friendly inter-school match per term. St Mary’s hosts monthly chess matches against Vuleka School. The Chess Academy provides interactive chess sessions.

Music

St Mary’s encourages the girls to develop their musical skills. Grades 2 and 3 girls are all part of the Singing Angels and they rehearse during school hours. The Grade 3 girls have 30-minute compulsory music time slots where they are exposed to instruments in group lessons, free of charge.

Senior Primary girls have the opportunity to join the Senior Primary choir, marimba groups, the Junior orchestra and the chapel band. In Grade 4 the Senior Primary choir is compulsory.

Tuition is offered in piano, classical guitar, violin, cello, flute, clarinet, saxophone, recorder, trumpet and voice. If other instruments are requested, teachers can be sourced. The department subscribes to the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, and enters girls in the May and October examination sessions. Programmes are structured to suit the individual and entry into examinations and eisteddfods is carefully considered, taking into account personality and ability.