11 Sep 2016

Lady Khama Charitable Trust chairperson Mr Dale Ter Haar has urged Palapye Secondary School (PSS) students to do charity work in addition to their academic work.
Speaking during the school’s prize giving day ceremony on Friday (September 9), Mr Ter Haar said students should do both charity and academic work to make the world a better place.
He said his life used to revolve around his work but he realised that he lacked fun but found solace in his charity work.
He said being the chairperson of the Lady Khama Charitable Trust has not only touched the lives of other people but has brought a lot of  fun in his life.
He therefore urged students to draw inspiration from charity work in order to make a difference in people’s lives, adding that hobbies provided a balance in one’s life.
“You must work hard and still make time for fun,” he said. To those who did not do well, he said, “it is okay to fail as it makes one stronger and better.”
He said schooling was a journey with a beginning and an end adding that during the process of learning it was possible to fall and the most important thing should be getting up stronger and wiser.
Mr Ter Haar also encouraged students to set themselves goals, emphasising on discipline. He also urged parents to lead by example, saying if parents behaved in a certain way the children would copy the behavior.
For his part the school head Mr Thatayaone Kefilwe said the school had set itself 84 per cent target in the coming JC examinations.
He said the school had not been doing well in the past three years. He said the school had come up with a strategy to attaining the set target citing the introduction of morning study, motivational talks and introduction of Saturday study among others.
He said some students in form three have pledged to attain straight As in their JCE.
“We are on the right track to attaining good results,” he said.
For his part, Parents Teachers Association (PTA) chairperson Mr Peter Modise urged parents to play an active role in their children’s education.
He said during his tenure as the school’s PTA chairperson, he wanted to see parents contributing positively to the attainment of the 84 per cent set target.
He said teachers alone cannot afford to raise the bar whilst parents as stakeholders are lagging behind.
He said parents who did not collect their children’s reports for term one and term two would appear before PTA to explain why they did not do so.
He said he could not afford to account for results of students whose parents were not actively involved in the education of their children.
He also pledged prizes for the most improved students in the next prize giving day.
Three best students were Bogadi Keineetse in form one, Primrose Mataruka in form two and Tshephang Molatedi in form three.
Tshephang Molatedi who is also the school’s Student Representative Council president also received the headmaster’s special award. ENDS