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www.thevillagenews.co.za
27 January 2021
Cat calls in a time of Covid
Congratulations to top performers
Writer Elaine Davie
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T
he summer holiday season is always a busy time for Hermanus Animal Welfare (HAWS) and there was some concern about how Covid would affect the situation this year, especially since a lot of the usual summer volunteers – mainly university students home on Christmas break and foreign ‘swallows’ – would probably not be available to help out at the kennels and cattery. According to HAWS Chairperson, Pamela Quinn, in many ways it turned out to be completely different from previous years. On the one hand, they had far fewer abandoned animals to deal with, which she ascribes to the fact that perhaps not as many people travelled to other provinces for the holidays. However, for some unknown reason, they were inundated in December with mother cats and their kittens – 115 of them in total. The cattery was completely overwhelmed and had some not been fostered and others homed, they would not have been able to accommodate them all. As it is, there are still about 74 cuddly balls of fluff waiting for new homes. The clinic was also exceptionally busy during this period and since HAWS’ resi-
dent vet, Dr Nicole left in mid-December, the organisation had to rely on private vets to pick up the slack, for which they were extremely grateful. The demand for food has also grown exponentially as pet owners have lost their jobs or had their wages reduced. Another valuable project which has suffered as a result of the pandemic has been HAWS’ ongoing outreach to children to create an awareness of the importance of pet care. However, Pamela says she would like to pay tribute to the entire Hermanus community for the generally low level of neglect and animal cruelty to be found here, even under these stressful circumstances. Her greatest appeal at the beginning of a new year is for donations of dog and cat food and for volunteers willing to give some of their time to dog walking or playing with kittens and puppies – undoubtedly time well spent not just for the good of the animals, but perhaps even more so for the emotional well-being of the human volunteers. And don’t forget those kittens (not to mention older cats and dogs) all waiting for a new home to embrace with their love. HAWS can be contacted on 028 312 1281 or for emergencies 072 360 0102.
hile current news around education seems daunting and uncertain, Generation Schools Hermanus is very proud to announce its International General Certificate of Education (IGCSE) and Advanced Subsidiary Level (AS) results. “Despite the tumultuous year, our learners worked diligently to achieve their desired grades,” says Campus Head Nikki Malcomess. “Overall, these results are testament to our academic success and commitment to building a lifelong love of learning in the spirit of fostering creativity, knowledge, experience. “The IGCSE's are designed to provide learners with broad balanced programmes of study in a number of subject areas that develop critical thinking, analytical skills and the ability to communicate ideas effectively. Our IGCSE results are up there with top international schools offering the same curriculum.”
Kai
Dante
The key criteria used to judge examination performance is achieving five C grades or above, with an A or A* being the ultimate goal. According to Malcomess, 67% of the school’s students achieved one or more A or A* grades. The top three achievers in Generation Schools Hermanus and across the whole Generation Schools group are: • Kai van der Riet – 5 A*, 1 A • Dante du Plessis – 3 A*, 3 A • Logan du Plessis – 2 A*, 4 A In their AS group (a renowned international Matric) the school achieved a 100% pass rate. “These learners all go on to their chosen tertiary institutes and we wish them well for the next part of their learning journey,” says Malcomess. “Thank you to the Hermanus community for joining in this celebration of success!”
Logan
