Students on Exchange at Queenswood: Vlada from Ukraine, Amantle Peloewetse (3L), Rose Feehan (3M) and Suraya from Malaysia
MaP students Amantle Peloewetse (3L) and Rose Feehan (3M) are currently on a short-term exchange at Queenswood School in the United Kingdom. The girls will spend three weeks experiencing life as Queenswood students and living at the Centre, the school’s new Middle School boarding facility.
Former MaP Teacher Mr Jeremy Long noted, “All is going really well with the exchange and it hard to believe that they have only been with us a week. It feels longer as they have adapted and integrated so well.”
The winner of the 2018 DStv Eutelsat Star Awards essay competition is Maru-a-Pula School (MaP) student Tanaka Chonyera (18). Selected from thousands of entries, Tanaka has won a once-in-a-lifetime trip for two to Paris, in the company of Eutelsat. Tanaka will then travel to French Guiana to witness a rocket launch into space.
At the DStv Eutelsat Awards ceremony held in Accra, Ghana, on February 13th, Tanaka’s winning essay was described as reflecting “a deep, free-thinking passion and commitment to space science and technology.”
Explaining what led him to enter the contest, Tanaka noted “I love everything to do with space and space technology. When I found out about this competition I thought to myself: “Finally, this is something for me…If there’s anything you’re passionate about you should go for it.”
Since 2011 the competition has inspired over 7,000 essays and made the dreams of 24 students from across the continent come true. The contest continues to inspire young Africans to become exposed to, involved in and excited about science and technology concepts, and satellite technology in particular.
Contestants chose between designing a poster and writing an essay on the topic:
“Currently, satellites are being used in a variety of ways but there is always room for expansion and growth. Write an essay or design a poster on areas you believe the full potential of satellites has not yet been tapped into or embraced.”
Tanaka’s essay opens with this paragraph:
We started with gunpowder sticks whizzing around the air scaring off enemies in China and now we have a 418,000 kg giant hunk of metal whizzing around the earth at Mach 23! How crazy is that? Satellites are one of the pinnacles of human achievement – the technological marvels that constantly fall towards earth but miss every time. They enrich our lives by providing new ways to communicate; they predict weather phenomena like magic and they even spy on each other. They do all these things, but there’s so much more that they’re capable of and I’m not going to wait around for someone or some organization to make better use of them…. I’m going to do it myself. Let me tell you how.
Tanaka goes on to present his bold ideas, that, as he admits, sometimes err in the “realm of science fiction.” His creativity prompted award presenter, Paolo Nespoli, a European Space Agency astronaut, to comment: “We had to call him because we were not sure if he was crazy or the next Nobel prize winner. We actually put our money on the second one, so that’s good!”
Tanaka is in his sixth year at Maru-a-Pula, an independent day and boarding secondary school in Botswana. The School values assertiveness, especially in the service of curiosity, encouraging its students to ask “Why?” – and more essentially “Why not?”
It was at Maru-a-Pula where Tanaka made numerous attempts to launch a rocket propelled by a mixture of sugar, water and potassium nitrate. Things didn’t always work out. Tanaka says, “I think it’s very important to fail, especially failing differently each time, because I know that each time I fail I get closer to success.” And as he mentions in his essay, Tanaka finally did achieve vertical propulsion for his rocket, winning Maru-a-Pula first place in a STEM competition.
The DStv Eutelsat Star Awards are open to all students, aged 14 to 19, from secondary (high) or combined schools on the continent where MultiChoice Africa maintains operations.
Entries are accepted in English, French or Portuguese and will be judged on the basis of the criteria of accuracy, creativity, originality and innovation.
Entry forms for the 2019 competition can be obtained from any MultiChoice Resource Centre, the nearest MultiChoice office or via www.dstvstarawards.com.
Click here to read a copy of Tanaka’s award-winning essay.[/cs_text][/cs_column][/cs_row][/cs_section][/cs_content]
Form 1 entrance testing will be held on Saturday, 9th March and Friday, 15th March 2019. Only pre-registered students will be allowed to write on those dates.
Please download applications here or collect from MaP’s main office and register before 20th February 2019.
For more information: 391 2953 / secretary@maruapula.org.
[cs_content][cs_section parallax=”false” style=”margin: 0px;padding: 45px 0px;”][cs_row inner_container=”true” marginless_columns=”false” style=”margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;”][cs_column fade=”false” fade_animation=”in” fade_animation_offset=”45px” fade_duration=”750″ type=”1/1″ style=”padding: 0px;”][cs_text]Congratulations to MaP’s 2018 Form 6s on their outstanding AS and A-Level results: MaP’s November 2018 Academic Highlights:• 61 students earned at least 5As or A*s at IGCSE • More than 40% (32) of the students who sat their A-Levels earned at least 3 As and 8 students earned at least 3 A*s • Over half of the students entered (54) earned at least 3 As at AS-Level (at AS-Level, A is the highest grade that can be earned) • MaP has 94 students currently attending the World’s Top 100 Universities • MaP has a global reach with students studying in Europe, North America, Asia and Australasia – with the UK and US being the major destinations [/cs_text][/cs_column][/cs_row][cs_row inner_container=”true” marginless_columns=”false” style=”margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;”][cs_column fade=”false” fade_animation=”in” fade_animation_offset=”45px” fade_duration=”750″ type=”1/2″ style=”padding: 0px;”][x_image type=”none” src=”https://www.maruapula.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/A3-ASLevel-Jan19.png” alt=”” link=”false” href=”#” title=”” target=”” info=”none” info_place=”top” info_trigger=”hover” info_content=””][/cs_column][cs_column fade=”false” fade_animation=”in” fade_animation_offset=”45px” fade_duration=”750″ type=”1/2″ style=”padding: 0px;”][x_image type=”none” src=”https://www.maruapula.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/A3-ALevel-Jan19.png” alt=”” link=”false” href=”#” title=”” target=”” info=”none” info_place=”top” info_trigger=”hover” info_content=””][/cs_column][/cs_row][/cs_section][/cs_content]
Our talented group that wrote in June 2018 — a mix of Top Achievers and Debswana Scholars — is limited in number: 19 candidates at A2 level and 20 candidates at AS. We expected them to do well, but they surpassed our expectations.
Here are the four new records:
81.1% of the grades earned at A2 level were either A*s or As. MaP’s previous best was 74.6% in June, 2016, a 6.5% improvement.
93.7% of the grades earned at A2 level were A*s – B. MaP’s previous best was 93.4% in June, 2017, a 0.3% improvement.
81.3% of the grades earned at AS level were As. (A*s are not awarded at the AS level). MaP’s previous best was 69.4% in June, 2013, an 11.9% improvement.
93.8% of the grades earned at AS level were A – B. MaP’s previous best was 91.7% in June, 2013, a 2.1% improvement.
The chart below shows our June results over the past five years:
June Results Over A 5-Year Period
Congratulations to our hardworking students, staff and supportive parents. Click here to download our 2018 A Level Results.
In 2015, filmmaker Daniel Koehler spent several weeks in Botswana making a documentary about the San people of New Xade. The film features MaP alumnus Ketelelo Moapare, who was born in the area and received a scholarship to study at Maru-a-Pula.
‘A House Without Snakes’ premiered in early 2016 at the Full Frame Documentary Festival in Durham, North Carolina. The film has been featured numerous international festivals including Disthwanelo Human Rights Film Festival, National Geographic Further Film Festival and St Louis International Film Festival. It was also screened for students at Bana ba Metsi, a school for at-risk youth in the Okavango region, and Moeding College in partnership with Stepping Stones International.
Ketelo is currently studying Civil Engineering at the Michigan State University, USA on a MasterCard Foundation Scholarship.
Ketelelo Moapare’s Story:
“Orphaned at birth, I was raised by my grandmother, an illiterate woman who was raised in the semi-nomadic hunter-gatherer tribe of the Central Kalahari, called the G//ana. I too was destined for a life of illiteracy and despondency were it not for a library that I helped to establish in my remote village of New Xade. At the age of 13, I partnered with two American Peace Corps volunteers in my village who wrote an application to the African Library Project to procure books for a community learning centre. When the books arrived, I helped to unpack them and order them according to the Dewey Decimal system. This process was long and tedious, but it gave me a sense of ownership of the library. We named the library, “Yiaguisi”, which means “stepping up” in my mother tongue. Instead of being resigned to a future of illiteracy, I helped to bring the first-ever community library to my village, and have used the books contained therein to give myself a “step up” in life. This experience taught me that difficult circumstances into which we are born can be overcome by positive action, and not being afraid to ask for assistance from others.
I am from the minority ethnic group G//ana, a sub-group of the San people. As a member of this group, I encountered discrimination from classmates and teachers in school. For instance, we were punished at K’joe Primary School, New Xade for speaking our “click language”. In fact, even our name puts us down; we are known in Botswana as the “Basarwa,” which literally means, “those with nothing.” Despite these challenges, I was determined to use education as a platform to level the playing field. With focus and a strong work ethic, I performed exceptionally well and was even awarded a national scholarship (top achievers scholarship) to pursue my A-Levels at Maru-A-Pula School. I have used this opportunity to tell other students about my tribe and our way of life; to show them that we, too, are people who have something worth sharing. I continue to use every opportunity to promote cultural tolerance in the hope that Botswana will unite in diversity.”
Welcome to you all. Each of you has done exceptionally well in your studies. Each of you deserves congratulations for earning the title of Top Achiever or Debswana Scholar or both.
I extend an especially warm welcome to your families because your high personal achievement is, in fact, not personal. Your success rests on a foundation of nurturing and caring, in a word, love. This love has come primarily from your mothers and fathers, aunts, uncles, grandparents, maybe even the love of your siblings, quite probably the love of your friends and classmates and most certainly the sustained caring and love of your teachers.
Never forget that love underpins your success. Just as a plant won’t grow without the right soil, sunlight and water, so students such as yourselves didn’t just pop up. You grew through the efforts of others. You were raised and praised, fed and led, clothed and cautioned. You were watered in the fertile soil of your families and schools.
And I must give a shout out to two schools: seven of you are from Mater Spei and four from St. Joseph’s. Well done. Your schools are quite rightly proud of you! Whatever your particular sources of support, please would you all be kind enough to rise up now and give your families, friends, teachers and schools a standing ovation.
Thank you.
And while we’re giving thanks I would like to note that one of you wrote of God’s love by saying: “God never turns a blind eye on those who break their backs trying to cut the mustard.”
Whoever helped you to cut the mustard, from on high or here below, they have helped you gain self-confidence; this love has helped you believe in yourselves. Your confidence is evident in your applications. I’ve read all of them and learned a bit about your plans.
One of your fellow students said that Maths and Physics are challenging subjects that “need a focused person who is also persistent. I am that person.”
Your teachers are no less confident about your abilities.
One wrote that you are “a very fine student who is destined for greatness in life.” Another said you are “a conqueror who faces challenges head-on.” A further tribute holds that you “represented your school in regional fairs and emerged a giant.”
You are ambitious. Four of you want to be doctors. Two wish to battle cancerous tumors and become oncologists, one wants to heal the brain and do the delicate work of a neurosurgeon, another desires to understand the human heart and practice invasive cardiology.
Nine of you are fascinated by the critical and creative work of engineering. One of you was inspired to become an engineer when you passed by the stadium in Serowe. You saw the stadium’s defects and resolved to build better structures. Two of you seek to master electrical and electronic engineering, one wishes to do geotechnical engineering, one civil and structural, one chemical, two mechatronic, two more want to master what you call “automation, instrumentation and control engineering.” Never heard of it, but sounds like it might be useful. Your skill will make the critical difference as to whether Botswana’s stadiums, and other structures, rise or fall.
Several of you are drawn to the intricate world of finance. One of you wishes to calculate insurance risks and premiums and become an actuarial scientist. Another wishes to do operational research, statistics and economics. A third wishes to become a quantitative financial analyst. I hope you will protect the hard-earned money of the poor and the nest eggs of pensioners. Please help us catch the crooks and the corrupt whatever the color of their shirt collars!
I’m particularly glad for Debswana and the mining industry that at least two of you want to become geologists! I’m sure there are still quite a few rocks of great value in Botswana. Their location is just waiting to be revealed by you.
Whatever your career ambitions, I hope you all stay open-minded about your future possibilities and treasure your most valuable possession: a curious mind. Speaking of curiosity, I’m delighted that one of you is fascinated by that delicious Botswana delicacy, mophane worms, also known as crunchy caterpillars. You noted the mophane worms’ attempts to camouflage their location by taking on the appearance of tree bark. Those cunning caterpillars! We should all look at nature with enough intensity to see the worms on the bark of a tree.
Most importantly you bring a determination to help others. You’ve helped your fellow students, you’ve tutored those who struggle to understand subjects that you have mastered. You have worked to protect children and in one case, you helped put shoes on their bare feet. You care about your communities and we will ask you to keep helping those who desperately need your assistance.
You join MaP at widely different ages. One of you is still 16 and another is well over 19. One of you has a sensational middle name: Ditso “Delight” Tirelo. You come from all over this nation: from Charles Hill in the west to Francistown in the east, from Sehithwa in the north to Lobatse in the south. Some of you come from right here in Gaborone: Kgale View, Railpark, Block 8, Broadhurst and Tlokweng.
You come from a Botswana that is changing rapidly, from Ramotswa with Botswana’s first woman to serve as Paramount Chief, to Palapye, once a sleepy village, but which is now an investment hub with four large malls, many new hotels and lodges and a soon-to-be-constructed international airport.
Some of your previous school experiences will be useful. If you like reading, you’re going to love the MaP library. We welcome your skills on the basketball courts, on the football and rugby fields, in debates, at chess matches and in “Top 20 Shootout Quizzes.” This is a place for expanding your interests and unleashing your passion. Team and school spirit is alive and well at MaP and we want you to be part of it.
Our hope for the next two years at MaP is that you will grow and flourish. This will happen when you pass on the love and care that you have been shown. This will happen each time you help one another to solve an equation or understand an algorithm. It will blossom each time you take the buds out of your ears and truly listen to someone else’s story. It will grow each time you remember to thank a teacher for an inspiring lesson.
And never forget to make a call, write a note or share a photograph with those teachers and family members who have launched you. Great and giving lives are built on expressions of gratitude, on a generous spirit and a determination to master skills that will serve others.
[cs_content][cs_section parallax=”false” style=”margin: 0px;padding: 45px 0px;”][cs_row inner_container=”true” marginless_columns=”false” style=”margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;”][cs_column fade=”false” fade_animation=”in” fade_animation_offset=”45px” fade_duration=”750″ type=”1/1″ style=”padding: 0px;”][cs_text]From left to Right: Mr David Jobo Maphomane, Ms Kai Crooks-Chissano, Ms Moratoa Mokoena, Ms Cherae Stalley, Ms Rutendo Chigudu, Ms Lisa Peterson, Ms Chantal Nativel, Ms Estee Lauren Claasen and Ms Pride Nombulelo Ngcobo
This week (21st – 25th May), eight Drama for Life students from the University of the Witwatersrand visited the MaP Campus, as part of their Masters and Doctorate programmes, to facilitate workshops for our drama students. Through these workshops, the Drama for Life students will share invaluable knowledge and skills with our students that will help them prepare for future performances. These include the use of different dramatic devices, storytelling, scriptwriting, and characterisation. The scholars are led by Ms Cherae Stalley, who, helps them plan and, through feedback sessions, assists them to improve their lessons.
Drama for Life Workshops: The Tableau
According to their website, Drama for Life is ”an independent academic, research and community engagement programme based at the Wits School of Arts.” Their mission is to” enhances dialogue for purposes of social transformation through research, teaching and learning, and community engagement.”
Meet the Scholars David Jobo Maphomane is an artist whose focus is on facilitating the creative process. During his time here, he would like to apply and practice the theory he has learned. His advice to students interested in the performing arts is to love people. He hopes to teach students that “freedom is not given; you take it.”
Estee Lauren Claasen is a performer and arts facilitator, studying for a Masters degree. She plans to spend her time at MaP improving her people skills. She hopes that her time here will inspire students to tell their stories.
“Don’t become a performer to be on stage,” says Ms Claasen, “there is so much more to drama.”
Pride Nombulelo Ngcobo is a performer and drama teacher who hopes to spend as much time learning as she does teaching while at MaP. She believes that “you can be in or with the group, but you’re always an individual.” She advises students interested in theatre to learn to understand that it is more than just acting; it is a new language.
Kai Crooks-Chissano is a philanthropist studying for a Doctorate. She hopes her time here will help her strengthen her analysis through “marrying the theoretical with the experiential”. She believes that life is about learning and hopes to teach students that “drama is a tool with which you can paint your own masterpiece.”
Workshops: Storytelling
Rutendo Chigudu is studying for her Masters in Applied Theatre and believes in being a woman first. She hopes to inspire students to “learn to unlearn to learn”.
“Dream further than the moon if you want to be a performer,” says Ms Chigudu.
Chantal Nativel is an actor, producer, director and facilitator. During her time here, she hopes to network and find new avenues for applied theatre. Her advice to students interested in performing arts is, “be mindful of your breath. It is the beginning of every possibility.” She hopes to teach students that listening can be more important than being heard.
Lisa Peterson describes herself as a person who “lives, learns, and teaches”. Inspired by the school vision, she hopes to use her time here to serve our community and further her education. She would like to inspire MaP students interested in the performing arts to find their niche in order to improve their marketability as artists.
Moratoa Mokoena considers herself a master of all trades. During her time on campus, she hopes to find out what learning could be and gain a deeper understanding of her purpose in education. She believes that “you will find your treasure where your heart is” and hopes to inspire students to follow their passion.
FREE Dance & Drama Workshops at MaP Facilitated by Students from the Juilliard School of Performing Arts (New York City)
Four students from the Juilliard School of Performing Arts (New York) will visit the Maru-a-Pula (MaP) School campus from June 8th to 30th 2018. During their stay, the group will host daily theatre and dance workshops, which will culminate in a production scheduled for the 27th and 28th June in Maitisong. Workshops will take place as follows:
Date: from 11th June Venue: Maitisong Time: 1.30 – 4.00pm (students) / 7 – 9pm (adults) Ages: Twelve and above (12+) Price: Free (register by emailing your full name and number to cm@maruapula.org; subject: Juilliard Workshops)
Please note that registration is compulsory for all participants and closes 7 June 2018.
The relationship between MaP and Juilliard began in 2010 when students from the Juilliard School of Performing Arts visited MaP to facilitate workshops and create a production with the student body and local community. These workshops are an extension of Maru-a-Pula’s forty-six-year tradition of community outreach and allow MaP students and Batswana artists to receive invaluable skills and experience as performing artists.
According to the Juilliard website, ‘’The Juilliard School is an arts college located in New York, USA. Founded in 1905, its mission is to provide the highest calibre of artistic education for gifted musicians, dancers and actors from around the world, so that they may achieve their fullest potential as artists, leaders and global citizens. To date, Juilliard alumni have collectively won more than 105 Grammy Awards, 24 Academy Awards, 47 Emmy Awards and numerous additional accolades.’’
For more information, contact Ms Celine Matthee by calling 391 2953 ext. 207 or emailing cm@maruapula.org.
