Celebrating sports is fun. As is celebrating cultural activities. As is celebrating the arts. As is encouraging entrepreneurship and other interests such as technology, debating and unity.
But there is only one event that celebrates it all. From 20 to 22 September, St Peter’s College in Sunninghill played host to its 16th annual Sports and Cultural Festival, welcoming thousands of people (including those from multiple other schools from around South Africa and beyond) to enjoy a multitude of activities in the lead up to Heritage Day. The festival aspires to bring together youth from South African Schools – public and private – in a celebration of our country’s national heritage through entrepreneurship, academic, sports and cultural activities.
Over the weekend, a multitude of activities took place including soccer, basketball, netball, music, a hackathon, debating, drama and chalk street art to list but a few. “We started this festival 17 years ago because we wanted to do something different,” explained Rui Morais, the school’s headmaster. “Many schools have festivals for rugby or cricket or so on, but very few schools have festivals involving the most popular sports in South Africa – namely soccer, netball and basketball – and very few go beyond that. “We want to be focused on the students with a cultural aspect to the event as well. I have to say that we’ve really created a wonderful.
help sea turtles. Photo: Robyn Kirk
The aim of the festival is that students from all works of life can come together in a healthy environment.” One of the main events that took place was the ‘St Peter’s School of Business’ section of the festival, where Grade 9s from the school created their own stalls to sell goods and services to attendees as part of a school project. “The children were required to create their own business, there were about 30 stalls in total this year and they had to work in groups of between four to six,” explained Linday Hopwood, the economics and management studies teacher for the grade behind the assignment.
“The goal of the project is to focus on entrepreneurship, which is the way of the future for South Africa. “I hope this teaches them that in the future they don’t have to just look for a job, but that they are able to create jobs for themselves. It would also be wonderful if instead of just treating this like a school project, the children continue to run their businesses in the future.” This was the first year that the Grade 9s who did the best in this project would receive cash prizes, sponsored by FNB, Future Proof’s Lisa Illingworth and Red Oxgen’s Costa Tzingakis. Away from the world of business, athletes from around South Africa, as well as neighbouring countries, competed against one another.
“Basketball and soccer games are happening all weekend, while netball will be played on Saturday and Sunday,” explained Dave Short, the head of sport for St Peter’s. “We have a total of 60 football teams here this year, and I’m happy to say that boys and girls are both participating – 35 of the teams are boys teams, and 25 of them are girl teams. “The keenness to be a part of it has been very impressive to me this year. These kids just want to play,” he concluded.
Other events over the weekend included a hackathon for schoolchildren interested in technology such as 3D printing, debating competitions, a drama festival and choir festival, and a music chill zone where musicians from different schools could interact.
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