Western Cape

SACEE Western Cape has grown to represent a wide range of schools in the Western Cape and has an active committee under the Chairperson Alison Gwynne-Evans.  We focus on offering competitions and activities to support and supplement the curriculum so as to develop learners who are engaged with learning relating to the crafting and using of the English language to communicate beyond the individual schools setting.

SACEE Membership (Western Cape) 

SACEE membership forms can be obtained from or returned to the Branch Chairperson, Alison Gwynne-Evans on alisonge@sadomain.co.za.

Spellcheck

The Spellcheck Challenge is an annual spelling competition for Grade 8s at Western Cape Schools, run in the first quarter of the year.  It provides a fun opportunity for teachers to set an achievable challenge for new learners that helps to bond the class to achieve group success through individual effort. Lesa McEwan has taken over the running of the Spellcheck Challenge from Terril Nicolay.  All learners in Grade 8 of the school need to enter and individual scores are added to determine the winning school.  Westerford has won the competition as the top large school for the past four years and holds the wooden shield trophy for top school.  CBC St Johns has consistently achieved the best results as a smaller school and holds the roving picture award in honour of their achievements.

Online Public Speaking Competition

The Online Public Speaking Competition has been running since 2020 and provides an opportunity for learners across the Western Cape to share their perspectives on challenging issues.  The competition has seen entries from across the Western Cape, including Knysna, George, Graaf Reinet, Mossel Bay, Langebaan and Wellington, as well as a variety of Cape Town schools. The topics are designed to provoke critical engagement and constructive engagement with challenging issues that affect learners.

The competition had its origins in the City Bowl Public Speaking Competition, started in 2018, an initiative to build community in the diversity of the City Bowl schools.  This started with three schools, St Cyprians, Gardens Commercial and Cape Town High School.

The shift to online has provided an opportunity to extend the reach of SACEE beyond Cape Town. The Competition is currently run by Murray Hines of Abbots College, who got involved as a Jakes Gerwel Fellow whilst studying at UCT.

An annual trophy, a stunning wooden shield, is awarded to the school with the top scores across both the Grade 8-9 and the Grade 10-12 rounds. St Cyprians won this in 2018 and 2019, Knysna High School won this in the inaugural round of the Online Public Speaking Competition in 2018. This was won by Wynberg High School in 2021 and Springfield in 2022 and Reddam High School (Constantia) won this in 2023.

Forum Discussions

The Forum Discussion is another SACEE project that has been running annually for around 50 years. We are currently looking for a co-ordinator to take over this project. In the Forum Discussions a team of 5 learners discusses a topic in a constructive way, building understanding and consensus. 

English Alive Anthology

English Alive is a national SACEE project run by the Western Cape that publishes an annual anthology of poems and writing from learners at schools across South Africa.  Robin Malan has been involved as an editor since the anthology was first published 57 years ago.  Twanji Kalula took over from Robin a couple of years ago as editor and in 2023 we have been lucky to have Naeelah Kamaldien, Robin Malan and Twanji Kalula co-edit the anthology. 

We are back with an in-person launches of English Alive, where the 2022 launch was postponed to January 2023 at Westerford High School and then in quick succession, the 2023 anthology was launched at Pinelands High School in August 2023.  We are eager to represent a growing number of schools in the publication so invite schools to submit potential entries to editor@englishalive.co.za.