It is my second time observing the Kaleidoscope Event, but this year I joined as a co-planner. I got to experience how the event unfolded from the ground up and I want to express how very proud I am of the results.

I am delighted how we are learning, as a school, how to create a better event each year, fine tuning the things that work better and that the children love more. One of the more interesting things this year was our raffle which offered up the huge prizes like two nights at Sabi Sabi Private Game Reserve and meals at Pappas on the Square in Sandton, along with lots of others. For just R50, who would not want to win some of these amazing prizes?

In my opinion I think that the raffle worked better than our art auction last year especially since the children engaged in an inter-class competition, where the class that sold the most raffle tickets would be rewarded with a delectable treat of pizza and ice cream: an unusual experience for Kairos. It was exhilarating. What fun we had recording our raffle ticket sales on a scoreboard at school each week.

(Shhh, my class strategised not to record our sales until the very last minute, to throw off the competition). We sold raffle tickets at malls, to every visitor coming to the school and to every extramural vendor coming through our doors. The support from our parents was stupendous. They were even selling to family members in other countries too! Everyone brought their A-Game, and the results showed it.

When the rest of the school caught on to our gameplan, we then came up with another idea to target Tyrone Avenue at 8h30 in the morning, just half an hour before the results were announced, we sold our last 12 tickets which pushed my class to the top of scoreboard just in time — and we won the pizzas and ice-creams! An amazing achievement considering mine was the smallest group competing!

Things really got going the week before the event. The emotion was high, during an Inquiry Session on the Monday after the Kaleidoscope. These are weekly sessions during which we talk about philosophical topics. At this session we engaged about how the competitive world works, how they believed they had developed some skills of salesmanship, and the social and emotional effects of competitiveness which they’d observed. It allowed the pupils to unpack some of their difficult feelings during this high-octane time, while also to celebrate each other’s achievements. It was a beautiful session full of honesty, vulnerability and togetherness.

It was a delight seeing children bouncing on the jumping castle, happily in the wonderful weather amongst happy chatter. And what a high quality mix from our art stalls and food stalls we had! These even included Youngson, our previous school caretaker, selling his organic produce from his farm in Venda as well as his homemade clothes.

~Teacher Lwazi