Dear Parents and Guardians

The third term is now well under way, and I hope your son has settled in to the second half of the year having learned from his experiences of the first half. Once again, we find ourselves battling with the unknown factor of the pandemic, and the high rate of infections in the Western Cape and in our school itself. We are trying our best to balance the needs of our boys, their mental and physical health and keeping our community as safe from infection as possible. Once again we ask that parents and guardians exercise caution when it comes to social gatherings and events. We also ask that people continue to be kind and gentle to each other throughout so much suffering.

This month is Women’s Month and we hope the women in our community felt appreciated and respected this past Women’s Day for all they do in our communities. Our boys released a video where they read Maya Angelou’s poem, “Still I rise” and gave the boys a set of questions to debate in their tutor groups about the role of women in society and how men should treat women. In our weekly assembly, we also celebrated women and acknowledged them for their contribution and you can read the full message below.

There are two issues at play for me. The first being the obvious acknowledgement of women, but the second is the way that men should treat women and how we behave to make women feel appreciated and valued as equal members of our communities. Women’s Day is not Mother’s Day. It is a time when we acknowledge the efforts of women in the past who have fought injustice through the 1956 march to the Union buildings to protest the pass laws, but also countless other situations where women have stood up against wrongdoing and where their leadership was needed.

Covid-19

While regulations permit a return to contact sport and other activities such as certain ensembles, we have exercised caution in this regard. We have planned to have a set of winter fixtures on 21 August, against Wynberg Boys, and on 28 August against Rondebosch Boys, but these will be assessed as the situation unfolds.

We are aware of the boys who want to play sport, particularly in their last year of school but also that Grade 12s are coming up to their Mock Matric exams and will make decisions in line with legislation, medical advice and in what we feel is in the best interests of our boys. We are also aware that people will agree or disagree with decisions that are made and we ask for patience and understanding as we try to manage these unprecedented times.   

For now, we are going to keep school open as we feel this is the right decision but will adapt and change as circumstances change.

School News

We are grateful that we can acknowledge boys and their achievements and the latest list appears below. Our congratulations to these boys on these fine efforts.

Transformation

The feedback sessions to staff have started and we are looking forward to the process unfolding. The Transformation Sub Committee is busy working through the Diversity and Transformation Policy and will be publishing its work as soon as the process is completed.

We are going to change the language offering at the school in 2022 to expand isiXhosa throughout the school. In Grades R – 2 our boys will take conversational isiXhosa as part of their curriculum and in Grade 7 boys may take isiXhosa as a First Additional Language (FAL) in the place of Afrikaans. In Grade 7 and 8, those who take isiXhosa as a FAL will take Afrikaans as a conversational Second Additional Language (SAL) and those who take Afrikaans as a FAL will do isiXhosa as a conversational SAL. This will be further rolled out into Grades 6 and 9 in 2023. English continues as the language of learning and teaching, offered at Home Language level.

We are hoping that this commitment to the three languages of the Western Cape allows our boys to communicate better and to have a better understanding of all three.

Final Thoughts

As the weather warms up and winter’s grip is released, we wish you well. We hope most fervently for a respite from the pandemic and its awful effect on so many people and hope that you and your loved ones are safe.

Kind regards

Antony Reeler
Principal

Why Women’s Month is not a longer version of Mother’s Day

One of the few things we all have in common, every single one of us, is that we have a mother. Someone who gave birth to us. And for one day a year, that person is celebrated on a Sunday in May. Some may say the celebration is commercialised and it probably is, but it is a moment when we can acknowledge our mothers or the woman who raised us, and perhaps spoil them in our thanks for all they do for us. And that is good.

So what then is Women’s Day or indeed Women’s Month? This is not just an extended Mother’s Day but an acknowledgement of the women (all of them) in our lives and in the world and their contributions. It is a celebration of women and it is a moment to try to understand the challenges women face. This day was created as a tribute to the actions of 20 000 women who marched to the seat of SA government, the Union Buildings, back in 1956 as a protest against the requirement of women to also carry a pass, a document for black people that restricted their movement in certain areas and at certain times – a bit like a curfew, but just for black people.

From this protest, and countless other actions by women in reaction to how they were treated, stemmed the concept of Women’s Day and Women’s Month – a time when we as a world, men and women, can do two things. Acknowledge women for all they do and all they represent, yet also examine how men treat women.

This is not going to be a male-bashing assembly where we leave ashamed and embarrassed to be male. I want you all to be able one day to proudly have as your social media status “I am proud to be a man”.

As men, we have power. I do not refer only to physical power but the power of influence. Often it is those who have been in a position of privilege and power themselves that are best able to influence others. We have the power to call out poor behaviour towards our mothers, sisters, female friends. There is a difference if a woman calls out poor male behaviour or if a man does it. We have the power to hold others accountable but we also have the power over ourselves. We can make a conscious decision to treat people equally, male or female. To show the same respect for women that we do for our men friends.

To praise achievement before aesthetics – like often happens to men but seldom to women.

I have had to intervene many times in fights at school where boys have taken offence at someone and lashed out. Many times it was when a boy crossed a line with another boy. And the line? It was when someone said something about another boy’s mother or sister. That line just isn’t crossed. They are family and need our protection and our support. Yet, what about the women that have no brother to stand up for them? No son? They need us, all of us men, to stand up, be real men, be good men. They need you…

“Through life, I have learned that the most important critic whose judgement of my actions matters, is my conscience.”

Prof Thuli Madonsela

Be A Bishops Boarder

Boarding is a phenomenal way for your son to get the full Bishops experience. Living on campus has many advantages as the current boarders will attest to. We have a few spaces available in boarding for Grade 9 to 11 next year, please email Peter Westwood pwestood@bishops.org.za  if you are interested for your son to board in 2022, or want to visit any of the boarding houses. We can accommodate your son for a week, as a free trial, should that be of interest to you in order to get a feel of boarding and whether or not your son will enjoy it.

Click here to enjoy our video the boys made that gives you an accurate insight into “A day in the life of….”

Interact Society Project

This past Sunday the Interact Society hosted another garden clean up at our usual location, alongside the Liesbeek River. Despite the cold and gloomy weather, our boys turned up in their numbers, extremely excited about our recently-purchased gardening equipment. Using our new rakes and branch cutters, boys hacked away at the overgrowth in our garden.

Our garden initiative involves the planting and tending of fynbos that was once indigenous to the area. By reintroducing the biodiversity that once blossomed within this region, the Interact society has reached one of its goals of promoting the regrowth of this indigenous fynbos along the Liesbeek River route.

A sincere thank you goes out to all staff and students involved in this ongoing initiative. All the effort and hard work shown by the boys, who have had to sacrifice many Sundays to ensure that this has been a success thus far is greatly appreciated.

Art Award

Grade 11 student Adam Lieberman won a R2 000 Dala hamper for the artwork he produced in term 1, ‘The art of photo realism’. Adam says, “I was brought to the idea of sending in my artworks into competitions that could go on my CV after school, I sent the artwork into the very few free, student art competitions I could find. A few weeks later I was informed that I had won the South African Artists magazine student competition and would receive art supplies and be featured in their magazine". Not only did he win the hamper but achieved excellent results for this piece of his grandmother who recently passed away.

History Quiz

The Bishops Intraschool History quiz was held in the Mallett Centre on the evening of Thursday, 29 July. Just under 50 boys, as per Lockdown regulations, competed in teams of four as quiz-master, Eric Lefson, put them through their paces with regards 100 questions pertaining to all aspects of history. Congratulations to Keenan Mills, Khelan Deda and Dylan Wood who emerged victorious with a very respectable score of 76/100.

Golf News

Congratulations to Christopher Gutuza for winning the prestigious WP Mini Masters tournament played over 36 holes at King David Mowbray, on Sunday 2 August. Chris shot 68 in his second round to finish 5 under par for the event. Daniel Davidson also had an excellent day finishing in 4th place with a score of 2 under par.

Gold President's Award

Both Gregor John and Aidan Burns have recently completed their Gold President's Award. Congratulations to both of them. Jonty Wright, who matriculated last year, has also just received his Gold. In this difficult time of lockdown and restrictions, it is a great achievement.

Additional Academic Awards Term 2 2021

Academic Ties

Grade 11
Thomas Saurma-Jeltsch

Grade 10
Peyton Leigh

Distinction Ties for their selection to the SA U19 rugby team

Suleiman Hartzenberg
Imad Khan
Bruce Sherwood

Athletics

Full Colours
Suleiman Hartzenberg
Matthew Tripe

Half Colours
Ilyaaz Arnold
Nassar de Kock 
Cameron Parker-Forsyth
Oliver Kennedy

Shooting

Full Colours
Donald Wilken

Half Colours
William Jones 

All Rounders Ties

Congratulations to these boys on being awarded their All Rounders Ties

Nikolaos Augoustatos
Oliver Hufton
Zuhayr Mohamood
Ben Swift and
Zuhayr Mohamood

Drama

The following boys are congratulated on achieving Drama Colours:

Full Colours
Paul Malherbe
Keenan Mills
Dylan Wood

Half Colours
Murrough Epstein
Nimba Mahlati
Peter Myburgh
Dino Vavatzanidis