Dear Parents/Guardians
Welcome to the start of 2021! I extend a special welcome to all new parents, mostly in Grade 8 but in the other grades as well. I hope your son enjoys his time at Bishops and that you manage, very soon, to start connecting face to face with his teachers, other parents and members of the community. I would normally have hosted a function to welcome you in person but that, sadly, will have to wait.
To those returning parents I welcome you back and hope that, finally, we too can connect and get to know each other better. I thank you for your emails and your feedback which I value greatly. There may be times when we disagree on certain issues, but I will always respond to you, trying to explain, if necessary, why we have taken the stance we have or done what we did.
Your son would have had three days online now and will start returning to school as per my previous letter. We are going to be using classroom venues again so he will be moving from class to class, in the fresh air. We will be insisting on proper wearing of masks and ask that you impress upon your son that he does so. We have no idea when and how this pandemic will end but we do know that we can help prevent its spread by continuing to practise good hygiene.
We are a school that wears a uniform. It gives our boys a sense of belonging and togetherness. With that uniform comes certain expectations regarding appearance. I refer specifically to hairstyles and shaving. Each of our boys has a different type of hair, which is unique to him. We respect that and understand that one boy’s hairstyle may look different from another’s. We will, however, be insisting on a hairstyle that is conservative by nature, in line with the boy’s culture and hair type, but which fits in with a school that wears a uniform proudly. Let us not confuse teenage issues with cultural issues in this regard. A teenager often wants to test boundaries and express his individualism through his hairstyle. There will be a time for that when he is no longer in uniform and has left school and so, for now, we ask for your support as we will be insisting on hairstyles that are in line with our culture and uniform codes.
Ms Lele Mehlomakulu has completed her analysis of the Transformation survey done at the end of last year and will be providing feedback to staff, parents, Council and the boys shortly. Most of the feedback meetings will have to be online as we are still not permitted to have more than 50 people in a venue at any one time. She will be communicating with you shortly to offer you the opportunity to join the feedback session. I asked the boys, in my preamble to assembly today, not to wait for someone to lead them in a transformation journey but to start that journey themselves. There is nothing stopping them from exploring differences through discussion and dialogue. Discrimination is often based on fear and fear is based on ignorance. We will be looking at differences in great detail this year and so it would be good if boys could speak with authority on the topic.
We bade farewell to my PA, Ms Caroline Berry, on Wednesday this week. She leaves us to relocate to her home province of KZN and I thank her for all she has done for Bishops and for the two Principals she has served. She will be sorely missed.
ASSEMBLY MESSAGE: TIME AND OPPORTUNITY
“The chief beauty about time
is that you cannot waste it in advance.
The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you,
as perfect, as unspoiled,
as if you had never wasted or misapplied
a single moment in all your life.
You can turn over a new leaf every hour
if you choose.”
Arnold Bennett (English novelist, journalist, playwright)
In my opening welcome to the boys on Wednesday, I spoke of the opportunities we have to reinvent ourselves, to change, to start fresh again. While Bennett suggests that we can use every moment as an opportunity for change, there are certain obvious moments in our lives to do so. The usual New Year resolutions spring to mind where people talk about losing weight or getting fit are usually the most popular which are often quickly lost or ignored. In schools, because of the clearly demarcated calendar we follow, the start of a school year is often a good one for us to use as a point of reflection and of re-invention. Of losing the bad habits we got ourselves into and gaining new, good ones. Habits are learned behaviours, learned by repetition, and in the same way bad habits are developed, so too are good ones by reasoned application and repetition.
Our journey as a College will be different this year as we work towards an end to the pandemic. We don’t know how that end will look, and we don’t know when it will be but we have a sense that this is the year we will be able to resume some of the activities we have been forced to abandon. And so, with this in mind, the hope of the end of a difficult period in our lives, comes the chance to turn over this new leaf as an organization and as individuals. To look carefully at what we do, why we do it and whether it should still be done.
I hope our boys have reflected on their lives thus far and what lies ahead of them. I know, only too well, that we face uncertainty this year, but we prepare for the unknown by changing what we can change and hoping for the best.
I close with some words from a young person who has been given a great deal of attention these last two weeks as she spoke about new beginnings and, hopefully, these words inspire you as we begin this year.
“When day comes we step out of the shade,
aflame and unafraid.
The new dawn blooms as we free it.
For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it,
If only we’re brave enough to be it.”
Amanda Gorman
I wish you everything of the best at the start of the year.
Tony Reeler
Principal |
