A few weeks ago I announced the names of those parents elected to the PA Committee. Subsequent to that, the Committee has held its first meeting. The following were elected as office bearers:

Delene Mark (Chair)
Ettie Chahwahwa (Treasurer)
Daniela Wakeford (Secretary)
Advaita Naidoo
Christopher Twycross
Peter Venn

A decision was also made to co-opt Kay Lala-Sides and David Dalling onto the Committee.

The committee will write to you shortly with more information about portfolios and plans for the year.

Thoughts around transformation and the school’s process going forward were shared by a number of parents as well as myself at the PA AGM. I include a section of the Principal’s College newsletter from last week where he reported back on progress thus far:

“We are continuing to consult suitable facilitators to help us in the transformation journey and are getting ideas and quotes. This is not a quick-fix process. This is not an exercise to tick a box and move on. I understand the frustration from some quarters for action and I share your desire to get going but am always conscious of the need to do this in a way that effects lasting change. I want us to look back in 20 years’ time and say we did well rather than having to repeat the exercise in a few years.

While we are waiting for the proposed plan to be developed, we have done a number of things. One of which is the College has entered into an agreement with an organization that allows for anonymous reporting and whistleblowing for things that boys and parents feel uncomfortable sharing. While we always prefer people to report in person, we understand that there may be times when boys don’t trust the system or feel comfortable. This reporting will be for issues around bullying, racism, homophobia, safety and so on and is for teachers, parents and students to report things they are uncomfortable with. This will be in the form of an app, the Guardian, which will be customized and downloadable soon.”

ACADEMIC FEEDBACK AT THE END OF THE TERM

For Grades 4-7 all marks obtained from the formal tests and tasks done this term will be uploaded onto MyBishopsLife throughout the term. Grade 3s will receive a written progress report that will be emailed to you. At the end of this term, teachers will not be meeting with all parents, but rather only with those parents where the teacher does specifically need to discuss their son’s progress. Your son’s teacher/s will then contact you via email to set up a meeting in the last week of the term.

However, if you have an area of concern which you wish to discuss with a specific subject teacher, please note that you may request a meeting by emailing that teacher directly to set up a meeting time.

Spring is around the corner but a wet, cold weekend has been predicted. Stay safe and warm.

Kind regards

GREG BROWN
HEADMASTER

VUSA Fundraiser

VUSA has more stock of Browns’ Gold olive oil available. This beautiful product was donated to VUSA by the Brownell family and 100% of proceeds will support VUSA programmes so if it’s on your shopping list, please consider purchasing a bottle or two and support a great cause. Please pay via SNAPSCAN - link HERE - and then collect from Prep Reception on Fridays between 07h30 and 15h00. For information on VUSA, please visit the website: https://www.vusarugbyacademy.com/ or contact Nikki Matthews at the Trust Office.

To the members of this year's Student Council, elected by the Grade 6s and 7s, after all voluntary candidates had made a presentation (via Teams) to the senior classes:

Jack Gomes (Chair), Liam Chester (secretary), Noah Edmunds, Ben Koenig, Noah Macnab, Rowan Piorkowski, Katlego Setai, Sebastian von Bormann, Daniel van den Heever, Ryan Webb.