Dear Parents and Guardians
Welcome to the start of the second term. I trust you had valuable time with your family in the April holiday and that you had a blessed Easter Weekend. To those of the Muslim faith I hope the fast is going well and to those of the Jewish faith I wish you well for Pesach. This is indeed a holy time of the year! Whatever your faith, I hope these sacred and special times give you renewed hope for the future and help you grow spiritually with your families.
This term tends to be a less frenetic one than Term I, and with mid-year examinations and winter sport there tends to be a settled focus in the school. Exams will be upon us very soon and I encourage parents to help their son get ready for these exams by giving them the space, free from distraction, to study quietly.
This past Easter Weekend saw a number of sporting activities take place which are reported upon elsewhere. My compliments to the boys on their performance and my thanks to the staff who gave up time with their own families to take our boys away. My thanks too go to the parents who supported these tours, some of whom were able to attend the matches in person. Tours are a special part of school sport and give boys an opportunity to come together as a group over a concentrated period of time. It was with great delight that I read some feedback from one of the staff members who mailed me with the following message from a member of the public:
“On Monday evening, my wife and I took the Lanseria flight to Cape Town (on a different plane to the one used by Bishops).
We want to commend your boys on the way in which they conducted themselves.
The manners which they showed towards airport staff and other passengers were impeccable.
Well done, Bishops; you can be proud all round of the way these boys played and the way in which they represented your school”.
It is always good to get messages like this and I commend our First XV on the way they conducted themselves. In the opening assembly of the term, I read out a mail I received from a staff member who took the U14 hockey team on tour in which he praised the boys for the manner in which they conducted themselves and how it was for him an absolute pleasure to take them on tour.
At a recent conference we were reminded that instead of catching boys doing something wrong, catch them doing something right. These two instances are wonderful examples that make me feel most proud of them!
Academic News
We are currently researching interest into a possible A level stream at Bishops, which will run concurrently with our existing academic programme. To do something like this requires significant discussion and input and so we started with consulting staff, Grade 9 and 10 parents and boys and doing a survey of these two Grades to see what kind of level of interest there would be. The decision to undertake such an exercise is ultimately that of Council and so significant exploratory work needs to be done before this discussion is held. While we remain a proudly SA school, we are looking at extending our academic offering for those for whom a more focused curriculum is suitable. We are not educating or preparing boys to leave our country. We are preparing them in the best possible manner for their lives after school and must always examine how we do this and if change is required or needed.
In the discussion, it became clear once again that a great deal of misinformation exists particularly around the DBE and IEB discussion. Just to make things clear – both examining boards undertake the National Curriculum Statement as their curriculum. While they may be taught in different prescribed ways and write separate examinations, both fall under Umalusi as the moderating authority that ensures standards. Umalusi issues the matric certificate which does not stipulate which exam was written, IEB or DBE and universities do not take that into account when admitting students. We are convinced that our offering is best for our boys as it allows them to get the best possible Matric, thus gaining admission to the courses of their choice.
Running a parallel A level stream could allow a small group of boys an opportunity to extend themselves academically in a completely different system. We will keep the community updated on progress and if we are both willing and able to take it on in the future.
Diversity, Equity and Belonging
The Anti-Racism Statement was released to the community for comment and will shortly be published on our website and be translated into Afrikaans and isiXhosa. My thanks go to the Transformation Committee and those who had input into this important document.
We will be spending time this term focusing on the boys and running a series of workshops with them as we unpack issues of difference and bias while reminding them of our common humanity that unites us all.
This week’s assembly was in anticipation of Freedom Day and I spent some time sharing with the boys the significance of the event. While we were alive then and voted in that historic election, for the boys this is a bit like Remembrance Day and I am not sure they grasp the significance of the public holiday. Please spend some time with your son(s) talking about life pre-democracy and about how this one day encapsulated the transition for our people into a democracy. I am only too aware of the difficulties we still face, almost 30 years after 1994 but we simply must remain positive for the future as we try to use our position of influence to change our land for the better.
Back to Sport…
Many parents will be delighted that with Covid restrictions largely a thing of the past, they are allowed, once more, to support their son and his team, and indeed other teams as spectators. Covid regulations require that spectators are vaccinated and we ask that you respect this requirement to allow us to have full grounds again. Having attended some festivals recently, I would like to remind parents that not only are our boys and our teams on display but also our school, including spectators.
Please be respectful of the event and applaud good play. Avoid comments at referees or officials and leave the coaching up to the coach. Simply put, sit back and enjoy the game – enjoy what we have missed for so long. I look forward to our first derby Saturday against Paul Roos this weekend and the chance for us to showcase our wonderful school.
Achievements
Our achievements of the boys are always mentioned later in the newsletter and I urge you to read these. There are many special moments indeed. I also enjoy hearing stories of boys who have excelled in activities not offered by the school, so I encourage parents to let me know through your son’s Tutor. If he has done well in his chosen activity or undertaken something special or noteworthy, I do like to know about it and often get the boys to come in to tell me more.
I would like to highlight the achievements of the Public Speaking team who did so well on an international stage this past weekend. There results were outstanding and I commend them and their mentors on this achievement.
Final Thoughts
This week’s assembly message was about Freedom Day so I will not repeat it here as it was to highlight an event in which most of us took part and indeed remember like it was yesterday. I would ask again that you share your stories with your son around this moment and perhaps ask him what freedom means to him – there may be some interesting conversations!
I wish you well for the days ahead.
Kind regards
Antony Reeler
Principal
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