Dear Parents and Guardians

As the term draws to a close after eleven weeks, I want to thank all parents, staff and boys for what has been a good start to the year. It has been a busy term but largely a happy term and I have been pleased with the way our new boys, largely in Grade 8, have settled into the College.

Next term will have some disruption due to the public holidays with school starting on a Monday, 7 April and running for a full week. The next two weeks are four-day weeks due to the Easter Weekend and then we have our second week of holiday from 28 April to 2 May. Preparation for the June exams should take place in this time and boys must be encouraged to plan their programme of revision, making use of some of this time if necessary but also having time to spend with family and friends.

School production

My thanks and congratulations go to all those who took part in our annual production, The History Boys. This piece which dealt with controversial topics that caused the audience to think deeply and debate with each other, was expertly and sensitively done and I applaud those who poured their energies into the performances under the watchful eye of Mr Wayne Tucker.

Social media and teenagers

We will be hosting an evening of information to parents on social media early next term and parents are encouraged to attend as we navigate our way through this space that can present enormous challenges to our boys. I watched a Netflix series recently that was recommended to me called Adolescence which was deeply disturbing and made me very much aware of the power of social media amongst our teens and the way in which they communicate. I recommend this highly to parents – it is not easy watching or light entertainment but is makes us as parents far more aware of what faces our children on a daily basis.

Inter Faith

We held our first Inter Faith event last week with over 80 people in attendance, listening to representatives from the Christian faith as well as the Muslim, Hindu and Jewish faiths on the role of fasting in their religion. This was a special evening indeed and much was debated and shared in a space of peace and mutual respect. While Bishops is, and always will be, a school steeped in the Christian faith in the Anglican tradition, we have a responsibility to educate ourselves and our boys to understand difference, also in the realm of spiritual belief. It is only through a greater understanding of our difference that we can remove fear and gain greater insight into each other as fellow human beings. The Chaplain has been promoting the idea of inter-faith for some time now and it was good to see this become a reality thanks to the efforts of a number of parents and staff who so willingly gave of their time to make it happen.

Assimilation and Belonging

Mr Trevor van Niekerk spoke at Monday’s assembly last week at which he spoke of the concept of “belonging” as opposed to “fitting in”. This was inspiring and stimulating and I hope the boys thought deeply about the difference between these concepts. Fitting in, or assimilating, takes a person into a new space in which they have to give up something of themselves to feel part of the new space. Belonging means that a person is welcomed into that space for who he/she is and they can indeed be their authentic selves.

We will always have our core values at the heart of who we are, rooted in Africa as an Anglican school. We expect our boys to conform to certain rules such as uniform, Chapel attendance, respect and so on, but what true belonging allows is the person from a different social background, with a different skin colour, accent or economic circumstance to not be ashamed of who they are but to be celebrated as a fellow member of the Bishops community.

Staff news

We congratulate the three staff members who have been appointed to the positions of House Director in each of our boarding houses. This followed an extensive process of interview and assessment by a panel which included a representative from the College PA. The following appointments have been made:

Founders House: Mr Barry Emms (beginning 1 July 2025)
School House: Mr Brad Smith (beginning 1 January 2026)
White House: Mr Kurt Baatjies (beginning 1 January 2026)

We thank the incumbents for their sterling efforts and service to Bishops boarding. Being a boarding HD is a job like no other and the complexities of managing over 70 teenage boys living in one space are vast, requiring a very delicate balance of firmness and compassion.

We wish these three appointees all the very best for their term of office which will be for the next ten years.

Estates

I often walk the grounds of our beautiful campus and am amazed at the tranquillity and peace that comes from a stroll in the early morning or late evening as the sun hits the mountain. This doesn’t just happen, and I would like to pay tribute to our wonderful team of ground staff who just get on with it, for the sake of our boys. They are an amazing group of people for whom nothing is too much and I am deeply grateful to them for all they do.

We have drained the water polo pool in preparation for the rebuilding. Much work lies ahead and we are confident the project will be completed in time and on budget.

Final thoughts

I wish all our parents and guardians a safe and restful break at the end of this term. I hope your son(s) are able to recharge their energy levels after the first term and they come back with renewed vigour and enthusiasm for the new term ahead.

I close with a quote I read in my daily reading of news – this time from Daily Maverick:

“They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do and something to hope for.”

Tom Bodett

It is my wish that you do indeed have someone to love and something to do, but I do encourage us all to have hope for the future – for our school, our families, our community and our country. In the midst of all the noise around us, to keep hoping for a positive future is what keeps us going.

I wish you a good break.

Kind regards

Antony Reeler
Principal

Debating

Hamaad Badroodien has been selected to represent South Africa as part of the 2025 SA Junior Debating Team. He will be travelling to compete for his school and his country at the Asian World Schools Debating Championships in Bangkok, Thailand from 29th June to the 3rd July. Congratulations to Hamaad on this remarkable achievement.

African Relations Society

African Relations Society ties were awarded to:

Sikhanyisele Sixaba
Thami Siko
Alexandros Ratheb

Drama
 
After this term's major production of 'The History Boys' and for their participation in previous years, we congratulate the following boys on their Drama Awards:
 
Half Colours:
Muhammad-Zayd Bhorey
Samuel Clarke
Michael Davoren
Lukas Drimie
Timmy Visagie

Full Colours:
Liam Chester
Edward Cruise
Benjamin Koenig
Pablo Slaven
Tristan Swanich
Reece Van Wyk

Debating

National Debating League Results - Round 2

Cruz Sun, Sango Kunene, and Joshua Mafunda opposed the motion that This House would ban exclusivity deals on sports broadcasting rights. They were well-prepared and presented strong arguments, but in a tightly contested debate, they narrowly lost to Parklands College.
Meanwhile, Noah Macnab, Oliver Frankel, and Hamaad Badroodien proposed the motion that This House believes South Africa should cut diplomatic ties with foreign leaders guilty of gender-based violence. As always, teams must be ready to argue both sides of a motion.
Our senior team delivered exceptional arguments and sharp rebuttals, proving too strong for Westerford and securing a well-deserved victory. Hamaad was also named Best Speaker—an impressive achievement!

Well done to both teams—we look forward to the next round in April!

Athletics

The following boys have been awarded a Quadrangular Tie for making the team in all three of their senior years at the College:

Daniel Von der Heyden
Nic Deckenbrock
Conor Day
Nic Perez
Chris Mclagan
David Tripe
Max Marr
Ashton Wyatt
Joe Phillipson
Lulibo Nyawula
Danny Newton
Tristan Thirion
Ben Myburgh
Litha Mbiko
Adam Diggle

Hockey

Congratulations to our Bishops Hockey Captains for 2025.  Adam Diggle (Captain) and James Robb-Quinlan (Vice Captain). We wish them well as they lead the team this year, starting with the preseason festival at St Albans in the April holidays.

Hockey Preseason Festivals

The Hockey Season kicked off with the Bishops U16A hockey squad taking part in the pre-season festival hosted by Parel Vallei last weekend. Despite the soaring temperatures out in the winelands, the team proved dominant in an opening match against Somerset college scoring 6 goals to their 1.

Next up was Worcester Gim with a narrow win of 2-1. Their 3rd match against Outeniqua High was the most closely contested and they came away with a 1-0 win. Coaches would like to commend the excellent defensive play throughout the festival, and congratulations to the whole team for the fantastic start to their season.
In the upcoming holidays 5 hockey sides (U14A, U16A and B, 1st and 2nds) will be competing in festivals across the country. We wish all those teams well and safe travels to their respective festivals.

Fencing

Alexander Horrell competed in the Bonnievale Open on the 15th-16th March in the U20 and U17 epee events. He fenced well in the U20, but did not make it beyond the direct elimination round. In U17 epee he won gold! Well done, Alex.

Cricket

Bishops made history on Saturday, 15 March when its 1st XI cricket team defeated St David's Marist Inanda by 99 runs to win the inaugural Schools SA20 national championship played over four days at the Tuks Oval in Pretoria.

The magnitude of the team's achievement should be viewed in the context that the tournament commenced, nationwide, in September 2024 featuring 376 teams and concluded six months and 673 matches later, with Bishops the last team standing.

It should be added that Bishops had 15 matches to negotiate, tough Phase 1/provincial and Phase 2/regional competitions included, to have the honour of lifting the trophy.

The team's magnificent success was sweetened, further, by three Bishops' players scooping the three primary individual awards made at the post-final presentation in recognition of the top performers in the tournament's four-day, final phase in Pretoria.

Julian Pilkington, who claimed 3/12 in the final, was named 'Bowler of the Tournament' for his tournament-leading 11 wickets at a miserly average of 8.8 runs per wicket.

Adnaan Lagadien, who topped the run-scoring charts with 170 runs at an average of 42.5, was declared 'Batsman of the Tournament' and 1st XI captain, James Robb-Quinlan, was awarded the prestigious 'Cricketer of the Tournament' in recognition of his superb glovework and his 160 runs in five matches at an average of 53.3.

Take a bow Mr. Gildenhuys, Mr. Pohlongo and James and his team: you have made the Bishops Community mightily proud.

Cricket Awards

Congratulations to the following boys who scored centuries and received a signature bat:
Cameron Macbeth scored 174* (160) for the 2nd X1 vs Paul Roos, Thaafier Japtha scored 120 (80) for the 1st X1 against Pearson High, James Robb-Quinlan scored 173* (127) for the 1st XI against SACS.

In addition to his century against SACS, we also, in retrospect, need to acknowledge and celebrate a century that James scored back in 2022 for the 1st Team. At the time it was incorrectly attributed as a century for a Frank Reid XI, however it was in fact scored while James was part of an official 1st XI tour to the Lowveld, and while he was just in Grade 9. James in fact scored 105 off 132 balls for the Bishops 1st team while playing against the 1st team of Hoër Volkskool Potchefstroom, and this surely must be one of the very few hundreds scored at first team level by a grade 9 boy at Bishops. Congratulations James and our apologies for the error at the time.

The following boys took 5 wickets or more and received a mounted cricket ball:
Waco Bassick took 6 for 20 for the 1st X1 against St Charles, Michael Kruiskamp took 5-29 for the 1st 1X against Rondebosch, Luke De Klerk took 5-10 for the 1st X1 against Pretoria Boys High, and Julian Pilkington took 5-7 for the 1st X1 against Pearson High and 5-29 against Rondebosch Boys.

All-Rounder's Tie

Congratulations to Yazeed Lalkhen and Tristan Brunton on achieving their All-Rounder's Ties.

Science

Democritus Society boys won the Western Cape Aqualibrium SAICE Competition at UCT on Saturday 15 March. Huge congratulations to Ben Honigwachs, Aidan Edwards, and Shyam Dahya. The team is now headed to Johannesburg to compete in the National competition on 8 and 9 May accompanied by their teacher, Ms Swanepoel. We wish them the very best! They were each awarded R600 and their flight tickets. These boys are having a blast excelling in science.

Three teams were entered, and the other two teams did very well too: they were Dean Weich, Sango Kunene, Milo Bonadei, Neo Thankge, Qasim Ghani. The Aqualibrium SAICE Competition at UCT's Civil Engineering Department challenges students to design a model water network, inspiring interest in science and engineering with applications in water works, acid mine drainage, irrigation, and agriculture. 18 school took part in the competition.

Eid

We wish our Muslim families Eid Mubarak towards the end of the month.

Blue Pages

To view our 25th Edition of the Bishosp Blue Pages, click here

Injury Process

VUSA NEWS

Behind the scenes of Bishops’ outreach programme lies an inspiring story of learning, rugby, community and hope.  Catch up on the latest VUSA news, from afterschool adventures, ECD triumphs and the Atlas Digibus to game-day wins and heartwarming partnerships.
Read the VUSA Newsletter to see the impact of this special programme →  CLICK HERE

Bishops PA / VUSA Charity Golf Day

Only a few fourballs remain for the Bishops PA Charity Golf Day – don’t miss this chance to play a round and make a real impact. We are also looking for 4 ball and raffle prize sponsors! If you have a product or brand you’d like to promote, this is a golden opportunity for marketing exposure to a premium audience of corporates, professionals, and sports lovers. Your brand will be featured on the day and in our event communications.

To get involved → please click HERE to register or email info@vusaacademy.org