Dear Parents and Guardians

As the term draws to a close, I wish to thank you for your support over the past three months. I hope your son continues to enjoy his time at Bishops and that he has been happy and productive this past term. Our Grade 12 boys completed their Mock Matric examinations and I hope the results are a reflection of their hard work. They enter a busy period now of farewell functions and events that will give them a fitting send-off, culminating with Matric Prize Giving and Valedictory on 21 October. Our newly appointed leader groups will be announced by then and the Grade 11s will begin their leadership of the school from that date.

Our Jewish families began the most holy period of the Jewish calendar with Rosh Hashanah on 25 September, the start of the ten-day period of penitence that culminates in the most holy day of their year, Yom Kippur, on the 4th and 5th of October. We wish our Jewish boys and their families well for the period of fasting, prayer and atonement.

Over the last two weeks, both assemblies taken by two of our Deputies have been centered around Heritage Day as we acknowledged our past, both personally and as a school, reflected on where we are at present and gave some thought to the future. I hope you had some time to do the same as you celebrated Heritage Day with your families, giving some thought to your own heritage and ancestry and how it has shaped you and your thinking. Each of us has our own, often unique past, shaped by generations. While our heritage doesn’t define us necessarily, it does give us something we often root ourselves in and a sense of identity.

Last night we held our annual Matric Dance, the first in its traditional format since 2019. This was a wonderful evening indeed and I am very grateful to Mrs Dilshad Khalfey and her team of parents for the incredible role they played in making this happen. Mrs Trudy Hoefnagels and her team of staff, both teaching and support staff, went out of their way to make the evening the unforgettable event it was. My thanks to all involved for giving our Grade 12 boys this special experience.

Our Instagram, and Bishops Rugby Facebook pages were recently removed and permanently deleted as a result of external malicious activity. We have thus launched two new pages. Please follow our new Instagram: @bishopscollegeza and Rugby Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086174379854

We closed our term with a traditional Eucharist service, followed by a brief assembly. While there was no “message” to the boys save to wish them and the staff well for the holidays, I did leave them with this short thought for them to ponder upon from my own life:

Every day I receive a message from a friend of mine, an ex-colleague who helps me in my spiritual growth and who is a source of great comfort to me often. Many times I have had difficult challenges and she has, without knowing what I was facing, sent through something – a message, video, meme, Bible verse or quote that has often been exactly what I needed to give me strength. We all need someone like this – our personal cheerleader so to speak but someone who gives us inner strength to persevere in what we do, or think about something new. Last week she sent me something that I wish to share with you and issue you with a challenge for this holiday:

“Some stranger somewhere remembers you because you were kind to them.”

My challenge is thus – this holiday, make a point of being kind to an absolute stranger. Greet them warmly, help them with their load, stand aside at a lift or a door, acknowledge them for their service to you and wish them a good day. Go out of your way to be kind – it makes them remember you and it makes you feel good about the world. Enjoy the holidays! 

I wish you all well for the school holidays and hope you are able to spend some time with your families and friends as we prepare for the final term of the 2022 year. We are busy planning for the 2024 intake as we prepare for Grade 8 admission. We have brought our admission process earlier in the year to allow us to co-ordinate offers of place with the other schools in our area and hope to have the initial process completed by the end of the first term. Parents who have Grade 7 boys who are applying to Bishops must please take note of the earlier dates.

Enjoy the holidays.

Kind regards

Antony Reeler
Principal

Awards and colours will be announced at the start of term 4 when the Matrics are back on campus.

IT Helpdesk

The IT help desk will be open to attend to any laptop issues on Monday and Tuesday 3rd and 4th October but will be closed on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday ( 5th, 6th and 7th October).

Water Polo

Our junior teams have had a wonderful start to their season.

The U14A team brought home the gold medal at the Rondebosch tournament over the weekend of 22 – 25 September. They topped their pool by winning all 7 games and then comfortably progressed to the final to come up against the hosts, Rondebosch. After a slow start to the final, the boys displayed incredible strength of character to fight their way back into the game which ended 7-7 after full time. The boys showed unbelievable composure to win the penalty shootout and claim 1st place at Rondebosch tournament for the first time. Michael Mafunda was named goalkeeper of the tournament and Matt Fenn was named player of the tournament.

The U15A team played in the Ian Melliar Cup hosted by Wynberg over the same weekend. They finished 2nd in their pool winning 3 from 4 games, only losing to Selborne College. The team grew in strength with each game and won the next 3 playoff games, beating Grey High School 6-3; Reddam House 7-6 in the Quarter finals; then Paul Roos 5-4 in the Semi-finals, to advance into the final. They came up against Selborne College in the final for what was a very tense and low scoring game which went the way of Selborne in the end. The team brought home the silver medal with Daniel van den Heever making the tournament team and Alex Laspatzis being named goalkeeper of the tournament.

Both teams have done us proud!

WP Water Polo Selection

Congratulations to the following boys on their selection to WP Water polo teams:
 
U14A
Matthew Fenn
Michael Mafunda
James Malan

U15A
Noah Edmunds
Daniel van den Heever

U15B
Christopher Du Toit
Jake Fenn

U16A
Ross Walker
Thomas Truter
Alexander Smit
Ross Stewart

U16B
John Bos
Bryn Parry
Cameron Moon

U19A
Timothy van Heerden

U19B
Benjamin Hatty
Trento Lambrechts

African Relations Society: New Leaders for 2022 - 2023

We would like to congratulate the new chairperson and deputy chairperson of the African Relations Society as well as the new committee.
Chairperson: Ayanda Bonoyi
Deputy Chairperson: Lutho Cutshwa
Committee members:
Gilermo Mentoe
Paballo Magadla
Xhanti Ngxangane
Christian Steward

Cricket

Congratulations to the following 15 Bishops boys who, after attending 15 hours worth of midweek evening lectures during August and September, wrote and passed, the Cricket South Africa (CSA) Level 1 umpires exam.
They are now qualified to officiate provincial-standard U19 matches.

Well done to these boys:
Andoni Augoustatos
Nicholas Axten
Joseph Bolus
Adam Diggle
Jack Gomes
Benjamin Koenig
Adnaan Lagadien
David Lewis
Noah Macnab
Singalakha Mayoyo
Shankara Moodley
James Robb-Quinlan
Samuel Stavely-Alexander
Kyle Stirk
Alex Tadross

A special mention to Mr Nzuza who also passed the exam.

Holiday Cricket Tours

There are four Bishops cricket sides set to depart today (Friday) on holiday tours, we wish them well for their respective tours:
1st XI is travelling to East London to participate in the annual Cape Schools Cricket Week hosted by Selborne College.
U17As head to Michaelhouse, in the KZN Midlands, to play five matches against upcountry opposition.
U15As will be competing in the Grey High School Colts Cricket Festival and have matches scheduled in Gqeberha and Makhanda.
U14As will play in the annual Charl van Rooyen Cricket Week hosted this year by Affies in Pretoria, and have four tough matches v Johannesburg and Pretoria-based opposition ahead.

Interhouse Soccer

Spirits were high as the houses battled it out down at Lutgensvale to see who will lift the Interhouse Soccer trophies. In the senior finals, Kidd played School and Kidd House walked away as the Senior Interhouse champions. The juniors had a closely contested game that came down to penalties and White House took the win over Ogilvie. Well done to all houses and thanks for playing in positive spirits.

Interhouse Surfing Competition

The 2022 Interhouse surfing competition was held on Saturday 17th September at Blouberg Beach in 3-4 foot offshore conditions that proved to be quite challenging.
After the initial round of heats, the two finals were held.

Junior Final
William Prestage (Birt House) and Sebastian von Bormann (Ogilvie House)
Winner: Sebastian von Bormann (Ogilvie House).

Senior Final
Kai Zander (Birt House) and Josh McDonald (White House)
Senior winner: Kai Zander (Birt House)

The overall house points were as follows:
Fifth: School House
Fourth: White House
Third: Kidd House
Second: Ogilvie House
First Place: Birt House who are awarded the surfing trophy for 2022.

Please click here to view photos of the arrivals.

VUSA wishes to thank the Bishops Community for their incredible support this term.  Please click here to view their third quarter update. For more info about VUSA, please contact Brendan Fogarty or Nikki Matthews.

Join the ODU

Parents of current matrics please encourage your sons to join the ODU so that we can keep in touch with them when they leave school.  We need their post matric email addresses in particular because the school email address will be deactivated when they leave.

The ODU has a mentorship programme and amazing network that could prove really useful in your son’s future career. We are here to help and support them beyond school life, so please take advantage of this. LINK TO JOIN: Join | Bishops OD Alumni Network (odunion.com)