Dear Parents
MUSIC CONCERTS
We have had a wonderful week on so many fronts, but music has particularly stood out for me with two concerts this week. The Grade 3 Beginners’ Concert held in our Jagger Hall had more than fifty boys performing (out of 74), many of them for the first time this year. And with possibly the most extensive range of instruments I have seen: piano, drums, strings, brass, flute and clarinet. A really great beginning to Prep music for these boys and their parents who attended.
On Wednesday night we held our annual Ensemble Concert in the Memorial Chapel. The acoustics in the Chapel bring out the very best in our ensemble playing. We had four string ensembles, our wind band, marimba band and a vocal ensemble. Still no choir, but that will come. Possibly most gratifying was the fact that these ensembles had found ways to practise and grow in their playing over the difficult year we have had, practising spread out in the hall or outside even, all to keep safe but still play.
We have two more concerts over the next fortnight, the Grade 4-7 Beginners’ Concert and our Leavers’ Concert.
POLICIES
The updated Diversity and Transformation Policy is now on our website in three languages: English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa. Go to the Information tab and it appears under Policies. The Transformation Committee is currently working on another three policies. Thank you to all of you who provided input after the draft was sent out last term. It is greatly appreciated.
STAFFING
Sadly, our Divinity teacher, Jeremy Smith, has to move on. It is however ultimately good news for him as he has to attend a year at the Anglican Seminary in Grahamstown. We hope that this is a step closer to ordination as a priest in the Anglican Church. We have seen a real calling to full time ministry in Jeremy and we have really enjoyed his teaching and talks since October 2019. The boys and staff have appreciated his very down to earth approach, his inspiring messages and his open mindedness. We wish him well. We are now in the process of recruiting his replacement.
HAIR AND LATECOMERS
We still have an unacceptable number of latecomers each morning. I think boys have got used to our leniency around this over the months, but we now have to raise our expectations. We will start taking names of latecomers again and there will be consequences for those who continue to arrive late.
We have four weeks left to the end of the term and we want our boys to finish well. To this end we are monitoring boys’ hair very carefully as the state of the boys’ hair has to be acceptable at the end of term still. We acknowledge that there are different hair types, but hair must be neat and tidy and fashionable styles are not allowed. Those can happen in the first week of the holidays.
Please do support us in both of these issues.
Wishing you a good weekend.
Kind regards
GREG BROWN
HEADMASTER |
