Dear Parents
INTER-HOUSE SINGING
As you will have heard and seen on the schedule, we have started practising for the Inter-House Singing Competition. If this is your first son at the Prep, you will not have experienced this event yet, one that is a real highlight for the school. Ordinarily it took place every second or third year and the last was in 2018, but Covid and lockdown threw everything out of sync, and so in our 175th year we are holding it again.
What is it? If you have a son at the College you would have experienced the annual Eisteddfod Week that culminates in the Inter-House Singing, held in the last few years at the Cape Town Convention Centre. Ours is a simpler version and not managed by the boys as at College. Essentially there is a set song that each House sings and then a choice song. Each House is allocated a music teacher who coaches and accompanies the House, assisted by the House and Assistant House Directors. It can involve quite a bit of cajoling, although hopefully more inspiring, to get the boys to participate fully, but we are a singing school and this is a wonderful celebration of that.
The actual competition takes place on Friday night, 11 October, in the Mallett Centre; this is when the boys come alive, showing us what they can achieve together, and wanting to win the trophy. They are not perfect choirs – every boy from Grade 3-7 participates, but there is always a wonderful exuberance and lifting of the spirits as the boys entertain us.
WHO APOLOGISES?
At last week’s Friday assembly, I quoted from a book I often use, “Leading Like Madiba” by Martin Kalungu-Banda. The event we focussed on was two visits by Nelson Mandela to Zambia in the 1990s. Dr Kenneth Kaunda, a long-time president of Zambia, had been a great friend to the ANC throughout the apartheid years as the ANC operated under cover as well as in exile. His first visit to Zambia coincided with a national election in which Kaunda was facing a strong and popular opposition party. Mandela publicly exhorted Zambians to vote for their President, citing his history in the struggle for freedom, both in their home country and across the continent. As it happened, Kaunda lost. On a later visit, Mandela acknowledged that he had made a mistake, it was not just Kaunda who had supported the ANC and fought for freedom, but the Zambian nation. It was their choice to choose the government they wished for and so he apologised to the Zambian people at a news conference.
It is not often that a world leader publicly apologises for a personal action, acknowledging that he was wrong. It took courage, but above all, showed strength of character. Apologising meant he acknowledged both his error and the fact that his action had upset many Zambians. Far from showing weakness, it showed his sense of accountability and responsibility – thereafter an apology could and would follow naturally.
The lesson was that we should be able to reflect on our actions and words, take responsibility and, if necessary, apologise – not glibly, too quickly, just to get out of “trouble” or a situation, but reflectively and genuinely to right a wrong, make amends and hopefully improve our relationship with others.
Best wishes
Kind regards
GREG BROWN
HEADMASTER |
