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In the last few weeks, our school community has been involved in the SGB elections which has now been completed. We received 9 nominations, which works out perfectly - as there are 9 vacancies on our SGB for parents. As a result those 9 parents are duly elected as per the Education Department guidelines. Congratulations again to: Steven Boy, Siyabonga Duba, Barend Lensley, Cameron McConnachie, Ellouise Muir, Natalie Ripley, Lunga Twaku, Etienne Walters and Kerryn Wiblin. In the few weeks leading up to the nomination process, our governors had spent a horrible number of hours at interviews, hearings and meetings. It made me think about the amount of extra time and effort our parents at Graeme put in to make this school so amazing. There are so many pressures associated with schools within South Africa, but if your community supports you like ours does, it seems to make dealing with those pressures so much easier.
There’s something extraordinary and mesmerising about watching a lump of clay being turned on a potter’s wheel, being pushed, lifted, pinched and moulded into something beautiful and useful.
We were thrilled to have a new member of our community assisting our staff this week with some modern day issues. Mr Thabang Moleko is in fact a new part of the Graeme College family. He is helping staff work through a number of issues that occur in the workplace and will be having a few more contact sessions with us. On Tuesday we had our first meeting where various complex scenarios were mentioned by the staff, and Mr Moleko gave some stunning advice and feedback. Mr Moleko is currently a lecturer in the Rhodes Business School.
They say that with disruption comes change, and possibly, in many cases that change is for the good. A great example of this is the need to relook at our process for election of School Governing Body members.
There has already been plenty of discussion around Eddie Jones’ recent High Performance Podcast. If you haven't watched it - click on the link below. He briefly alludes to an issue in school sport which is what I would like to comment on in this newsletter. It is just a very interesting topic.
On behalf of the entire Graeme College Staff, we welcome you all back to school. We welcome, especially, our new children and their families and assure you that you will soon feel very welcome and hopefully become an integral part of Graeme College.
With the end of the academic year racing to the finish line the grade 9 class made their decisions on subject choice for the final phase of their secondary education. These life-changing decisions will not only impact the rest of their schooling career, but their futures as well.
Not too long ago, I sat in a webinar and listened to the great Anil Kumble give advice about leg-spin bowling. He played 132 Test matches and 271 ODI’s for India - taking 956 international wickets along the way (which ranks him as the third highest wicket taker in the history of the game). He was also a former head coach of the Indian cricket team. In 2015 he was inducted into ICC Hall of Fame and in 2005 he was awarded the Padma Shri, which is one of India’s highest civilian honours.
With exams having begun for most of the high school boys this week, many of the boys have reached a saturation point and cannot wait for the final examinations to be completed, so that they can enjoy a good break from the daily routine of school life.
Our community was rocked by the tragic passing of an Old Grameian recently; of course, all our thoughts and prayers are with his family. A colleague also had to say good-bye to a very dear family friend recently as well. When I read this extract, I knew that I needed to share it with them and our community. As always, I searched for the origins, and sadly, found the emotive story behind it wasnt that accurate. I am referring to the poem written by the Cranky Old Man. I was probably a little disappointed to discover that it was actually written by a nurse more than 50 years ago. Although the original is equally as powerful and emotive as the edited version. The Sunday Post explains the origins more accurately: