EDITION 27 12 September 2019
Calling
A great message from the Clifton Photography Club:
“We don’t need hundreds of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly.”
Executive Headmaster Dear Clifton Family After the washout last year, I was able to experience my first Clifton Founders’ Saturday, and what an enjoyable experience it was too! From the younger Prep boys enjoying themselves at the games arcade, to the mountain of delicious eats provided by Grades 4, 6, 8 and 10 in the Barry Richards Pavilion (thank you!), to the matches against the Old Boys, played in a wonderful spirit with ‘come-from-behind’ wins for the College in Basketball and Water polo, it all made for a most entertaining morning. It was a real pity that the inclement weather caused soggy pitches, forcing us to cancel the Cricket and Soccer matches. The weather also affected the preparations for the War Cry “Spell” at the end of the festivities on Saturday morning. The “Spell” will instead be done after the Matric Valedictory Service next term. Nonetheless, we were grateful for a clearer, if overcast day, which certainly didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the players, nor the spectators at the Basketball, or on the Aquatic Centre stands – nor, dare I say, the enthusiasm of the spectators (read “parents”) at the Grade R Tugof-War – probably the most intensely competitive group of the morning’s activities! Well done to you for your enthusiasm! On Friday afternoon of the we enjoyed the Golf and Hockey matches against the Old Boys – a win for the College and an exciting draw, respectively – and a festive Old Boys Cocktail Party that evening. It was wonderful to see a good number of older Prep Old Boys in attendance – the oldest OB finished his Grade 8 (Std 6) year in 1968. Yes. Clifton Prep used to go to Grade 8. At the Assembly in the morning, we heard two short but powerful messages from the 2009 Head Boy, JJ Booysen, and from The Venerable Chris Meyer who urged us “to make a difference, not a noise”. He challenged us to focus our accomplishments outwards for the benefit of others rather than self, and gave us insight into our Clifton motto. All-in-all, a really enjoyable Founders’ Weekend and celebration of our heritage, as well as of our connection to our Old Boy community and our founders. My sincere thanks to all involved in the
arrangements, in whatever capacity. Thank you too, to our parents, boys and Old Boys for their support. In my address to the Founders’ Assembly, I referred to the on-going scourge of gender-based violence, and our commitment as a school to reflect and hold ourselves accountable. Please see page 5 in this edition of the Clifton Calling. I trust that our Matrics are spending this two-week period after their exams constructively as they go over their trials papers and prepare for the final push. This is a critical time and going over their papers is an important exercise in order to revise effectively in the holidays. As such it is concerning to see a number of matric boys not attending school. I urge our matric parents to ensure that their sons are at school until their formal study leave starts next term. The first of the Final IEB Examinations is next week, with Life Sciences Paper 3 being written on Wednesday. As we move into the last week of the term, just a reminder that it is Heritage Week at Clifton next week with the public holiday (Heritage Day) falling during the first week of the holidays. We are also preparing to host our 2019 Clifton Jam Water Polo Tournament over the long weekend from Saturday 21 to Tuesday 24, and the tents will start being erected on the Whitehead Oval next week. We are certainly looking forward to that feast of top-class Water Polo as 14 teams join us from all parts of the country! Parents in the College will know that we are participating in an international research project called “Excellence in Boys’ Schools”, run under the auspices of the CIRCLE organisation who work with the International Boys Schools Coalition, of which Clifton School, both Prep and College, is a proud member. This comes on the back of extensive research into Character Education in boys’ schools. The CEO of CIRCLE, Dr Phil Cummins, recently visited Clifton and presented the latest research on Character Education to a group of staff and addressed the College Assembly.
I have added this link in which he addresses this topic. He is introduced by Dr Ian Lambert, the Principal of Scots College in Sydney.
This is obviously a loss not just for DGC, but also for us at Clifton, in that Mr Goedeke will be joining his wife in Cape Town. He will be leaving us at some stage, either at the end of this year, or at the https://vimeo.com/330177574/4c7cd9063b end of the first term next year. Once his plans are The Character Education programme is included in confirmed, we will let our community know and our Leadership Programme, introduced this year. write more formally about Mr Goedeke’s significant contribution to Clifton. In the meantime, we wish the Mr and Mrs Goedeke Goedeke family all the best for this exciting, and Many of our community will have heard that Mrs perhaps daunting, new venture. Heather Goedeke, who is Head of the high school Yours faithfully at Durban Girls’ College, has been appointed as Head of Herschel Girls’ School in Cape Town. We congratulate Mrs Goedeke on this well-deserved appointment. Mrs Goedeke was one of the Foundation teachers here when Clifton College DAVE KNOWLES started in 2002. EXECUTIVE HEADMASTER
Meander On Friday Messrs Knowles and Goedeke will be at Riverside for the 1st XI College cricket match with Rondebosch. On Saturday Messrs White, Mezher, Knowles and Ravenscroft will be at the Prep hockey matches being played against Cordwalles. Messrs Goedeke, Knowles and Bresler will be at the College cricket matches being played against DHS.
Congratulates Jarryd Walker (Grade 10) and Ben Maehler (Grade 9) who won the K2 U16 age group category of the Jock Claasens Upper Umgeni race over the weekend.
Michael Bensch, Anthony Traicos (Grade 11), Shaun Matthysen, William Telfer (Grade 9) and Alexander Christie-Reardon (Grade 8) who represented Clifton this week when we hosted the annual Festival of Speaking - SPEAK! Over 40 speakers attended from across the province to compete in Round 1 which was Prepared Speaking and Impromptus.
The Clifton 1st XI Cricket Team who drew against Jeppe and won against St Alban’s at the St David’s Time Festival. They faced DHS in the T20 and won by 24 runs. Keep it up, gents!
Our U18 Indoor Hockey Team who came 3rd in the Open Indoor Hockey League beating Northwood B in the 3rd/4th playoff.
Our 1st XI Prep cricket captain, Murray Hall-Jones for his half century (54 not out) at the KZN Provincial cricket trials. Congrats also go to Jason Adams and Timothy Saulez who batted exceptionally well for their teams in the KZN Provincial trials. Jason achieved the milestone of scoring his maiden century while Timothy scored a well-constructed 50. Well done, boys.
To Adam Selikow for taking 1st place in the U12 800m and Daniel Hompes for taking 1st place in the U13 race at the Virginia Prep Athletics meeting. Clifton placed 2nd overall.
A few words from our Executive Headmaster, Mr David Knowles, at the opening of our Founders' Day Assembly... "Before I go into the reasons for us gathering here today, and the celebratory mood that accompanies such an important and indeed seminal event in our annual calendar, I do want to reflect briefly on our current national context. As you know today has been called "Black Friday", to highlight the scourge of gender-based violence in our country. Indeed, this whole week has seen protests and marches and gatherings as people come together to express their feelings about the recent incidents of violence, rape and murder of women, particularly the violent deaths, at the hands of men, of UCT student Uyinene Mrwetyana and boxing champion Leighandre Jegels
I stand before you as the son of a woman, the husband of a woman, the brother of a woman, the father of a young woman and the uncle of a young woman, who happens to be a first year student at UCT, in the same residence as Nene, who was a friend - my niece spoke at the gathering at UCT on Wednesday, along with the Chancellor, Dr Graca Machel, and others, which in some way made it more personal. I am a colleague and former colleague of some amazing woman with whom I have had the privilege of working over the course of my career. I am angry that this scourge of violence, which sadly is not new in our country, continues, seemingly unabated, and that the women I have mentioned and love and know, as well as millions of women I don't know, are unable to feel safe, and are unable to be safe, in our country. I am fearful that I am not able to safeguard and protect those women I know nor prevent an attack on them, or even that they should need protection from men at all. In that sense I feel impotent. And in the final instance I am angry that this violence is done by people of my gender, although clearly not in my name. I am conscious that this issue, this scourge of femicide, this problem, this epidemic - words that somehow don't seem enough to describe what is happening – this crises, perhaps - is something that men must solve - we cannot stand back and expect women to solve this alone. Whatever we might have done in the past clearly was not enough.
As an advocate of boys' schools, and working as we do in a boys' school, which is intentional in its aim of producing "good men", I know that we need to redouble our efforts, be more proactive and more vigilant for any sign of misogyny or gender disrespect. We must be unambiguous in our message that the current situation and mind set has to change, and as individuals and as a school community, I believe that we need to reflect on how we treat women in our own lives and take responsibility of our own attitudes and our unconscious bias. We need to reflect on our current culture, our attitudes and our actions, as men, and indeed all of us who work and learn here, and role model the behaviour we want to see. As teachers and as a learning community we know the power of education. It’s not that education changes the world, but rather that education changes people, and people change the world. As such we commit to educating our boys to be good men, who will be good boyfriends, good husbands and partners, good fathers, good citizens and good people, who will speak out and make a stand when they witness any such abuse. We commit to the values of respect, care and dignity, and strive to build a community where compassion and the concept of gentlemen in its truest sense are foremost in our hearts and minds. At this stage, words are not enough, but as an individual man and as one of the leaders of this school, I stand in solidarity with those who have spoken out and marched this week. The boys and staff have worn black or are wearing black arm bands in solidarity. I'd ask that you stand with me now to hold a moment's silence, as we remember those women who have suffered in any way at the hands of men, and pray for the strength to create a society and a future that is simply devoid of this curse." David Knowles 6 September 2019
https://www.theibsc.org/about-ibsc/ ibsc-supports-boys
Cameos
The grade R’s have done extremely well at collecting food for the SPCA! The challenge has been set for the rest of the school who are doing their best to collect all they can! The Grade 1 boys are doing a superb job too!
It was wonderful to have Damon Beard from East Coast Radio with us on Saturday. Damon was blown away by our beautiful school and also remarked on the wonderful manners our boys displayed. Well done Clifton lads!
Our Clifton Water Polo Team wore black tape on their right arms in support of #riseupforwomen on Saturday during their match against the Old Boys. We commend you on this initiative, gents.
The Clifton Old Boys Basketball Team applaud the Clifton Team after their victory against the Old Boys on Saturday
There was much cheering and supporting of our Red Ants during their epic Tug-of-war battles on the Whitehead Oval on Saturday!
The Grade 1’s enjoyed the sunshine while planting bean seedlings in their playground. They are going to have such fun watering them and watching them grow!
The Grade R boys went on an exciting excursion to Phezulu. They even got to hold a real, live Python!
The Grade 2 boys took their reading outdoors under the ‘shade’ of the new Wild Pear tree that they planted during Arbor week. We look forward to watching it grow with you, lads!
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