LEADERS
From the School Operations Manager Mr Graeme Broster: BSc (Hons), HDE (PG) Sec
“Our dilemma is that we hate change and love it at the same time. What we really want is for things to remain the same but get better.” (Sydney J. Harris, American journalist) 2013 has been a year of change, disruption, frustration and essential, exciting growth. Construction of the long-awaited Mathematics and Physical Sciences Centre (Phase 1 of the Integrated Campus Development Plan) finally began and progressed steadily, with the usual complications, hiccoughs and frustrations along the way, throughout the year. At the time of writing, the exterior is virtually complete and we are eagerly awaiting the opportunity to begin fitting it out so that the Centre can be used from the beginning of 2014. Elsewhere in the school, renovation work was carried out on seven bathrooms around the main school building, in order to bring these facilities out of the 50s and into the 21st century. In addition new counselling offices were created for the Life Orientation Department and the classroom used for Life Orientation teaching has been doubled in size. A new Administration wing will be created with expanded offices for the Finance Department, offices for Marketing, Communications and Operations teams, as well as for Ms Blackshaw. Although it has been exciting to watch the changes and developments as they have taken shape before our eyes, living with and managing construction work on this sort of scale is never easy and the nerves and patience of parents, pupils and school staff were stretched to breaking point and beyond at various points in the process. Much credit and thanks must be given to Mr Myles Siebrits (Campus Manager) and Mr Stephen Nicholas (Campus Supervisor) who have been at the coal face of interacting with the contractors on a daily basis, as well as over weekends and during school holidays. Their hard work and commitment has helped to keep the various projects on track.
RGHS MAGAZINE 2013
Alongside this construction, the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) set up a maintenance project which addressed several longstanding waterproofing issues around the school campus and replaced the 80-year-old tiles on parts of the Kemp Hall and the whole of Erinville Hostel. In addition, the WCED gave Rustenburg a monetary contribution toward a range of maintenance issues around the campus which kept the grounds staff and various contractors even busier. Such tasks included: repaving a section of the roadway, painting neglected parts of the exterior buildings, repairing the spalling concrete in the Kemp Hall cloisters, replacing and upgrading the electrical wiring in parts of the interior. With construction of Phase 1 not yet completed, the ICDP Task Team has already begun to look ahead to further phases. A feasibility study is underway for the location of an Astro Turf playing field near the current swimming pool. Future phases also include the expansion of the swimming pool into an Aquatic Centre suitable for both swimming and water polo, the construction of a “leadership block” with further additional classrooms that will be required as the school grows over the next three years, a multi-purpose hall and a reconstructed entrance to the school from Camp Ground Road. Changes and alterations to the support staff personnel also took their toll, with a number of people coming and going in different roles, and the team growing all the time in anticipation of the future needs of the school. We were delighted to welcome Mr Francis Vogts (ICT Manager), Ms Dee Penny (Assistant Bursar), Mr Adrian Munnik and Mr Jonathan Doddemeade (Assistant Handymen), Mr Ali Ibrahim (Groundsman) as well as Ms Zola Nokuzola, Ms Primrose Mketo, Ms Klara Constable, Ms Globisa Mlozane and Ms Veronica Kabinda (Cleaners).
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