Address by Headmaster:
Ladies and Gentleman, Parents, invited guests, including Mr Barry Holland, peers from our various schools, Departmental officials, Old Boys and former staff members, including former Headmaster Mr Corvishley, who have returned to join us today, Squires who are with us today, Staff who have invested so heavily in our guests of honour, and our guests of honour themselves: The Knights, Class of 2024 – welcome to this special occasion.
The celebration of Northwood 2024 is long. I understand that there will be people timing me! I am damned if I do and damned if I don’t. Damned if I celebrate everybody that needs celebrating, because then I am that guy with a long speech. But Damned if I don’t celebrate everybody that needs mention! Because they deserve mention!
If you will allow me, let me start with a few thank you’s.
Peer Principals – thank you for joining us, and for supporting our school as you do. Especially, a special welcome to our feeder schools represented today – please do take our appreciation for the work that you have done with our learners – we see the exit results, but are aware that we build on the foundation that you lay. Thank you also for your role in supporting me as I settle here.
ECDOE: Ms Shamase is not with us today, as she is currently celebrating Ms Erika Hayes-Hill’s retirement celebration and Speech Day at Durban Girls High School. She sends her express apology for not being here, but also her best wishes to our learners. Mrs Joseph, thank you for joining us today, and for all of your support for Northwood! On a personal level, I want to thank all officials at the Department who assisted and supported my transfer to Northwood. It was a process that was all above board, even if new, and unprecedented.
SGB: In that same vein, thank you to our SGB members who are present today. Thank you for having faith in me, and initiating that transfer I spoke about, but also thank you for your time and investment in the school.
Mr Richard Mun-Gavin, thank you for your support of Marionelle and I, and the countless hours you give to this school.
A number of matric parents in the hall who have served this school over the years and this represents an end of an era – I won’t mention names, but you know who you are.
SUPPORT STAFF: I want to thank all of our support staff who work long hours, and invariably behind the scenes in support of what we do – our Peppers and Pans team in the BE, our Flowline teams in the school and on our campus, and Mr Henk Bezuidenhout and his team in the tuckshops, especially.
Not sure if I have left anyone off?
STAFF: Colleagues on stage (and in and around the hall), I want to specifically thank you, and congratulate you on the achievements of your learners today, and this year. I have enjoyed sitting at Danville and Northlands Girls High’s Speech Days this week, and watching the staff as they celebrate and live the achievements of their learners. I know that this will be true for you too. You all invest yourselves so deeply in your kids, and I hope that you will feel reward with every learner who has developed from a Squire into a Knight under your care over these last five years.
While I am on staff – we have a birthday on staff today! We celebrate birthdays with hugs and high fives and chocolates in our staffroom. Baie geluk Juffrou Jansen! Juffrou is voorwaar die definisie van liefde en omgee en passie – werklik, die “Northwood Spirit” runs as strongly in you as it does in our learners! Can we give Mrs Jansen a round of applause?
Mrs Sander and Mrs Stanley, especially for your roles in putting this celebration together.
And then finally, I want to thank our Matric Class of 2024, and their parents.
Parents, thank you for your support of us as a school, and of your sons over these last 18-odd years. It takes a village to raise a child. And this village – between the Blue and White of Northwood and your own home, and everyone else in between, this village has done an amazing job!
Knights, you have endured a difficult year of transition, and you have more than endured it – you have flourished through it. This is a mark of your character, and I am excited to consider what you will achieve if you apply yourselves to the journey ahead of you! Good luck for your exams! Work hard and achieve your full potential. Find that Extra gear as you go into the last 7 weeks of your school career.
Parents, I understand that parents have previously been given an opportunity to come pray on their son’s Matric desks prior to the start of the NSC Exams. We didn’t talk about this in our letter last week, but would love to facilitate that. Please do look out for communication on the D6 around these arrangements.
The year broke with another excellent set of Northwood Matric results. 18 boys achieving A-Aggragates, with five of those getting A’s for all seven subjects. We were the best performing Boys School in the Ethekwini Metro. 98% pass rate, 96,5% qualifying for tertiary studies, and 78,6% qualifying with Bachelors Passes.
Gentleman, that 100% pass rate is elusive – if you achieve it you will be the first ever Northwood Class to have done so. I don’t know if I am qualified to say this, but I am confident that you will go down in history, as the greatest all round class if you achieve 100% pass on top of everything else you have achieved this year.
Sport wise, you have been excellent! Some say the best all round sports year Northwood has ever had.
Across all codes we offer, our 1st teams have been competitive and we have become a force to be reconned with! While our Rugby team showed Big Match Temperament, and always came up with the goods when the chips were down, our 1st Hockey and 1st Basketball Teams had very consistent seasons. While our Basketball won the national St John’s Festival and were ranked at Number 1 Team in the country, our Hockey teams picked the fruit of a pre-season tour to Argentina. Our 1st team enjoyed a very strong season, while our Indoor Team won the Indoor Hockey League again!
Our top players have flourished under the guidance of our excellent sports staff, and we have had no fewer than 98 Provincial Representatives, and 15 SA Representatives this year.
Across the codes, we are represented deep into our structures, and our learners have positive opportunities to express themselves on the sportfields, with their peers in a wide range of sports through the season.
I am incredibly proud of our PE structures – Mr Baker rightly boasts on them and the fact that every single kid in the school gets coached by some of the top schoolboy coaches in the country through our PE structure. We are picking the fruit of these structures, and have reason to be very proud.
Our diverse codes are well represented: From Mountain Biking, to surfing, to E-Sports – there is opportunity for everyone at Northwood! Thank you, and well done again colleagues, and to all our Knights who have participated so positively in these structures to make them as successful as they are.
Our music department are at a level that I have never seen before, and serve the school in any way possible. If it isn’t the Marimba Band playing at a school event, it is the Brass Band or Drumline. Our Debaters have dominated, and the Musical was exceptional! One for the ages. (You get it? Okay, I’ll move on.
We introduced the new look, learner compiled Northwood News. If you haven’t read yesterday’s edition yet, please do go have a look – it has a very rich focus on our outgoing Matric class.
Our Service groups continue to embed the disciplines of serving an institution or others above yourselves. While learning new skills, we must understand that this character development is the mark of what we do at Northwood, almost above all else. One of our key leaders in the field of service, Matthew Balmforth, captain of 1st Aid, was a first respondent to a motor vehicle accident on the M4 earlier this year, and has actually been of service in a number of other similar incidents this year. After one such incident, the email that came to the school thanking him (and us) concluded as follows:
I am touched by this young man’s sense of responsibility, humanity, compassion as well as his social skills and maturity in the way that he dealt with the incident.
Parents, learners, colleagues, Northwood is a school incredibly rich in talent, and incredibly rich in what it offers its learners – more than just it’s learners: What it offers its community! This is a model we need more of in South Africa! I will return to this concept in a bit.
Knights, today is one of those days: many years from now, you will reflect back on your high school path, and the culminating ceremony that this is. What has been such a busy and exciting time in your lives, and – when you look back in time – you will see has been such an influential part of your lives, is drawing to a close. It is not finished yet, but it is very close…
(I will say this for free – the part that remains, is probably more important than all else up until now!)
Gentleman, my time with you has been very short, but you have impacted me hugely. There is an exciting spirit and strength of character at Northwood, which I have seen role-modelled and led – driven – by you. You have come through challenging times:
March 5th 2020, young Gr 8’s finding your way here – the first South African case of Covid 19 was confirmed and announced.
A week later it was announced that school holidays would be brought forward by two weeks.
Two weeks later we went into hard lockdown.
The rest is history, much of it painful and frustrating and I won’t relive all of it. But you all rode through it courageously.
Riots
Floods
Fast forward to this year, or late last year, and announcement of Mr Viljoen’s departure. He sent me something to share with you, and I do it gratefully – his care and love for you is deep:
Dear Knights..On a day like this one looks back on a journey that all of you can be so proud of. It has been an absolute honour to have seen you grown into an exceptional group of men. I pray that your God will bless you, protect you and guide you. It is very sad to not be with you. I miss you all very much, but I know that you are ready to take your place as good men in a world that needs it so much. Thank you Dr Shaw, staff and SGB for serving the boys in a special way. God bless
This year, and the transition in leadership, was never going to be easy. As always, when there is transition in leadership, there is an unsettling, and there is often anxiety. There is invariably both a space and a need for other leaders to step to the fore. And this is what happened at Northwood. From my interactions and visits, I saw a group of leaders, humbly but fervently led by Vuyo, Bryce, Tristan, Thebogo and Warren, who stepped to the fore in leading this school.
And then I want to celebrate those who have led the Boarding Establishment too.
(It is a story which I love: When I visited in April, I wanted to meet Vuyo and the Deputies, and Mrs Kennedy had arranged to have them meet me in the meeting room alongside our offices. But when I arrived for that meeting she said to me, Garth, as I called Vuyo and the Deputies, Dewald and the BE Prefects said they also want to meet the new Headmaster. And so they have also came down to have a meeting with you. Ladies and Gentleman, this talks to me of a firm and confident leadership that takes its place strongly. We need this in South Africa. And so, Dewald, Titas, Kwenzo and Siyanda, I want to specifically thank you for the role you have played in leading the BE – we all know how important the BE is to the ethos of Northwood.)
And then, I would like to give two other leaders some airtime:
The Northwood Spirit is world class and has become world famous. But what I appreciate most is that it is controlled and respectful, it is inclusive and understanding that it forms part of a bigger agenda, underlying everything we do at Northwood. It comes together in a warcy practice and support of our 1st team games, but it is also prevalent in the respect I see across the grades at Northwood. Nigel, as a warcryleader, I have been impressed by your humility and want to celebrate your contribution to Northwood this year.
(Again a story – I was at the Headmaster’s Conference earlier this year when we recorded the springbok warcry which won us the national competition – announced just last week. It was practiced in 10 minutes in our assembly one day, recorded that Wednesday, and hit social media on that Thursday if I remember correctly. Mr Dale Jackson, the Jeppe Headmaster said to me at the conference, “Garth, how much time did you guys spend practicing that?” Not much, I said – these kids really just do it naturally!!! I’m told, IT’S A STATE OF MIND!
But with that said, gentleman, I want to share my lecturn with another leader who has been instrumental in leading this school through this, your Matric year… If I am allowed to do it, a quick FLIP FLIP with Mr Govender.
Mr Govender
I am excited to be involved with Northwood when I see the quality of person – hard workers, talented individuals, people who are willing to take responsibility, relatable leaders. The future looks bright for South Africa if we can refine this talent, and send citizens out from here to impact society. And Grade 12’s, Matrics, Knights, your job is not yet done! And to be honest, it is worth knowing that neither your development nor your contribution to society will ever be “done.” And you will probably never overcome all the challenges lying ahead of you… I don’t think anyone can say it better than our very own Nelson Mandela, and I would like to share an extract, adapted from his book, Long Walk to Freedom – please bear with me, it starts heavy, but consider carefully where I am taking you.
It was during those long and lonely years that my hunger for the freedom of my own people became a hunger for the freedom of all people, white and black. I knew as well as I knew anything that the oppressor must be liberated as surely as the oppressed. Some say that freedom has been achieved. But I know that is not the case. The truth is that we are not yet free; we have merely achieved the freedom to be free, the right not to be oppressed. For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter. I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my walk is not yet ended.
Knights, I’m not wanting to be political. I’m wanting to give you a challenge. I have seen Northwood as a beautifully integrated school, a beautiful mix of learners who have found excellence in the corridors and halls and sports fields of this amazing school, and who share a brotherhood which does not consider differences. It is a beautiful picture that is, unfortunately, not as focussed in the rest of South Africa as it is here. Go from here, and take this unity, this brotherhood, this zest for life, this leadership, this excellence and these high standards into the streets and workplaces and beaches and neighborhoods and institutions of our beautiful country. Go and build on that which has laid a foundation for you. Take what you have, work hard through this final hurdle called your Finals, but then go and be the valiant knight that society needs to see in our young adults.
Acquit ye like men.
And be true to yourself.
