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The Grade 12 Students were officially welcomed into Knighthood in a moving ceremony on Monday 21 January.

Each grade 12 student was accompanied by their father, Old Boy or mentor – who then pinned the Knight badge to their blazer, marking their transition from Squires to Knights.

It was a special morning for the grade 8’s as well, as they each had the opportunity to ring the Millennium Bell, marking their entry into Northwood as young Squires.

Our guest speaker, Mr Alex McAlery, an Old Boy, encouraged the students to “Seize the day” and reminded the students that “there is no such thing as a stranger in Northwood”.

History has been made with Donald Ngwenya, the KZN Rugby Union Development Manager since 2007 being appointed as the Northwood Rugby Head Coach. Ngwenya beat out 21 other suitably qualified candidates that had applied for the position which became available overnight. He holds a Bachelors degree in Economics and a Sports Management Diploma from the University of Johannesburg but more importantly he has 23 years of coaching experience under the belt. He started his career in the classroom as a teacher, pretty much just like outgoing coach Swys de Bruin did. Ironically he joined the Sharks from the Golden Lions where he had been their Development Official from 2002 to 2007. Now Ngwenya benefits from the sudden departure by de Bruin to the Golden Lions from the Sharks (and Northwood).

Apart from his role as the Development Manager which includes overseeing the coaching and financial structures at about 30 little development club projects, Ngwenya has been involved in coaching at a provincial level as well as with the SA Schools, SA under-19 and SA under-20 teams. Key to his appointment was the success he achieved as coach of the DSRU under-16 side that beat the Bulls in the Inter-provincial Tournament (IPT) club rugby final in 2012. Along the way to winning this title he also won over the support of the players and their parents. The Northwood Rugby Board (NRB) is confident that he can build on this youth club rugby success at school rugby level.

Our 2013 grade 8’s had their first taste of being a Northwood Squire after experiencing a fun-filled two day orientation at their new school.

The staff and prefects planned a busy and engaging program for the boys – with the highlight being the braai and sleepover on Monday evening.  Even though the boys had a busy day of sporting, academic and social activities, most were still awake until the small hours off the morning! Tuesday morning saw many tired yet happy faces as they all trooped off for breakfast and a swim before being taken to the school hall to practice the Northwood Call and to sign the Squires Pledge.

The Northwood orientation is a supervised program that is targeted towards whole-school leadership and character development. Although possibly challenging at times, it is an enjoyable and worthwhile experience which familiarizes the boys with the facilities, academic and extra mural expectations, as well as giving the boys the opportunity to make new friends.

We wish all our new Grade 8 s a happy and productive year ahead!

Northwood Matrics had their best results in years, being one of only two boys schools  to be placed in the Top 10 with 21 students achieving 6 or more distinctions.

No fewer than 15 of our students achieved 7 straight A’s, and Jason Wessels (our head prefect and cricket captain) achieved a mighty 8 A’s, a first for the school.

We congratulate all our successful candidates and wish them all continued success in the years to come!

The children of the Northwood staff had a fun-filled day with swimming, party food and a giant jumping castle all adding to the excitement of the end of year Kid’s Christmas Party.

The absolute highlight of the afternoon was when Father Christmas arrived in true style – landing in a helicopter on the school field, and bearing presents for all the children.

“Your work is super mommy!” was the comment of one VERY impressed 3 year old!

The KZN U19A Softball Team of which Luke Wright and Hilton Venning-Pridham were members, won the Inter-Provincial Softball Tournament held at Queensmead last weekend. The B team were placed 4th and Dean Rice formed part of that team.

Tyler Smith was selected to play for the KZN U16A Softball Team which also in the Inter-Provincial Tournament at Queensmead last weekend. The A team won the tournament beating the KZN B team in the play-offs of which Jethro Broughton, Cole Pretorius and Hugh Cunningham are members.

Well done to our boys!

It was a moving and poignant moment at the Final Assembly on Thursday 6th December as Mr Jordan rang the Northwood bell 37 times for each year he has been at the school.  The Matrics of 2012 donned their school uniforms one last time to pay respect to their Headmaster and to officially “ring the bell” to signify the end of their schooling career – however, they will forever remain the Knights of Northwood.  We wish them well with their future endeavors  and look forward to welcoming them into the Northwood Old Boys community.

After months of serious reading Northwood’s Olympic Reading challenge came to nail-biting close as they boys rose to the challenge to be Northwood’s champion reader.  Sean Wakeford, and old boy from 1986 and the generous benefactor of a Kindle as the first prize, came to officiate at the prize giving where the students had anxiously gathered to hear the final results.

Brett Van Dort (Grade 11) was the overall winner, reading over a staggering 7500 pages in the Heavyweight category (a book of more than 450 pages), as well as completing all the other categories, with extra books added in for good measure and valuable extra points! Mayuran Chettiar (Grade 10) was a close second, with Leelan Govender (Grade 9) in Third Place. A deserving mention goes out to Quentin Ward Grade 8, Wade Buckthorp Grade 9, Akil Ganda Ranchard  Grade 10 and Tristan Jones Grade 11 for being their overall Grade winners.  Bevan Naidoo Grade 8 won the Most Enthusiastic reading prize.

A big thank you goes out to The Bierfassl, Kensington Spar, Bargain Books, Book & Books, Exclusive Books, Maytex Surf Shop, Pan MacMillan Publishers, Thompson’s Hair Salon, Wimpy Glenashely and The Wavehouse for supporting this reading initiative and for the wonderful selection of prizes donated.

We look forward to continuing with this competition in the years to come.

Northwood had over 10 boys ride the 40km race, and we are proud to say all the boys finished in under an hour.

The challenge of the 106km race was taken up by 3 staff members and one of the boys. The race was successfully completed by all our riders.

We would like to thank all the boys and their parents for their commitment and dedication to our early morning training sessions. A special thank you to our sponsor , Sun Cell Watch, for making our amazing cycling kit possible

In 2013, our main focus will be the Inter-Schools Series. By entering these events the boys could be eligible for KZN colours for Mountain Biking. We are excited about this new sport at Northwood and are looking forward to this sport growing from strength to strength.