The 2023 Chronicle

PRIZE GIVING

ADDRESS BY THE RECTOR, MR ANTONY CLARK

15 FEBRUARY 2023

best universities in the world. On that score, it was heartening to receive a photograph from Tapiwa Chikwanda, our dux of 2020,who has been achieving outstanding results at UPenn, one of the most famous American Ivy League universities, where his work was brought to the attention of the president of UPenn, Liz Magill. Michaelhouse boys continue to do us proud. Now I am going to be brief, boys, but it is appropriate that I take this opportunity to give you a clear message about some of the ways in which academic success is achieved and what the qualities are which lead to that success. I am going to limit myself to six of these qualities, and it may be that the prize winners, themselves, are not alert to all of these. Firstly, ambition is important. You have to want to be successful to succeed. Tapiwa Chikwanda wanted to go to UPenn. Others will want to go to UCT or Pretoria or whatever they may want to do. It doesn’t matter what your goals may be, but we all need to see the end goal if we are to fulfil our ambition. Secondly, academic curiosity is critical for success. This means that one would seek to find out more about a range of different topics. Academic curiosity implies going deeper into areas of study, researching them and developing a range of viewpoints. Asking the question why is all-important. Thirdly, rigour. Rigour revolves around revisiting material and preparing for the next day and considering issues which might be brought into the ambit of the study of a topic. It implies both consolidation of material, thinking through what has been transacted in class and trying to be one step ahead of the game in preparation for the days or weeks ahead. Both revision and anticipation of what is to come. Fourthly, independence in learning. Success comes, partially, through taking yourself away from the crowd and considering what you have learnt and are learning by yourself, reading further and deeper and challenging established views on any academic topic. Fifthly, interdependence. This involves collaboration with other learners and working with them to meet certain goals and aspirations. Being able to distinguish what is worthwhile learning from your peers and what is not so valuable. The ability to synthesize material and advance arguments. Sixthly, resilience. This means continuing to strive for success, even when you have disappointments and things have not gone your way. Being tough on yourself. Putting in the hard yards. Not necessarily expecting success first time round. Sticking to it.

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ood afternoon to you all, parents, boys and staff and, on this occasion, may I extend a special welcome to Mrs Tracy Woodland, the mother of our Senior Prefect, who has kindly agreed as our Guest of Honour to award the prizes to the boys today. Mrs Woodland is also the mother of the 2022 dux , Peter Woodland, so her being our Guest of Honour is doubly appropriate and it is possibly a first in the history of Michaelhouse that our special guest is the mother of the previous year’s dux as well as of the current year’s Senior Prefect. So, Tracy, thank you for giving of your time to grace Michaelhouse with your sparkling presence today. And a big thank you, too, goes to Mr Simon Woodland seated in the audience who is in effect her plus one for today! As everyone knows, our chief purpose this afternoon is to encourage and reward those who excelled in the academic realm in 2022 in the B to E Blocks, and in doing so we restate that our intention is to aim to develop each boy to the maximum of his potential. What is ultimately of importance to you, boys, is that you should “be the best that you can you be”, the best version of yourself in every sphere of life, including the academic one. Certainly, at Michaelhouse we believe in a holistic education: we believe in the importance of sport, music, drama and cultural activities, but it is the academic thread which is the golden one and which gives a principal focus and purpose to each day, week and term. There are few things more wonderful to see in education than the synergy that exists in an academic environment in which the potential for understanding and the deepening of knowledge unfolds, and the quest to study further and deeper becomes part of an individual psyche. It is the magical moment when teachers and pupils are working in concert with each other to maximise the potential of the student. Looking back on 2022, our matriculation class and their teachers deserve to feel very pleased with their IEB results as the majority of our boys performed at a level slightly above our expectations of them. It was not a vintage year, but we maintained a 100% pass rate and our boys averaged 2.3 As per boy, which put us second amongst boys’ schools writing the IEB exams across KwaZulu Natal. 25% achieved an A aggregate and 42 boys achieved a B aggregate. The average mark across all subjects was 71%, and six of our subjects had boys in the top 1% in South Africa. Congratulations to our dux , Peter Woodland, who achieved eight As and an average of 88.6%. He was hotly pursued by the promixe accessit , Benjamin Frost, who achieved seven As. I must mention that Freddy Waller actually achieved nine distinctions and yet was only placed eighth equal on our list of high achievers. None of those boys are here this evening, but we are delighted for them and know they will be sought after by the

Just to recap, I have suggested six things you need to have or do

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