FLIPPING BOOK CHRONICLE 2024

C BLOCK The C Block boys were tasked with designing a new three bedroom contemporary home in Port St John’s, Eastern Cape. They were provided with a detailed brief that emphasized the integration of sustainable, off-the-grid living solutions. The boys embraced the challenge, excited by the opportunity to design their first home, and produced several outstanding designs. As part of the C Block curriculum, the boys were introduced to more advanced CAD techniques. Equipped with these new skills they approached the working drawings for their projects with confidence, demonstrating both technical growth and creativity in their designs. Congratulations to Gabriel Isabwa and Elliot Springate for achieving an exceptional 99% on their project work. Their projects demonstrated remarkable creativity, technical precision and innovative, sustainable design. Additionally, a special commendation goes to Gabriel Isabwa for securing an impressive 98% as his final year result. D & E BLOCK The primary objective of both D and E Blocks was to Staff: Mrs Sally Cahill, Mrs Katherine Cass, Mr Jed Coventry, Mr Gavin Erasmus, Mrs Claire Hornby, Mr Michael Kimber, Mr Justin McDougall, Mr Evan Mickleburgh, Mr Gerry Noel, Mr Lwando Saunders, Mr Michael Sevenoaks, Mr Brandon Venter, Mr Grant von Mayer he Future-Fit Programme is a cutting-edge educational initiative aimed at equipping boys with practical competencies and values for thriving in an interconnected, rapidly evolving world. By shifting from traditional teaching methods, the programme integrates interdisciplinary learning, hands-on activities and systems thinking to foster creativity, collaboration and leadership. This year the Future-Fit cohort has grown from 21 boys to 44 boys and from three subjects (History, Science and EMS) to six (History, Geography, Science, Life Sciences, EMS and English). The number of teachers now involved in Future-Fit has also significantly increased to 12 academic staff, excluding IT staff who have been supporting the curriculum. T

equip the boys with essential technical drawing skills and methodologies, alongside foundational training in computer aided design. In D Block, boys were introduced to AutoCAD, a powerful tool that helps designers and engineers visualize their concepts and drawings. Using this software, boys completed a project focused on designing a modern two-bedroom home constructed from upcycled shipping containers. Daniel Pieterse delivered outstanding project work, achieving a remarkable 100%. His work not only exceeded the expectations of his Block but also demonstrated a strong command of the architectural design process. E Block boys completed a drawing curriculum designed by the department’s teachers, focused on sharpening essential drafting skills while enhancing spatial reasoning and visual conceptualisation. The boys were introduced to SketchUP, a fun and user-friendly 3D-modelling program. Their task was to design a unique mobile toy suitable for 3D printing, balancing functionality, visual appeal and weight-bearing capacity to meet the project criteria. Although many impressive projects were submitted, special congratulations go to the following boys for achieving 100% on their project work: Matthew Ebsworth, Campbell Freeman, Matthew Grant, Graeme Higginson, Jordan Matthee, Owen Pelser, Jack Ries and Benjamin Tebrugge. 3. Encourage more hands-on project work, robotics, coding and 3D printing, as opposed to only website development, which was the dominant technology used in the pilot year. We reduced the time spent on the “define and empathise” phase by one week and therefore increased the project-development phase to approximately six weeks in total class contact time. This was difficult as we still find that direct instruction and actual content teaching and learning around subject themes are paramount for meaningful project development. It is unrealistic to expect a 15-year-old boy to think of a meaningful project without gaining knowledge and information in a teacher-centric manner about various concepts, such as entrepreneurship, human health and well-being and climate science. We welcomed new guest facilitation this year, including Mrs Karen McKenzie, who did some hard-hitting process work on five conversations required for leadership within and amongst communities. The boys also had a chance to identify their top five strengths through the High5 test, which allowed them to show up in these conversations based on their “gifts” or strengths. These conversations were themed as follows: • Showing up with curiosity. • Questions rather than assumptions. • Finding what is strong as opposed to what is wrong. • Support rather than rescue. • The vehicle of my expertise is my own humanity.

FUTURE-FIT CURRICULUM

On review of last year’s curriculum, the Future-Fit faculty set three priorities for this year:

1. Reduce the direct-instruction “define and empathise phase” time and spend more time on the project-development phase. 2. Increase the number of guest speakers and lecturers from our network.

We had the likes of integrating conversations with Dr Crispian Olver, who is the executive director of the Climate Commission

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