The 2025 Chronicle

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING ADDRESS BY THE RECTOR, MR ANTONY CLARK

It gives me great pleasure, once again, to report to the AGM of the Old Boys’ Club and to note that we have had, in most respects,

Locke Institute, and this afforded him the opportunity to visit Oxford and to discuss it with the assembled professors. What a tribute to him and to his teachers. Our teaching staff is really strong and our three Deputy Rec tors, Win de Wet, Brendan Gittins and Sibusiso Ncamani, work cohesively in the ExCo, along with the chaplain, the Revd Chris Meyer. I do not think that you could find a stronger ExCo. Per haps I could mention that we have had a greater proportion of our B Block being confirmed this year than in previous years. It is difficult to assess the work of a chaplain, but that is perhaps a good indicator of success. Michaelhouse is certainly a destination for talented young teachers, and it is particularly pleasing to see Old Boys such as James Kiln and Dominic Leslie amongst our interns and looking at a career in education, and, within time, teaching opportuni ties at Michaelhouse. This augurs well for the future of the next generation of Michaelhouse boys. A very low point in the past year was the sad loss of Garth Finnemore, an E Block boy in Baines, in a car accident with his parents. He was returning from a rugby sevens event when he was tragically taken from us. We grieved as a school together, and many tears were shed. The school was strong in our grief as he and Zanda Cele, who had died the previous year, were up permost in our thoughts. A lot of things are put into perspective when one has a tragedy of this nature. Our sporting year has, inevitably, had some very high points, and also some occasions where we have been disappointed. Our First XI fought back against Hilton in the last match of the sea son, having been bowled out for 110, to win by 20 runs; and our First XV lost by five points against the old foe, though our rugby teams won 70% of the matches on the day. Today and tomorrow we face Maritzburg College, at the request of our Old Boys, in hockey and rugby, and we are the only school in KZN which can match them in terms of depth of teams. It will not be easy. Boys continue to undertake service activities on a weekly ba sis, with each House adopting one of the 16 footprint schools around us and trying to fulfil some of their needs over the course of a year. We recognise that we scratch the surface of those needs but it is, nevertheless, important that our boys have an understanding of the motto which stands above the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, “Serve to Lead”. Individ ual boys take on projects, such as Brunton Bigalke, who has spent many hours refurbishing hockey sticks and cricket bats for young people, and TJ Mogashoa, who has a tutoring project under the Rector’s Leadership Portfolio. These are boys who go above and beyond expectations, recognising their privilege and also their responsibility to others. Our Development Office has taken off this year under Fran ces Fleming Bolttler, and our focus is twofold: firstly, we seek, through her work and through the generosity of Old Boys, to aug ment the Bursary Education Trust, which enables boys whose parents cannot afford the fees of Michaelhouse to come to the school. Secondly, the Development Office, working in concert

a very successful year.

Enrolment has reached a peak at 640, up from 550 in 2019, and because of the additional revenue that this has afforded, we have been able to continue with the remodelling and re furbishment of boarding houses, notably Tatham, Pascoe and Farfield over the past 12 months. These upgrades are in keep ing with our quest to be a School of Excellence and they have brought us up to world-class standards in terms of the accom modation we offer boys. The widening of the Chapel has been another key project, made possible by the huge generosity of a group of Old Boys who recognise the importance of the whole school being able to worship together, and we look forward to its being in use officially in the third week of July and, unofficial ly, at the service for the Old Boys tomorrow, though I do want to emphasise that it was never expected to have it ready for use tomorrow and that the builders are on schedule for completion by late July. The Old Boys’ Club has been transformed and, as a whole, I hope you will agree that the school, our fields and facilities are in excellent shape. On the academic front, our boys managed 2.6 As per boy in the end-of-year matriculation examinations and a bachelor’s de gree pass rate of 100%, a rate which very few schools achieve – even the girls’ schools – and that was despite some very weak candidates who managed to get over the bar with the help and prodding of their teachers. By the way, the First XV managed 3.34 As per boy, so it seems possible to play rugby and also have brains. I doubt whether any school in this province or fur ther abroad would match 3.34 As in their first rugby team. Our boys are fortunate, therefore, to be able to go on to the best universities in South Africa and in the world. At present, our boys readily gain access to Stellenbosch University, UCT and the University of Pretoria as their preferred local destinations, as well as Edinburgh, Exeter and Durham universities in the UK, and UPenn and Columbia as the Ivy League universities of choice in the United States. They consistently shine at those universities, often gaining first-class degrees, and this serves to demonstrate that the Michaelhouse academic platform from which they are catapulted into university is a strong one. Luke Kaufmann, our Second Prefect of last year, has been ac cepted by Peterhouse College, Cambridge, subject to the suc cessful outcome of an examination he wrote last week, and we have boys, as already mentioned, at Ivy League universities in the US. Let’s hope Trump doesn’t wreck their academic careers by exiling them. A further marker of academic excellence was that last year, Reily Elliott, when only in B Block, entered an essay competi tion held under the auspices of the John Locke Institute in Ox ford. This institute is an amalgam of university professors from Princeton and dons from Oxford. Riley’s essay on the impact of governments on accurate news reporting was chosen, with five others, from 35 000 entries for specific recognition by the John

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