The 2025 Chronicle

pation, servant leadership and mentoring, as well as service, where every boy is supported to explore his interests and reach his best self. Boarding allows for more time to participate, less time in traffic, more exposure for strong friendships that form the foundation of the highly engaged wider Michaelhouse com munity and Old Boys’ Club. Another key feature of Michaelhouse is the beautiful rural KZN Midlands environment. Immersion in nature, including through the vibrant outdoor and backyard-adventure programmes, is a unique privilege for boys that builds interest, awareness and appreciation for natural beauty and the outdoors. The expanding value proposition of the Old Boys’ Club, which provides support, friendship and business opportunities for Old Boys throughout their careers and lives, is truly exciting. The Old Boys’ Club is ramping up efforts and capacity to assist matric ulants in need with corporate bursary applications; it matches leavers with mentors based on subject-degree experience and location; and it increasingly advertises work experience and job opportunities through the Old Boys network. The engagement, pride and willingness of Old Boys to help is going from strength to strength all around the world, and is certainly a feature and competitive advantage for Michaelhouse. Service remains a cornerstone of a Michaelhouse education, with good progress in House service projects linked to disad vantaged local schools. These projects help boys become more aware of and engaged with community challenges, enabling them to make meaningful contributions whilst developing an important service awareness and ethic. Recognizing the far-reaching implications of artificial intelli gence for education and learning, Michaelhouse has estab lished a task team to develop an AI strategy, policy and ethical framework to be proactively applied and developed. The Gen erational Plan has been updated with the following addition, signalling the strategic importance of effectively using and de ploying AI opportunities across both teaching and administra tive departments at Michaelhouse: “Michaelhouse will contin ually assess the evolution of artificial intelligence, embedding ethical, human-centred innovation into education to ensure AI supports, not replaces, student effort and teacher expertise.” The timeline for completing the remaining boarding house renovations is now falling into place, with West scheduled for 2026, and East and Founders expected to be completed in 2027. Thereafter, Old Tatham will be renovated to provide a number of intern flats more centrally located on Campus, to gether with additional accommodation for touring sports teams and festival participants. There is a growing awareness of the need to avoid overdevelopment on Campus, which will raise maintenance costs and detract from the campus’s aesthetics. Future infrastructure projects will be carefully evaluated to en sure they add measurable value to educating and participating at Michaelhouse. The Michaelhouse Development Office, managed by Frances Bolttler, is now well established and focused on financing the school’s long-time future as outlined in the Generational Plan. New infrastructure projects are typically donor funded and, where approved, will be facilitated by Development Of fice fundraising efforts. The Board recognizes both the growing challenge of private-school fee affordability and the tension in herent in maintaining a full intake, a demographically represen tative community, and accessibility for families across South

Antony has led by example as Rector, demonstrating the very highest standards of professionalism, work ethic, punctuality and performance excellence. He has also played a key role in recruiting and attracting ex ceptional teachers to Michaelhouse, actively supporting the professional growth and development of current staff, a num ber of whom have gone on to senior leadership roles at other prominent schools across South Africa over the last few years. Please may I ask you for a round of rousing applause to recog nize and appreciate a Rector’s job exceptionally well done. Moving on, a reminder that Bart Wielenga will begin as the new Rector in the third term of 2026, shortly after he completes his final academic year as head of Blundell’s School in the UK. Win de Wet is well positioned to serve as Acting Rector for the first half of 2026 and is working very closely with Antony to ensure there will be a smooth transition and best continuity next year. Handover planning has been front of mind and proactive, and many may know that Bart visited Michaelhouse for a busy week in early September, attending a Board meeting, meeting with exco and staff, attending the chapel rededication, and partic ipating in current and prospective parent events in Durban, at Michaelhouse and in Johannesburg. Antony is in regular con tact with Bart to keep him fully informed, and I also check in monthly to keep in touch. As it has been over a year since I announced Bart’s appointment to the Michaelhouse commu nity, let me recap that Bart taught at Michaelhouse from 1999 to 2003 and has deep South African roots, with both his par ents and parents-in-law living in and nearby Howick, respec tively. Bart also has direct personal experience as an MIC of an academic department, as a housemaster, as a deputy head and also, most recently, eight years of headship experience at Blundell’s. I would also like to advise that Antony has generous ly agreed to be available as a part-time consultant during the transition phase next year and will have a weekly discussion with Win to provide any necessary support. The September Board meeting was structured as a strategy review workshop, an annual exercise where exco and Board members critically evaluate the implementation and outlook of the Generational Plan. This plan, available on the Michael house website, outlines strategic objectives for the school up to its 150th anniversary in 2046. It covers Michaelhouse’s identity and educational style, the campus and environment, community-for-life aspirations (referring to the Old Boys’ and St Michael’s clubs), and financing our future. The Board and exco identified several core characteristics and differentiators for Michaelhouse to be prioritised and further developed over the years ahead. The following characteristics and topics were deemed especially relevant and important. Firstly, the holistic educational experience and culture which I mentioned sets Michaelhouse apart from other schools. Strong academics, a wide range of clubs and societies, sport, wellness and nationally competitive cultural programmes are all import ant to a multifaceted Michaelhouse education. Balancing par ticipation and time across all these activities is a challenge. Many competitor schools appear to be moving towards more specialized, narrower educational models and sport-acade my-style programmes. Full-time boys’ boarding schools are rare globally. At Michael house, though, the full-time boarding experience is centred on developing a network of close friendships, holistic partici

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