The 2025 Chronicle

MESSAGE FROM THE RECTOR

2025 has been a year of significant en deavour and achievement for our boys, and also a year in which important architectural developments at the school have impacted signifi cantly on the lives of our community. The most important project to be completed was the widening of the existing Chapel, thanks to the generosity of the Inglis, Bruins, Jonsson, Sacco and Ralfe families (and a family which preferred to remain anonymous), so that the whole school of 640 boys along with all the teaching, administrative and oper ational staff could worship together at the same time. This was critical to the soul of the school. The beginning of the third term, therefore, saw the re-dedica tion of the beautiful Chapel by our Bishop, Nkosinathi Ndwan de, with light streaming into it and the roof raised by the boys’ robust singing of “Stars of the Morning”. Great credit was rightly given to Nick Grice who has done so much as our architect over three decades to enhance the beauty of the school through his subtle appreciation of the lines, angles and light in our build ings. His last project before retirement was to re-imagine and remodel his own old House, Farfield, which was reopened in the fourth quarter with the roof raised in a different way to that in the Chapel above the A Block area, bathrooms and shower ing facilities integrated into the body of the House and a new terrace facing the St Michael Quad. The classrooms attached to Farfield housing the Mathematics Department were equally splendidly redesigned and appointed, creating an atmosphere more than conducive to learning. Looking back to the matriculation results made available in the first quarter of 2025, it was pleasing that the A Block of 2024 achieved a 100% bachelor’s degree pass rate, enabling every boy to go on to university and, indeed, an average of 2.6 As per boy. It was notable that the First Rugby XV achieved 3.34 As per boy, a factor underlining the age-old epithet mens sana in corpore sano . It was also satisfying that, as a school which is selective but does not select on academic criteria, there was an improvement of 2.14% on average by each boy across all subjects from the C Block to the A Block.

The dux, Patrick Lambert, achieved eight distinctions, and Luke Kaufmann, sixth on our Order of Merit, won a place at Peter house College, Cambridge, to read history and politics. Between 20% and 25% of our boys annually go directly after school to university in the UK, with the most popular universities being Exeter, Edinburgh, Durham and St Andrew’s. A smaller number go to Ivy League universities such as Princeton, UPenn and Co lumbia in the US directly from school. Artificial intelligence, which had been knocking on the door of our consciousness, became a more significant factor in 2025 and teachers started to assimilate it into the methodology. By the second quarter 94% of boys were using AI to enhance their academic experience, but 74% recorded at least one instance of AI providing false or incorrect information. Doubtless, the lat ter will reduce in time. Eighty percent of Michaelhouse teach ers believe that AI will enhance the learning experience in their subject. While the threat of plagiarism is significant, skilfully used AI can enhance critical thinking. Our Head of Sport, Mr Ryan Ravenscroft, himself an Olympian and a previous captain of the South African hockey team, in jected much energy into the school partly by initiating an online meeting with parents at the beginning of each season in each major sport. We can also say with confidence that all boys par ticipated in sport in 2025, and most schools struggled to field as many teams as we did in each sport, a great tribute to the organisation of the teacher-coaches and the enthusiasm of the boys. The High Performance Centre is used from early in the morning until the evening and has been instrumental in seeing the advance of our success. Our teams enjoyed considerable success across all sports, with the First Hockey XI being one of our flagship teams over the winter season. The year finished strongly, too, especially for cricket and water polo. A major musical production, Jesus Christ Superstar , was a fea ture of the third quarter and some Old Boys wrote in to declare it the best production they had ever seen at Michaelhouse. The Chapel Choir, involving exactly 10% of the entire school, and the Chamber Choir won gold medals at regional level, and the Jazz Band did so at national level. Music is strong at Michaelhouse and this speaks to the multifaceted nature of the education re

EDITORS: Murray Witherspoon, Nicola Kidgell, Dermott White FORMAL PHOTOGRAPH ADMINISTRATOR: Lauren Thompson DESIGN & LAYOUT: Shanice Cassim PRINTERS: Burble Printers COVER: Andrew Martens CONTACT: Private Bag X1, Balgowan, KwaZulu-Natal, 3275, South Africa

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