St Andrew's College - A Family of Schools

hope.Who would have thought ten yearsago that the Bulls would have playedany rugby in Soweto, let alone theirSuper 14 Final against the Stormersat the Orlando Stadium? Wewatched the final from the other sideof the world sitting in Old Andrean,Mark Patterson’s (Upper 1969)living room in Bronxville, NewYork. Distance gives one a chanceto reflect.The first four or five months ofthis year have been fairly miserablewith a hardening of racial attitudes,endless strikes and the countryseemingly drifting without clearor decisive leadership. And yet,somehow, we always seem to pullit off and confound the sceptics.The stadiums are magnificent, thecountry appears to be ready andSouth Africans are wrapped up ina euphoric wave of patriotism andthe blare of the vuvuzela. Long mayit last – not the vuvuzela but thepatriotism.OA dinner New YorkOur week in New York was both productive and interesting. Links were established with St Andrew’s School inWilmington, Delaware. This will hopefully result in exchanges of both staff and pupils. The school, establishedin 1928 by the Du Pont family, is one of the best endowed schools in America. It is situated in beautiful, rollingcountryside and is on the edge of a lake referred to as “The Pond”. This enables them to turn out excellent rowingcrews. There is a strong emphasis on family, community and scholarship. Every day the whole school sits downto “family lunch” with a member of staff at each table. This leads to excellent relationships between the facultyand the pupils.I also visited The Allan-Stevenson School in mid-town Manhattan. I was struck by the excitement evident inthe classroom and the extraordinary quality of the research and project work done by the boys. The Head of theArt Department and the man largely responsible for the superb art work is Rob McCallum (Merriman 1972).There is evidence everywhere in the top American Schools and Universities of the American culture of philanthropy.The North American Old Andreans are passionate about College and have made an enormous contributionout of all proportion to their number. Their generosity continues and a substantial pledge was made towardsthe Upper House section of the new centralised kitchen and dining hall, and a major contribution towards a scholarshipfor an outstanding Grade 7 boy to enter College in 2011. Without this donation, this young man would nothave been able to come to St Andrew’s.The dinner was a celebration of all that is good about College with each OA telling three stories - two true, andone false - about their time at College. Some outlandish stories were told, mainly about characters in the boardinghouses and on the staff, and the toast to the DSG by Zack Ssebatindira (Espin 2004), where he described himselfas a lone lion on the Serengeti looking for a straggler in a herd of zebra, brought the house down.On the home frontOn the home front the eight weeks of term have flashedby and there have been some wonderful highlights.The term commenced with a ceremony to officiallyopen the new classroom block at the Good ShepherdSchool which was project managed by our Director ofCommunity Development, Mrs Barbara Scott. Thishas served to further cement relations between what isthe oldest school in Grahamstown, and St Andrew’s.On the final Saturday night of term the matricscelebrated their Matric Dance with the theme beingCasino Royale. The behaviour and decorum of theseyoung gentlemen and their partners was a delight,and I don’t know whether they were simply shatteredafter a full round of fixtures against Selborne. There isa significant difference between matric dances in thebig cities compared to ours at College. Here the matricdance is central to the evening, and there is none of thebefore party or after party shenanigans which can resultin disaster. Our thanks go to the Grade 11 MatricDance Committee and Mrs Judy Hoefnagels, for awonderful evening.The Good Shepherd School celebrated the opening of the newClassroom Block.

ACADEMICEnglish OlympiadWe are thrilled with our results in the annual English Olympiad with four boys being placed in the top 100candidates out of 6300 candidates from 300 schools in South Africa and the neighbouring states. DeclanWilliamson and Alexander Minney were placed between 50th and 100th position, while Graham McNaughtonand Taylor Spears were placed in the top 50. This is a most noteworthy achievement and the top 50 candidatesare awarded a year’s tuition at Rhodes University as their prize. Congratulations also to Mr Renard and theEnglish Department.St Andrew’s College Scholarships 2011 for entry in Grade 8Our congratulations go to the following boys, their parents and Prep Schools, on being awarded academicscholarships to College in Grade 8 2011.NAME SCHOOL SCHOLARSHIPStuart McMaster WPPS BoxerThomas Lane The Ridge Blackburn OpenMurray Long St Peter’s Blackburn St PetersJames Stoddart WPPS Blackburn Min WPPSStuart Hobson St Andrew’s Prep Blackburn SAPRahul Gopal St Andrew’s Prep Blackburn SAPFrank Norval Grey Junior Blackburn PrimaryAdam Godlonton Graeme College Blackburn StateNicholas O’Connell St Peter’s Duthie St Peter’sKamegelo Kekana Montrose Primary Duthie StateTimothy Mountford Agape Christian School Duthie ExhibitionJohn Baines St Andrew’s Prep Blackburn ExhibitionThere are four sons of Old Andreans on the list: Thomas Lane is the son of Richard Lane (Armstrong 1982),Stuart Hobson is the son of Graham Hobson (Mullins 1981), Murray Long is the son of Royce Long (Espin 1986)and Rahul Gopal is the son of Mahesh Gopal (Merriman 1987).Art and CultureThe combined DSG / SAC production was a doublebill comprising a work-shopped play Orpheus andEurydice, exploring the theme of love and death, and aprogramme of dance entitled Magpie Love(d) you. Itplayed to packed houses over four nights.The critical acclaim of Ismail Mohamed who is theDirector of the National Arts Festival is worth sharing.“It was a remarkable testimony of how schools cancombine creativity and academics.” There were wellover 100 pupils across the two schools involved, whichis a feat in itself in schools as busy as ours.Well done and thank you to the cast of actors, actressesand dancers and also to Ms Sheena Stannard, MsSarah Seymour, Ms Hermien Potgieter and MrsChrista Snyman.A scene from the combined school production Orpheus andEurydice, exploring love and death.

SportThe sports teams continue to do well with the 1st XVenjoying an unbeaten run this term. They have nowplayed twelve matches and lost one in the narrow 1point defeat by Bishops at the start of the season. Theboys do not have much rest and go to Zimbabwe forthe Independent Schools’ Rugby Festival where theyplay St John’s Harare, St John’s Johannesburg, andPeterhouse. We wish them well. We also congratulatea number of boys who have been chosen to representEastern Province Country Districts at Craven Week:Ryan Dugmore (captain), Grant Prior, AndrewKebble, Mark Prior, and Ntsiki Mlamleli. Dane vander Westhuysen has been selected to represent EasternProvince at Craven Academy Week.Hudson Park were hosted by St Andrew’s College in a recentHockey match.The Hockey 1st XI has managed to transformthemselves over the past two months and have recentlyenjoyed exciting matches against Grey and Selborne,both of which were decided in the last minute of thegame resulting in a 0-1 loss to Grey and a 2-1 victoryover Selborne. Our congratulations go to the followingboys on their selection for Eastern Province: U19Wayde Guedes and James Briscoe, U16 CharlesBowren, Greg King and Charl Pellissier, and U14Stephen Briscoe and James Stijkel.St Andrew’s College vs Graeme College in the FNB Classic Clash,Jonny Ford with the ball in hand.SquashCongratulations to Stefan Euijen U19A and BrandonHaynes U16B for being selected to represent EasternProvince at this year’s Inter Provincial tournaments.Enjoy the break wherever you are and we shall see youfor a short exam term after the conclusion of what willhopefully be a wonderfully successful World Cup.Kind regardsStefan Euijen U19A and Brandon Haynes U16B were selected torepresent Eastern Province Squash.PAUL EDEYHEADMASTER