Release of Matric Results - St Andrew's College

ACADEMIC NEWSLETTER December 2011Dear ParentsRelease of Matric ResultsThe Matric results will be released at 08h00 on Wednesday 4 January 2012, and the Headmaster will release a statement about the resultsto all parents on that day. Matrics will receive their results by SMS, or may log onto the IEB website http://www.ieb-online.co.za, andinput their Examination Number and Birth Date.The College telephone exchange +27 (0)46 6032300 will be manned from 08h00 to 12h00 on the morning of 4 January 2012 if youhave any queries.Independent Quality Assurance Association EvaluationThe IQAA Whole School Evaluation is complete and was a most worthwhile and regenerativeprocess. Thank you to all the parents who responded to the questionnaires – there was a 68% returnfrom parents, which peaked at 76% for Grade 8 parents, and this was double the response that we hadin the 2007 evaluation.A comprehensive report back will be communicated in the new year, but there have already beensome innovations that have arisen from the evaluation, in particular, the Tutor Group System that Iwill elaborate on later.The following are some extracts from our Mentor’s Report. Mr Howard Timm wrote:“This is an extremely busy school and one senses a firm sense of purpose. The boys and … staff havea strong loyalty to their school, and this is seen in the work ethic of the staff and the commitment of the boys to their studies and extramural activities. The teachers interviewed were passionate about their subjects and the school. The boys are polite and well turned out.I found them to be open and friendly… The management and staff are to be complimented on a school that rightly enjoys its reputationas one of the best in the country.”He then singled out some of the distinctive features of the school that impressed him during his visit:• St Andrew’s College can be proud of their Outreach Programme. It is comprehensive and meaningful and involves a largenumber of boys, exposing them to the difficulties the more unfortunate members of the community face, as well as workingalongside them.• The Design and Technology Department is one of the best I have seen. It is spacious and well designed. The work producedis of a very high standard.• The Museum/Archives is a place where one could spend days, such is the significance of the material and the way it ispresented.• The Outdoor Education Programme is well structured and involves most of the School. The highlight of this is “The John JonesFish River Journey”, which involves all the Grade 10 boys and the Grade 10 girls from DSG. It is an18-day educational experience which none of the participants will ever forget.• The Prefect Portfolio system with its regular report-backs gives direction to the Matric leaders.• The Co-ordinate Model is unique and involves joint classes with DSG in the senior phase.• The singing both in Assembly and Chapel was impressive… as was the Pipe Band.However, there was much valuable feedback received in terms of areas that we can still improve, andthis will be our mission for 2012 and the years following

Universities and the IEBThe debate about the merits of the IEB Matric exam and the Department of Basic Education (DBE) exam is complex and difficult. Wehave been informed by sound educational principles in our continued support for the IEB exam:1. The ‘thinking’, interpretive nature of the IEB exam dictates the way teachers teach, and this stands our pupils in good steadat university and in their careers.2. Many College and DSG staff members have input into the curriculum and assessment at the IEB through National SubjectFora, setting exams, User Group Conferences and marking matric papers. Right now, 15 staff members are up inJohannesburg marking Matric exams.3. The standard of marking is exceptionally high due to the experience of the markers and the manageable quantity of scripts.4. Ex-IEB students do very well at university. The 2008 study by Prof Nan Yeld at UCT found that 25% of the graduates atUCT in 2007 had written the IEB examination.A courageous letter to the Cape Times by Dr Max Price, the Vice-Chancellor of UCT, on Friday 2 December 2011, was most heartening.UCT have discovered after running their National Benchmarking Tests (NBT) for the past couple of years, that for two candidates whoget the same NBT Maths result, the applicant who wrote the DBE Maths exam scores, on average, 6% higher in their Matric Mathsexam than the IEB applicant. They are proposing to put measures in place to redress this, as it is now apparent that the two exams arenot definitively equivalent.Dr Price wrote: “This suggests that we should not automatically score the Maths results of the IEB NSC and the DBE NSC in thesame way. If we did, we would misallocate to mainstream programmes students who need academic support; and we would penalisesome students in the incorrect belief that they were weaker … An additional factor that has driven this proposed scoring change is thewidespread concern among IEB schools that their students are relatively disadvantaged against other privileged and private schoolsthat write the DBE NSC. This is putting the Governing Bodies of IEB schools under immense pressure to abandon the IEB. It is ourview that this will be a profound loss to the education system as a whole.”This is a complex and interesting debate and we will follow it with interest, but we are heartened by the fact that the universities aregrappling with this issue.Work TrophiesBelow are the highly anticipated Work Trophy results for the Michaelmas Term based on the average Application Marks for eachGrade in each House. Congratulations to James Godlonton and William Duncan for getting a full house of 7s.8 9 10 11Armstrong 5,94 5,89 5,89 6,00Espin 5,74 6,01 5,80 5,94Graham 5,75 6,24 5,95 5,97Merriman 6,11 6,02 5,62 5,94Mullins 6,12 6,09 6,13 5,94Upper 5,75 5,92 5,96 6,20Results Grade 8 MULLINSGrade 9 GRAHAMGrade 10 MULLINSGrade 11 UPPER

The Michaelmas DecimusCongratulations to the following boys for being placed in the Top Ten in their Grade in the Michaelmas Exam Order.Grade 8 Grade 9 Grade 10 Grade 11Brandon Starr (Mu) Jonathan Jayes (E) Frans van Hoek (U) Gregory Slack (E)Timothy Mountford (Me) Nicholas Wilkinson (Mu) Teb Schlebusch (Mu) MJ Rosslee (Mu)James Stoddart (Mu) James Lake (U) James Godlonton (G) Luke Boshoff (A)Stuart McMaster (U) James Holmes (G) Jonathan Gibbs (G) James Price (G)Uli Ratsibe (Me) Robert Ball (A) Lwandle Mseleku (G) Chris de Blocq (A)John Baines (Mu) Simon Fraser (A) Sam Easther (Mu) James de Beer (U)Nicholas O’Connell (G) Matthew Kroon (E) Daniel Tharratt (Me) Oliver Wale (E)Max Kieser (A) Brendan Owen (U) Michael Patterson (Me) Lonwabo Bakumeni (U)Jack Brunette (A) Finn Worrall (Mu) Matthew Danckwerts (U) Michael Houghton (U)Adam Godlonton (G) Andrew Mills (Me)Benjamin Stijkel (G)Matthew Alcock (A)Beric Allsop (A)John Joseph (G)“Look Mom, No Calculator!”The Mathematics Department, under the inspirational leadership of the DSG/SAC Director of Mathematics, Mr Thomas Hagspihl, ismaking enormous strides in invigorating the numerical and mathematical cognitive skills of the children at College, DSG and Prep.He spends time at Prep with Grade 2 & 3 boys and girls extending their skills and doing problem-solving, and has encouraged massparticipation in Olympiads, Maths competitions and the ever-popular Inter-House Maths relays.One of the innovations for next year is that Grade 8s will not use calculators in Maths. The thinking behind this is simple – if youwant to develop a muscle or a skill, you need to exercise it and practise. So often, boys just grab for the calculator when a calculationcould be done mentally. (It is like catching the elevator when you could take the stairs!) It will also make children think conceptuallyabout the calculation that they are doing, so that they get a feel for what the numbers mean, the effect that the operation that theyare carrying out has, and what the answer should be, rather than just accepting the answer that the calculator gives them, which issometimes completely wrong due to an incorrect button being pushed.Rhodes ScholarsWe were completely blown away to receive the news from Mrs Dodie Springer, that David Springer (Merriman 2005) achieved thehighest overall mark for his Masters degree at Oxford this year. He has just completed, in one year(!), an MSc in Biomedical Engineeringin the field of robotic control of prostheses and developing low cost medical monitoring equipment. In September he started as the 2011Rhodes Scholar enrolled for his DPhil. To achieve the highest overall mark in a Masters course at Oxford is seriously remarkable, andunderlines the extraordinarily humbling privilege it is for us to teach and inspire and be one part of the formative education of the younglads and lasses of College and DSG.Dr Don Markwell, the Warden of Rhodes House, visited Grahamstown for our selection of the Rhodes Scholar for 2012. He wasimpressed by the rigour of our selection process, and stated that he would have been utterly delighted to have all the intervieweesas Rhodes Scholars, but was highly impressed with, and fully endorsed, the selection of Beth Vale (Matric 2006) as the St Andrew’sCollege Rhodes Scholar-elect for 2012. The press release outlining Beth’s extraordinary academic career over the past 5 years is onthe College and DSG websites, and we wish her a truly extraordinary experience at Oxford. Dr Markwell reported back on the progressof all the current Rhodes Scholars, and made particular mention of Clive Eley (Upper 2005) whom he described as a “leader amongstleaders”.I think this puts into perspective the education that the boys and girls of St Andrew’s College and the DSG receive – if they make fulluse of their opportunities, they can quite comfortably hold their own at the best academic institutions in the world.