Matric 2014: ‘Supera Moras’ takes many forms

12:00 Tuesday 6 January 2015

I found the atmosphere while waiting to hand the Matric results to the boys on January 6th energising. As I stood on the steps at the front of the school waiting for the magic hour of 12:00 to arrive, animated and lively chatter was occupying the various groups.  It was interesting to note how many boys were wearing their recently acquired Old Boys’ ties which went well with the solicitously cultivated facial hair. This was all proudly sported -  as were a variety of earrings and studs.  While there was clearly an edge of worried tension in the air, there was no mistaking the excitement, the nervous energy and, in m-o-s-t cases, an anticipatory eagerness.  As is customary amongst boys at times like these of anxiety and apprehension, jokes and chirps were flowing.  One particular rugby player was having his leg pulled about what a great impact he would have on the First Team for the third year running.  Someone else remarked that a second year in matric was not necessarily a disaster as he could spend the year planning a sensational Plett Rage.  Such is the mask that adolescents use to hide insecurity.

No such comments were evident among the parents who were much quieter and more reflective.  ‘I just can’t take this wait,’ said one mother to me, ‘and to think I still have to go through this with my next two.’

‘Just tell me whether I can relax,’ begged another.  ‘Just give me a smile if he achieved his Varsity pass….’

I smiled – largely because I am a cheerful soul -  and anyway it was only twenty minutes to go before the announcement.

The tension levels rose as photographers started arriving to capture the moment appropriately.  Two members of the Old Boys’ Committee, Mickey Lumb and Hugh Rowles, were on hand to congratulate the recently inducted old boys.  I was also impressed to see Almero Prinsloo and his incoming 2015 prefects arrive en masse (in uniform) to support their erstwhile schoolmates.

With Head Boy 2015: Almero Prinsloo

At 12:00 the House Heads were ready to hand out the results to their Houses. I kept the crowd on tenterhooks by then giving a general summary of what we had achieved. I felt like an American presidential candidate as everything I said was met with rounds of applause.

School assemblies should take note. It did my ego no end of good.

I told the parents and their sons that I was proud of this class.  Not only had the top boys done extremely well with five of them achieving a full house of distinctions in every subject they wrote, but we had achieved a record percentage (65%) of boys achieving merit certificates i.e. aggregates of 60% and higher.  This shows conclusively that our insistence on the ‘Wynberg Pass’ in all the grades and our ongoing encouragement that boys to set their own Minimum Performance Levels is now paying off.  Three years ago, this percentage was sitting at 51%.   Nothing beats boys who take responsibility for their own success.

Matthew Harris, resplendent in his Wynberg Old Boys' Tie, with his proud parents as he receives his results

At prize-giving in a few weeks’ time, it will be a real pleasure to award 14 Honours Certificates for academic achievement – the highest number of Honours awarded since the ‘new matric’ curriculum was introduced in 2009.

I told the assembled gathering about Mr Moser taking a Maths class in Grade 10 three years ago.  He had the bottom set consisting entirely of boys who had requested to drop Maths and do Maths Literacy.  ‘Stick with me,’ he said, ‘and together we will get that Maths pass in matric.’  He was right.  Every single boy who stuck with him, passed Maths.  And passed well.

We also set another milestone.  Some years ago, the Academic Prefect of the time, Josh Arendse, said it was his goal to achieve an average of a least one subject distinction per boy (excluding Life Orientation).  The matric class of that year did not quite achieve it, nor has any subsequent Wynberg matric class.  However Jason Bright, as the 2014 outgoing Academic Prefect, can take immense pride that it was under his watch that this goal has been finally achieved.  Now we want to see future classes build on this achievement.

With Grant Turner and Wynberg Teacher, Sharmila Gordon

Jason, of course, can be well pleased with his personal performance in cementing his place as the Dux of 2015 with an aggregate of 92%.  His 99% in Maths will be a beacon for years to come – matched only by Grant Turner’s 98% in Science. Fine achievements made even more memorable by the fact that they are both top sportsmen and have served the school well as prefects. Who will ever forget Grant’s cover tackle in the first team game against SACS when he ran the length of the field to bring down his man on our try line?

That was real ‘Supera Moras’.

However, these are the glamour stories – but there are so many other success stories amongst the grade that won’t hit the limelight.  We are equally proud of Lloyd Payne who stuck at his Maths and moved it up from 23% at one point in Grade 11 to a valiant 40% now.  What about Ross Trow who was despondently wallowing at 34% in his Maths in Grade 11?  That smile when he showed his Dad his mark of 66% was a memory I will always retain.

However, the quiet success story of these results is undoubtedly Dylan Arendse.  By the end of the first term of his matric year, he was well down the slippery slope to disaster with an aggregate in the 20%’s and four subject failures. One of these failures was Maths Lit.  He bounced up to me after opening his results.  ‘Look at this, Sir,’ he said emotionally as he showed me his distinction in Maths Lit. Full credit to him for taking the decision to turn his life around and I salute him for his tenacity.  The fairy tale ending was not quite there though – he needed one more mark in History which would have seen him return a Bachelor Pass.

These are just a small representation of boys who have recorded personal victories.  There are dozens of stories like this.   I fully endorse the comment of Dr Tim Noakes who once said that we must judge success in life as the distance travelled towards improvement. Not everyone can be a high flyer and score the centuries or the tries. Or return A aggregates.   However, everyone can travel their personal journeys by continually improving their personal bests.  It is these individual success stories which have made the results this year so impressive.

Dillon Birns, a prefect and quality thespian, came 19th in the Grade with an average of 81%. He was smiling with pride.  ‘Now I finally know how to prepare for matric,’ he said. ‘I should do it again.’

He then thought about what he had just said. ‘Perhaps not.’

Dillon Birns, left and David Rousseau

The smiles, the laughter, the photographs, the hugs, the tears of joy continued for some time.  When the last person had left, I looked around the foyer and thought of the two boys who had not made it. What a harsh lesson to learn – but if the lesson IS learnt, then these two boys will be stronger for it.

Some time back, I received the following email some ten months after one of our boys heard the news that he had not made it through the matric exams:

I'm not sure where I should begin this email except to say I am sorry. I know this email is long overdue but I just couldn't conjure the will to write it until now. January was the worst month of my life, but the support of my friends and family got me through it.

I just wanted to let you know, sir, when you called me into your office around August last year and talked about your concern for my maths and physics, I understood. I was working but I wasn't focused. I was going through the different chapters for the subjects, doing the work, but not understanding. Perhaps it all started in grade 11 when the work got harder, but every term I thought it would get better and it didn’t.  I know help was there but my stupidity got the best of me and I did not ask. I had always worked things out by myself and in my mind I was too proud to ask for help – even from my peers.

I never imagined it would happen to me - I mean I was always the quiet guy taking notes and trying to understand the work - so it was a massive wake up call.

So how did I get through the Supps? I called one of my classmates in January and he came to my aid. I paid him of course – but out of my own money as I couldn’t ask my parents for any more help. In a short amount of time, he managed to get the work into my head and make me understand. The Supps were harder than the finals and most who rewrote did not do better. But to think if I had only asked for help earlier so that I could have been prepared like I was by the time I wrote the Supps in March. 

I am pleased to tell you that I now have a Bachelor’s Pass.  I have been working all year so that I can earn the money to put myself through varsity next year.

I will still make you proud.

Wow – what a letter!  This boy is assuredly not a failure because he used the experience of not passing Matric to learn a number of life lessons.  Failure would have been to wring his wrists and blame everyone else.  By adopting a positive reaction to the news, he managed to emerge as a stronger and wiser young man.

Wynberg's Master in Charge of Matrics 2014, Peter Murison
and outgoing  Head Boy, Raythaan Addinall

Our job at school is not necessarily to say that we have no failures.  While it is always satisfying to report a 100% success record, it is far more important to say that we have stretched our boys, offered them the prospects of taking difficult options, given them the choice of accepting help and extended the opportunity to them to struggle.

This can be compared to sport where the curse of a schoolboy sportsman is the unbeaten season.  An unbeaten season denies the schoolboy sportsman the prospect of learning the life skills of fighting back from failure.

I commend my letter-writer above. I just wish that he had learnt the lesson earlier in his school career as he could have saved himself much heartache later.  However, by responding in the way he has, he represents all that is worthwhile about this school. He will do well in life.

‘Supera Moras’ takes many forms.

Representatives of the 2014 Matric Class, pose for their last 'school photo' in front of the Ray Connellan Scoreboard on Wynberg's Hawthornden Field, 6 January 2015