Look after that beautiful place ‘neath the Mountain ...

The alarm woke me up just after 06.00am on Friday 12 October. As normal, I groped in the gloom to turn the cell phone off and looked to see what messages had arrived during the night. One of them was a Face Book message from one of the matrics: Valedictory! The day I've been looking forward to since Grade 8, yet, I wish it were further away ... I hope I am able to sleep tonight …

I was reminded – again - that the Wynberg Valedictory Day was going to be another emotional one.

Phumlo Pityana, Matric 2012 & Keith Richardson

Table Mountain was looking magnificent in dawn colours as I walked across the fields to meet the Matrics in the Fish Bowl. One Matric boy was sitting on the stands polishing his shoes realising that you can’t come to school on your last day with shoddy footwear.

I walked into the breakfast area at 7:00am. Not one boy was late for the Big Day. The matrics sat in their houses and it was significant to see that van Riebeeck House had asked their Housemasterto sit with them. Then every House Prefect summed up his year -  finishing off by thanking his Housemaster.

Final Matric Breakfast

JP Jacobs, the de Villiers Prefect, set the tone: When I began writing this speech a few days ago I sat there thinking of all the memories of this past year. Memories that cannot be forgotten. Memories that will live on in each and every one of those who accompanied me on this journey. The emotion surrounding something as great as this journey coming to an end is great in itself as it is this powerful emotion that we share with each other when wearing our house colours ... From our house day at the UCT astro to the brave matrics who accompanied the grade 8's up the mountain, these are days that I will never forget ... The journey up until this point has been one to remember. Firstly, thank you to those who presented this opportunity to me to make a small part of this school my own ... We will all be moving on in our own directions but hopefully the time we have spent together will stay with you wherever you go.

All eight speeches from the House Prefects were superb.  Rhodes Prefect, Cuan Stephenson, struck a chord:

I would like to give you the Leon Joseph Suenens quote which I gave at my first committee meeting: ‘Happy are those who dream dreams and are willing to pay the price to make them come true!’ So I asked myself the questions, what was I willing to pay and was I dreaming? Yes,  I was willing to pay the price but what was I dreaming of? My dream was simple; it was to enjoy every moment as Rhodes House Prefect and give all the glory to God. My life and my leadership have been shaped by Him and there are still things that He is teaching me ...

I would like to highlight some of my favorite memories. On the top of the list would have to be interhouse singing. We came second last, but if I were to ask anyone what the other houses sang they would look at you with a blank expression, simply no one, except those who sang, will remember. However what most people will remember is the entire hall waving their hands in the air to the sounds of Rhodes’ Lose Yourself’. Some more memories would be the grade 8 hike, the Rhodes house braai, athletics day, and the 'Rhodes Revolution'. Not to forget our stall at the ‘Night of the Stars’ or the interhouse gala -  which Rhodes won!

The 'Rhodes Revolution'? Revolution means a complete ‘turn around’ – but it is not a war that we fight with others but rather a war that we fight within ourselves. It is an intentional decision to change whatever stands within your heart and make changes for the better – in yourself, in your house, in your school. 

From the breakfast, we went to the Clegg Hall to meet the Parents and Old Boys for the Handing Over of Old Boys’ ties.  One parent wrote to me later: Yesterday when we arrived at school was one of those mother-son moments for me. Just one look at my son in his uniform walking towards me as we arrived at school, had me undone. When had he suddenly become a man? How had it happened?

Chairman of Old Boys, Arno Erasmus, welcomed the Matrics and their Parents to this ceremony which mirrored the Grade 8 Blazer ceremony five years before. Now they were taking off their school ties and replacing them with the Tie which would bind them for the rest of their lives – the Tie of the Wynberg Old Boys’ Union. As every Matric came up with his family to receive his Tie, a picture of him as a toddler was flashed on the screen giving new meaning to ‘From Boys to Men’.

Head Boy 2012 Nic Martin and his parents
 Welcome to the Old Boys' Union

A member of the Old Boys’ Committee handed every father the honoured tie. He, in turn, presented the Old Boys’ Tie to his own son who then handed his mother a personally written letter. One mother reported: I don’t think I have received too many letters from my son in his 18 years, but when he gave me that note and the last paragraph read “God has blessed me with probably the best mother a boy could ever ask for”, I knew then that if I never got another letter from him, that sentence alone would keep me going!

After this ceremony, the rest of the school was ushered in to listen to the two Valedictorians, Darrin Page and Callen Souma who reminisced about the amusing incidents of five years of schooling. Their session was finished off by a memory filled video prepared by Stephen Howard Tripp and Christopher Kunz. Too late for school authorities to take action about some of those escapades now – but wonderful memories to be re-told at Old Boys’ Dinners for years to come!

After a tea with Staff, Matrics and their Parents, the youngest Matric traditionally tolls the bell from the balcony for two minutes summoning his fellow Valedictorians to their final school assembly. This year Jody Arendse did the honours. He was momentary thrown when the clapper came adrift in his hand. Fortunately Mickey Lumb, former Chairman of Old Boys, who was photographing the occasion, leapt to his rescue and re-screwed it in so that Jody could continue his important duty.

Jody Arendse, youngest Matric
for whom the bell almost didn't toll.

A few minutes later, Michael Sullivan as Grade 12 Prefect and Nick Martin as Head Prefect, led the 2012 cohort into the hall to the strains of Rod Stewart’s ‘Forever Young.’ In my welcome, I wanted to say how touched the teachers were that they chose that musical number in their honour, but one look at the faces of the matrics reminded me that this was not the time to be corny!

Instead I quoted a letter written by a Matric to his Grade 8 buddy. These letters had been written last term and placed in the Grade 8 reports. ‘I wished someone had told me these things when I was in Grade 8,’ he said, ‘but when you reach my age in four years time you will have realised how important it is to have become involved in everything and anything – played in the bands, played sport, done service (we should all give back), joined committees ...’

While he was directing that message at his Grade 8 buddy, it was of course a message that all matrics should also be taking into post-school life with them.

To follow this theme, I then read out an extract from a poem which a father had written to his son:

What have you learnt from this journey through school? Would you have made different decisions?

Would you have gone in a different direction?

But do not look back at your journey and the steps you took with any regret –

For they must be lessons that you have learnt on the way so that you can have an even more glorious future.

Samir Daniels receives the Wade Bertram Award

Even the prize-giving which followed was meaningful. Samir Daniels received the prestigious Wade Bertram Memorial Award for initiating a number of projects at Wynberg, while Gere Cochlan received a standing ovation from his fellow matrics as the recipient of the David Heidmann Memorial Award for fighting back against the odds from a life-threatening motor-car accident. A first for me was seeing the matrics give a standing ovation to the academic Dux of the school, Nicholas Haralambous, who has also been astounding us for years with wonderful feats on the piano.

After the prizes and awards were handed out, Nick Martin delivered his final address to the school: ‘I hold a strong belief that a man is the sum of his experiences. However his greatest triumphs and his greatest mistakes should not define him, but rather mould him…… This school has become my life for five years. I have sacrificed  much in order to stay focused -  even in the most demanding of times. Sometimes I only carried on because my blazer made me feel like a superhero ...

The love I have for this school

and my brothers cannot be described ...

all achievements may fade in time

but I’ll always have Supera Moras inside.’

Dylan Grobler symbolically ends his school career

After the last rendering of the school song as schoolboys, a procession of 158 matrics wound their way through the hall to shake the hands of Mr van Winkel (Grade 12 Head) and myself. ‘I am no hugger,’ I have told countless people over the years. That was ignored by the majority of the boys. It seems that I AM now a hugger.

With Scottish Gap Year student, Matthew Horsman, playing ‘Men of Wynberg’ on his bagpipes, every boy symbolically rang the school bell signifying the conclusion of his school career. It was a fitting end to a moving ceremony.

Sometime later that afternoon, I drove out of the school parking lot. In the distance, I saw Nick Martin on his own sitting on the bank overlooking the Hawthornden Field, the school and the mountain. He was alone with his thoughts – and his memories. Perhaps he was thinking of his Grade 8 Camp which started off his Wynberg High School experience? Or the countless sport encounters? Or the innumerable break-time discussions with friends ...?

Later that evening, there was a message from Darryn Thomas on the school’s Facebook Page:

Wynberg is not my school, it is my home! I am going to miss my teachers and friends ... To the Grade 11's of 2012: Please carry our names with yours next year, look after that beautiful place 'neath the mountain ...