Amandla! Matric Results - 2012

Wynberg's Top Five Matrics 2012:
Left to right: Neil Eddy (Academic Director),  Samir Daniels (6 distinctions), Jordan Lamoral (6 distinctions),Justin Els (6 distinctions),  Noor Paleker (5 distinctions), Nicholas Haralambous (7 distinctions)
and Keith Richardson, Headmaster

‘You can do whatever you like when your son or daughter comes on stage,’ said the Master of Ceremonies to us proud parents at a recent Graduation at UCT.  ‘You may sing, dance, cheer or ululate whenever the mood takes you … ‘

I found this approach quite refreshing and said as much to my wife next to me.  ‘I bet that you won’t have the guts to say that at your next school prize-giving,’ she whispered back to me mischievously. No doubt about that.  I don’t think that the conservative Wynberg Boys’ High School Headmaster is quite ready for a ululatory chorus of triumph whenever a boy comes on stage …

One particular graduate stood out at that UCT ceremony.  After the hood was placed round her shoulders and the camera flashes were popping, she raised her arm and shouted, ‘Amandla!’

The significance of that statement was not lost on any of us.  She was giving expression to what she had now achieved.  She now has real ‘power’.  She has the power to choose her career; to pick and reject job offers; to study further; to make a difference; to advise others; to help her family; to add quality to her life.  Above all, she has the ‘power’ to choose her own direction in life.

Many of our matrics could have shouted ‘Amandla’ just as enthusiastically after they received their results in the foyer at school at 12.00 pm on Thursday 3rd January.  It was a busy morning with 22 teachers popping in to help annotate the results or merely to see how their classes and tutor groups had done.  Renette Spammer, head of Afrikaans, drove in straight from the airport before even returning home from her Kruger Park holiday. She was very excited, and emotional, about her 15 subject distinctions in Afrikaans.  ‘Ek kan nie dit glo nie,’ she kept on saying over and over.

Mandy Colman phoned in from Plettenberg Bay ecstatic about her ten distinctions in Visual Art (out of 28 boys writing).  ‘It must be the teaching,’ she told me immodestly on the phone.  I have no doubt about that but we still have to give credit to those Art boys who worked really hard.  Is there a moral there somewhere?

Rodney Inglis was hugely impressed with Reeve Scharneck and Joshua Rutgers in his History class – both of whom returned distinctions. ‘They were so close to 80% during the year,’ he said, ’but they promised me they would do it at the end of the year.  I am so chuffed, I could hug them.’  The crowd was too big in the foyer - so I couldn’t check whether these two boys were indeed recipients of this Inglis hugging treat.

Mike Engelbrecht had dual emotions.  On one hand, he was taking all the credit for the fact that the Accounting Department returned an average of 12.2% over the provincial average, but on the other hand he was frustrated by the fact that his Economics Department ‘only’ returned ten distinctions. ‘This is the third year in a row that we have had ten distinctions,’ he lamented. ‘Which year group is going to break this trend and give us fifteen?’   Now there is a challenge for the 2013 matrics.

Neil Eddy, Director of Academics, had a quiet smile of satisfaction. ‘Do you know,’ he said, ‘that 88% of our Matrics wrote the Maths exam?  Of that, only four failed.’  That single fact is probably the highlight of the Wynberg results.  139 out of our 158 matrics took up the challenge of doing Maths as opposed to the more comfortable option of Maths Literacy.

There were two unfortunate unintended consequences of the decision of the school to emphasise Maths as opposed to the softer option of Maths Literacy. The first consequence is that two of those four boys who failed Maths also failed the Matric exam. Should they perhaps have done Maths literacy where 100% of the boys passed?

The jury is out on this one – but I have to ask myself why they didn’t take advantage of all the extra support available from the school.

During the year, every boy was given a Maths CD which contained nearly 200 past papers + a memorandum for every paper. We kept drumming into all the boys that there was no substitute for repetition. Science and Maths pupils were also able to access Khan Academy lessons on the internet as these contained model lessons on every topic in their syllabi. This gave the boys the opportunity to play any lesson on any topic over and over again until they understood every aspect of the syllabus. Teachers were available in most subjects every afternoon in the week after school to answer queries and give extra tuition. This was part of the Academic Institute – open to every boy.

The second unintended consequence of encouraging boys to do Maths is that if the lowest set of Maths boys had done Maths Literacy, the Bachelor Pass rate of the school would have been up to 90%.

Nial Marinus & Samir Daniels

Many matrics also took the initiative in organising support for their peers.  Matric boys were on duty in the library every afternoon to answer specific academic queries. This was called ‘Bridging the Gap’ and was open to anyone in the school. Two prefects, Niall Marinus and Samir Daniels took it on themselves to have a matric study group in the third term in the afternoons in order to discuss various academic issues.

The biggest challenge for those of us who are involved in education in this country, is to encourage our pupils to ignore the subliminal message that ‘passing’ is adequate.  What ‘power’ does 40% in English and 30% in four other subjects give anybody in this country?

‘Why didn’t you force my son to go to these afternoon sessions?’ one distraught mother bemoaned when she saw her son’s results.  She has missed the point.  Our job at this school is to offer opportunities.  The pupils’ job is to take them.  By doing that, they are accepting responsibility for their own success.

‘We are like lighthouses,’ I often exhort the teachers. ‘A lighthouse is anchored firmly on the rocks and shines its light.  This light has a two-fold purpose – to warn and to guide. The boys, however, have to sail their own ships – the lighthouse can’t do that for them.’  Speaking as a teacher (a lighthouse keeper??), the greatest joy of our profession is when we are able to guide ships safely into the harbour. However, while we grieve for those who do not follow the light and thus inevitably end up on the rocks, we rejoice with those who take advantage of the guiding shining light.

A huge, but somewhat tense and subdued crowd, had assembled by the time we were ready to hand out the results at 12:00.  I wonder whether they all realised that these results were going to encapsulate twelve years of schooling?  I was fascinated by the fact that over half the boys were wearing their Old Boys’ ties.  It must be said that the rest of their garb was interesting though - but the mere fact that they saw the need to wear their ties said volumes for the contribution that this 2012 year-group has made to the history of the school.  Dylan Grobler was a case in point. Top academic and sportsman, he arrived in pink shoes, pink knees peeping out below his shorts, Leon Trotsky beard – and an Old Boys’ tie.  James Symmonds, who would surely have received an A in surfing if it was a matric subject, was sporting a huge mop of peroxided hair.

Blonde Ambition:
James Symmonds

‘Is that real hair?’ I asked him.

‘Definitely,’ he said proudly.  ‘Touch it and see.  It feels like straw.’

During the next hour, hundreds of photographs were taken and many handshakes (and hugs) were evident.  Parents were demanding photographs of their sons with Headmaster, Director of Academics, House Heads, Tutors, Teachers.

We managed to take one photo of the top five academics standing in front of the Academic Honours Board.  Nicholas Haralambous had led the Wynberg charge with seven distinctions. He – typical male – was diffident, but his mother couldn’t stop smiling.

Nicholas Haralambous (7 distinctions)

Our top academics had certainly done us proud.  It didn’t come as a surprise for those of us who had admired his Portfolio at the Art Exhibition that Stephen Howard-Tripp deservedly returned 99% in this subject.  Noor Paleker wasn’t far behind with 98% in Accounting.  We applauded Samir Daniels on his 91% for AP Maths –  a truly praiseworthy achievement.  Samir, Noor, Nicholas and Justin Els will all be invited back to Prize Giving during the first term to receive Academic Honours from the school in recognition of their overall achievements in these exams.  Our criteria for Honours is demanding and they can be well pleased with their success.

Nicholas Warner

However, many of the boys scored personal – but significant - victories. Nicholas Warner improved his aggregate by 10% from September. He led the way for the biggest improvement in the school over this two month period.  Adam Odendaal improved by 7% and when I saw his mother at cricket test match at Newlands later that afternoon, I pointed this out to her.

Adam Odendaal & Rodney Inglis

‘I don’t know why he didn’t he work as hard as that from the beginning of the year,’ she grumbled. If she can answer that rhetorical question, then she will be able to write an award-winning book on motivating adolescent boys!

I went up to Cuan Stephenson standing in a corner of the foyer.  He had all his family there – right down to his toddler brother.  ‘Happy?’ I asked  -  which was what I said to every boy.

‘I am pleased with my distinction in Maths,’ he said, ‘but disappointed that I missed that distinction in Science by two percent.  However, I am really proud of this…’ and he pointed to his 61% in Afrikaans.  For years, he has been struggling to get his Wynberg Pass (50%) in Afrikaans and he scraped it for the first time in September.  Now he cleared that hurdle with ease. Amandla!

Yusuf Ismail & KCR

I then made a point of singling out Yusuf Ismail. Apart from his feats in Athletics, his Wynberg career has been a fantastic success story.  In December of his Grade 8 year, he nearly ended up by having to repeat the year in 144th position in the Grade. In Grade 9, he pushed himself up to 107th; Grade 10: 88th; Grade 11: 70th.  He finished up his school career in 36th position.  He certainly took command of his own ship.

‘You are the Captain of your Ship; You are the master of your Fate.’ So goes the oft repeated words of Invictus.  As the class of the 171st year at Wynberg Boys’ High School prepare their individual ships to leave the safe harbour of school for the next stage in their voyage of life, we wish them all ‘Bon Voyage’.

And Amandla!