College News

A MESSAGE FROM DR STEVE WHITELAW

I write this newsletter from the Grade 8 Student Leader camp at Thaba Morula in the metropolis of Beestekraal, near Brits. I arrived on Tuesday with Mrs Mdhluli and the student leaders where we planned for the arrival of the Grade 8 students on Wednesday. On Tuesday this was a peaceful place, yesterday morning at around 11:00 this peace was gone.

In its place was the unfathomable energy of 125 Grade 8 students arriving at camp, some of whom had more luggage for a two-day camp than I would pack for a month in Europe. I am sure that some of the students had more shoes than I have purchased in the entirety of my adult life.

They were given the “rules of the camp” by facilitators whose patience is apparently boundless. Then it was off to room allocation where, for some, the first trepidation set in as they were placed in a different room to their friends. Where we thought it prudent to make a few swaps we did so, but this was in very few instances. For many, life seemed a whole lot easier after lunch and a visit to the tuckshop with the reassurance often delivered by copious amounts of ice-cream.

This was followed by multiple activities involving obstacle courses, survival skills, a water slide and a foefie slide into a dam. It is so refreshing to see children, separated from digital devices, being given the time and space to be the young people that they are. There were some youngsters who were hesitant to try these activities and, as I assured them before we came, no-one was forced to do anything. Most of them were game for everything and completed all activities, sometimes several times, with great gusto. In this regard, I have no doubt that the girls were, generally, the braver half of the group.

It was interesting for me to see the different personalities of our new students emerge and, through experience, I can already predict in what areas of school life many of them will be prominent in the next five years. Today, I pulled aside some of them who came to us from other Primary Schools and I asked them about how they felt. All of them reported feeling welcomed by the students from our Preparatory School and that is indeed credit to that institution. More than that, they told me that they already feel that they belong at St Dunstan’s College.

This result is in no small part due to our brilliant student leaders and tutors who went out of their way to make all students feel included, valued and cared for in this group. They have been the ones reassuring the nervous and patching up the scrapes and cuts. Our student leaders have led activities with the Grade 8s in their charge and did exceptionally well. They have also learned a lot about the strengths that they have personally and have realised that to seek help from others in areas where they might struggle is far from weakness. Having said that, a couple of them have told me that they have new found respect for teachers!

No Grade 8s ever sleep properly on the first night of camp and as I look around at 14:30 I can see some of them struggling to keep their eyes open. This evening “lights out” should be much easier for the Student Leaders to control, given that some of the Grade 8s look like they will barely remain awake until dinner time.

I believe that the camp has achieved what it was intended to do, namely to integrate our Grade 8s into our school community, and I hope that their parents will welcome their children home tomorrow and will hear that their first real experience of their high school career is one that has left memories and created bonds that will endure for years to come.

Dr Steve Whitelaw