A message from Dr Whitelaw

Last week we began the process of revising our Code of Conduct. We have a formal review of this document every two years in order that it remains relevant. Review of the Code of Conduct is quite deliberately a prolonged process, and involves all stakeholders of the school including students, staff, management, the Rector and possibly even the Council. It is important that we reach a revised Code of Conduct in January 2026 that carries a consensual mandate from these
stakeholders.

I had occasion to look at our Code of Conduct from 2014 recently and was struck by how dated, and frankly, embarrassing some of the stipulations seem today. The challenge that we face in this process is to remain cognisant of societal changes but to retain our fundamental values such as courage, integrity, love, respect, humility, service and truth. Of course, our grounding in Anglican tradition is non-negotiable.

A worrying development in many local schools is the breakdown of a rules-based culture. I have had many conversations with teachers at various schools who admit that they have given up trying to enforce rules and regulations due to a lack of support from school management and school authorities. Too often, the rights of an individual student have been given precedence over the rights of the broader school community. I can assure you that this is not the case at St Dunstan’s College.

Well respected Irish psychologist, Dr Tony Humphreys, comments that “There are teachers who spend considerable amounts of time attempting to control one or more students who continually disrupt the order of the class.” Humphreys asserts that these individuals manifest undisciplined behaviour because of the distressed emotional state that they are in, and that they subsequently learn little or nothing in the classroom. Yet, teachers and principals are reluctant to remove them from classrooms as they feel they will be accused of violating the student’s right to be educated. The consequence of this is that teachers are denied the right to teach and other students are denied the right to learn. We do not subscribe to this philosophy and, even as recently as this term, we expelled a student whose behaviour negatively impacted both his fellow students and his teachers.

Adherence to rules seems to be diminished in other areas of national life. For example, over the last few years I have noticed an increasing disregard for the rules of the road. I no longer assume that a driver will stop at a red traffic light. I, myself, have often been reluctant to stop on amber because I know that the vehicle behind me has no intention of stopping. I am unsure whether this behaviour comes from a lack of perceived consequence for breaking the law, or whether the answer is more complicated. Regardless of the reasons, we have all experienced the anger that we feel when another driver flagrantly flouts the rules of the road.

Even geo-politically the rules of international relations and precepts formulated after 1945 generally held sacrosanct seem to now be in question. It was fascinating to see the political leaders of Western Europe convene emergency summits last week to respond to the realisation that the USA would not necessarily bankroll their collective security.

It could be that in any situation, be it in a school in Benoni or in the parliaments of Europe, it is rules that give us the security that makes the environment safer for us as individuals and navigable for us as a community.

Dr Steve Whitelaw