Closing Function (20 Sept 2004)

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In re-examining our school motto and foundation stone as beacons for our girls in a challenging world I was struck by the Olympic motto: “Citius, Altius, Fortius”. It’s a Latin phrase, meaning “swifter, higher, stronger,” – and I hope it won’t end up making my speech longer. It’s a phrase which the founder of the modern Olympics, Baron de Coubertin borrowed from the headmaster of a school in Paris. Allow me to share thoughts with you on conquering ourselves, on some key research statistics which show just how much swifter, higher, stronger our schools and values need to be and on Eunice in this year of Olympic standards.

When Dr Paine was headmaster of St Michael’s, I remember him opening a prize giving speech with a story about the Russian President, Leonid Breshnev, trying to open the 1980 Moscow Olympics by reading a simple statement in English. He hadn’t practised it much because he thought it was short and sweet. He started : “ O oooooooo……o. Again he tried, “ O oooooooo……o. Till somebody pointed out that he was trying to read the Olympic logo!

For many of us this term was dominated by the Big Os -Oklahoma and the Olympics. But those of us who were connected to farmers and cowmen for an entire rehearsal and performance season were denied the pleasure of watching the gold and silver sporting performances. A high school student’s career is not dissimilar to an athlete’s Olympic campaign. There are so many useful analogies not least among them the responsibility on our school to provide the best possible environment conducive to each and every student achieving her own personal best. That’s our challenge which we take very seriously.

I watched a 1996 interview of Ryk Neethling in which he explained that his long term goal was the 2004 Athens Olympics. Success and failure are not overnight experiences. Anthony Robbins notes that it’s small decisions along the way that cause people to fail. Failure to get started, failure to sacrifice that extra hour’s TV, failure to persist, to keep working at particular challenges day after day, failure to manage our states of mind such as being down or tired or simply turning our day into inaction.

Success is the result of making small decisions: Deciding to hold yourself to a higher standard, deciding to contribute time and effort to a chosen activity, deciding to dictate your days or weekend’s direction and not letting life simply happen.

Eunice’s motto is not unlike Citius, Altius, Fortius : Vincit Qui Se Vincit, “She conquers who conquers herself”-which so clearly epitomizes the personal challenge which characterises any important ambition, whether achieving a quality matric or aiming for an Olympic medal or, in my case, beating the battle of the bulge.

Jim Witakker was the first American to reach the summit of Everest. He noted: “You never conquer a mountain. Mountains can’t be conquered. You conquer yourself, your hopes, your fears”.

Nothing motivates our girls to conquer themselves more than the dreams and decisions made in this hall where they see and hear and feel the pride of ambitions achieved as board medallists at our Opening Assembly explain their own personal journeys and the inestimable role played by personalities such as parents, teachers and close friends.

This hall, named after Eunice’s longest serving headmistress, Mrs Adele de Jager, is a source of diverse 2004 images which will be etched indelibly in the memories of our girls. It is here where we accepted the MEC’s R150 000 Top School incentive, where we worship as a school on Fridays, where we see the transformation and innovation of Mrs Marais’s markets, where we danced on Valentine’s Day, where we rehearsed with hundreds with real heart and with horses, where we celebrate Easter and Christmas, where we say thank you, where we host national sports dinners, mother and daughter teas, where we listen to topical speakers, to musicians and singers.

We even had Frik du Preez, South Africa’s Rugby Player of the Century, as our guest speaker in this hall last weekend. I must share this with you. I introduced him by reminding him of a previous talk he had given thirty years ago on the three Cs of rugby. His 3 Cs were about Courage, Commitment and Discipline. Frik responded by questioning the reporter’s accuracy. He said his speech had been on the three Ps of rugby: Possession, Pressure and Support.

That society and education, in particular, face challenges which require us to act “swifter, higher, stronger” was brought home to me by chilling new research statistics on young South Africans.

I serve on the National Executive of the South African Girls’ Schools’ Association and at our conference recently I met Prof Linda Richter, a Eunice old girl who is the Executive Director of Child, Youth and Family Development – an HSRC National Research Programme. A pupil at Eunice in the 60s, she claimed that the school’s single sex status, its tradition and its atmosphere made you feel that you could be a leader. Her research statistics are of vital importance for schools, for curriculum renewal and for life skills. This first statistic is particularly chilling.

• More than half of young South Africans 35 years and younger have never worked. This an HSRC statistic and I repeat it.

• South Africa had a 60% increase in youth unemployment between 1995 – 2000.

• Only 6% of South Africans are self employed and 69% of those are men.

• Young white women currently demonstrate the highest rate of smoking – 50% of women between the ages 18 –35 smoke, many of them in the mistaken belief that smoking will suppress their appetite and help them to lose weight.

• The value of the adolescent purchasing market in the USA is 600 billion per annum and it is driven by prestige branding. Young people are attracted to brands for reasons that have much to do with peer pressure, image, identity and self esteem. Research shows that branding, an issue which creates distance between parents and children, particularly affects girls.

• 25% of the 18-35 age group report having symptoms of depression.

• Young white South Africans think they are not at risk of contracting Aids, but just as homosexuality and drugs were early elements in the spread of the virus, there is a real danger of a latent epidemic driven by increased exposure to the virus as a result of the drinking culture which we all see before our eyes in teenage and tertiary student environments.

The first few statistics confirm the need for schools and universities to help students to develop skills which employers want in school leavers and graduates. Skills such as initiative and leadership, exploring and creating opportunity, problem solving and flexibility, self confidence, self promotion and self awareness, networking and research, action planning and organisation, valuing diversity, communication and decision making. We are often loathe to forsake our present matric with its high profile distinctions and exemptions but we need to be mindful of the major transformation in the structures of work and career in the 21st century. We need not be afraid of the new curriculum at Eunice. We have the skills, the expertise, access to the best resources, a willingness to learn from others with the same unwarranted optimism and a determination to be the best school we can be for the benefit of the eager, ambitious and responsive young girls in our care.

The second set of statistics relating to smoking, depression, branding and alcohol incidence point directly at teenage, family and school values. Just for good measure and provocation, I must mention that Rushworth Kidder of the Institute of Global Ethics expresses concern about the ethics of young people. He refers to a recent Gallup Poll in the United States which revealed that 50% of pupils cheat, and in private schools the numbers increase. At university the same holds true: students in education faculties cheat, but not as much as law school students, followed by medical students, and the biggest cheaters of all, business school graduates. Fortunately this is an American statistic.

I referred to Eunice’s foundation stone which reads simply ‘Ps 144v 12. “That our daughters may be as cornerstones polished after the similitude of a palace”.

It’s a value-laden verse which implies strength of character, steadfastness, direction, individuality and refinement. These are the values our founders had in mind when they laid the stone 129 years ago. They are the fibre of character education, the basis of our broad educational programme. People all over the world stress honesty, responsibility, respect, fairness and compassion as the shared values our world needs. Our youth needs parents and families and teachers and schools which stress these values in an often valueless world.

Allow me to give substance to Eunice as a ‘swifter, stronger, higher’ school in the last year. To report on last year’s matric results is as welcome a duty as presenting gold medals to our all-conquering 4x 100m relay swimmers. They left the high-powered Yanks and Aussies in their wake. Well, we had the most talented matric class in many years. Our 138 candidates managed a 100% pass for the 18th year, an 88.32% university exemption rate, a staggering 47 distinction passes, 53 merit passes and 342 subject distinctions (51 on SG). 33 girls earned Eunice Board Medals (their personal Olympic gold) for scoring 5 or more distinctions. Hellen Tseng had 10 distinctions, Madré vd Walt got 9, three girls had 8, 8 girls had 7 distinctions and 11 girls had 5.

70% of the class (96 girls) took Mathematics as a subject, 60% of them on HG. The HG average was 76% and the SG average 83%. We had similarly impressive results in the Languages Physical Science, Biology, Physiology, Art, Speech & Drama, Business Economics, Home Economics and Geography.

I always like to highlight that 31 of our 32 black matriculants earned matric exemption with 3 distinction passes, 26 merit passes and 2 ordinary passes.

Eunice has a very proud academic record. The two special awards displayed here were Eunice’s two gold medals. The Department of Education’s Top Schools Trophy has been awarded to Eunice since the Sydney Olympics four years ago while the Top Mathematics and Physical Science School in the Province Trophy was won, once again, after acclaimed wins in 1999, 2001 and 2002.

There is no doubt that ‘swifter, higher, stronger’ is an infectious state of mind; success breeds success with the result that our girls have responded to an atmosphere of high expectation set by successive performing classes, by senior staff who have confirmed that, in terms of experience, expertise and most significantly, commitment, they are in a class of their own. As a school we have developed definite academic focus which governs our decision making on issues such as staff appointments, planning, time tabling, subject choice and matric class management in terms of individual attention, healthy co-operation and motivation.

Eunice has a very proud academic record, the city’s best; yet it can never be accused of being a result factory or a distinction machine. This is a school of remarkable opportunity for all irrespective of academic or sporting ability.

Just as we, as a school community, can be hugely proud of our academic awards these last four years, so too can we be proud of our major projects such as Oklahoma, Christmas, Valentine and Mothers’ Markets and our holiday hotels. They are all based on initiative, flair and commitment. Oklahoma was the one which required such remarkable dedication from the girls themselves, from their families and even from Eunice House. Together with willing staff on stage we immersed ourselves in a quality educational opportunity which will have enriched our girls and our school.

Our Art Exhibition is presently on show in the gym hall (where tea will be served) and it is such clear testimony of talent, teacher expertise, expectation and standards at Eunice.

Teachers countrywide were on strike last week. The remuneration issue is central to keeping experienced, well-qualified, competent teachers in classrooms and attracting the right student teachers. We take our top teachers for granted at our peril. We have that initiative, flair and commitment on our staff and I salute them for creating a Eunice work ethic which permeates our school.

Promoting modern life skills and values is the basis of our Leader Project – initiated and managed by Mrs Mag Marais and aimed at extending traditional leadership and service roles to each and every matric girl. Their awards function this morning resembled a major multi-national’s community outreach programme. Our Leader Project initiative is R13 000 richer as the result of the Premier’s Youth Award. I cannot but highlight a few of their creative ideas transformed into successful service learning. I loved the Painting Souls who upgraded St Patrick’s School in Lynchfield; I marvelled at the free dinner dance with live Boereorkes provided for 90 senior citizens of the Striata Old Age Home. I will never forget the naughty old man who asked Daphne Hattingh to dance. “I can’t dance,” replied Daphne.
“Don’t worry,” said the octogenarian with the glint in the eye “ I cant either”. I watched in awe when our girls hosted a fully-fledged matric dance for Bainsvlei Combined School in this hall; and who can forget the Chariots of Fire project with six custom built wheelchairs presented to carefully selected disabled children from Tswellang School for the Physically Disabled in Mangaung. And the girls who reached out to the children whose mothers are prisoners at Grootvlei Prison.

There were twenty such innovative and striking outreach groups. It was Calvin Coolidge who said: “We have been such a favoured people. We ought to be a grateful people.”

Well, the Olympics are all about sport: the spectacle, the participation, good relations and, of course ‘swifter, higher. stronger’. School sport is all about developing skills and experience, about personal bests and healthy adrenalin, about fun and camaraderie. Swimming and hockey continued with top provincial and national achievements. Despite press predictions to the contrary, Eunice won all age groups at Inter-high for the fifth year including the waterpolo and diving trophies. At the National Girls’ Schools’ Gala we came close second to Pietermaritzburg Girls’ High after five years at the top. Ingrid Auret won a gold medal at SA Schools’ and ten Eunice swimmers made the Senior Women’s Free State Team for the National Championships with Kirsty Wienand the captain. Jo-Ann Bergman represented South Africa at Casablanca. Thank you Mrs Colleen Steenkamp and Uncle Alf for another dream season.

Ten Eunice first team hockey players made the Southern Free State Under 18 A Team for IPT. All in all 37 Eunice girls played provincial hockey this year. The first team had a sensational year winning three national tournaments, two in Bloemfontein and the National Girls’ Schools’ title in Port Elizabeth. They won the Bloemfontein First League with first-rate hockey and high scores and beat Oranje in the final for the second year in succession by just a single goal in the last minute. We had 5 SA Schools representatives, 3 of whom Elzane Jacobs, Robyn Lee McLaren and Kathryn Blake represented SA U/18A in Uruguay. Thank you Miss Scheepers, Mrs Wilson, Mr Hugo and all your helpers.

Our tennis girls did superbly in 2004. They won the National Girls’ Schools’ title again in Port Elizabeth with a very close win over Pretoria in the final and earned themselves a first-time invitation to the prestigious Amanda Coetzer Tournament where they earned a creditable third place behind Bloemhof and Oranje. Thank you Mrs Bouwer and Mr Gobler.

Our Netball girls top achievements were a good derby victory in East London and the spirit and ambition of our U/15 As who reached the final of their league. Thank you to Mrs de Wet and her helpers. Our Athletes surprised us with victory in the U/19A Cross Country League. Our new squash courts have attracted a whole new set of squash players with Kathryn Blake and Simone Pieterse in a class of their own.

Our complex is always in the process of development and this year was no exception with the tarring of the entire road network and the substantial progress to our new block which will include a fully functional mini-theatre with a raised stage, lighting, sound and curtains. Both the stage and the auditorium parts of the theatre double as independent classrooms, divided by a movable acoustic partition, which will both be in full use every day. My thanks to our estate manager, Mr Rory Hoareau, Mr Francois Esterhuizen, Mr Tobie Wiese and all their helpers for ensuring that our school and grounds do justice to our 130 year tradition of excellence. I would like to acknowledge a contribution of Mr Paul Azar and Mr Dave Roberson for the time and effort which they invest in our school day after day.

Before more thank yous, allow me as always to share one or two memorable moments of my year with you:

 It will be difficult to erase from my memory that wonderfully impressive crescendo to the choreography and direction of the scene which practised the Oklahoma commandment: The Farmer and the Cowmen will be friends. Dr Paine, you dance like a fairy grandfather.

 I will not forget that hour-long moment of solid rain which preceded the first event of the Inter-High Gala this year. Drenched, uncomfortable and tightly packed on an exposed spectator stand, our girls welcomed their conductresses and swimmers, following an Olympic style walk-in, with pride and with passion.

 I missed the Midmar Mile this year as my own figure confirms, but 153 Eunice medals on that day made many girls, their school, their wonderful coach and their families proud.

 The school’s 129th birthday celebrations included 13 of my wife’s Grade 00s on stage, all with their mothers, all of whom were Eunice girls. Their rendition of the Eunice war cry and our own girls’ response was an unforgettable moment.

 The headgirls of 2000 arranged with me last week to be present to watch their Grade 8s of 2000 arrive at the Matric Dance tomorrow. That thoughtfulness is a memory that will last.

 My secretary’s daughter is one of my wife’s Grade 00s. When I went to drop keys in Moira’s classroom, Kayla turned to her friends and announced , “He works for my mom!”

 That goal scored against Oranje 47 seconds from time tasted like an old Eunice recipe called pumpkin pie. Pampoentert if you didn’t understand, Mrs Marais.

Mr Leon van Rensburg joined our management team this year and earned instant respect as a dedicated, meticulous and skilled teacher, organiser and staff manager who leads by example. He has put a little pressure on a growing male contingent in terms of a more flamboyant dress sense. He and our other newcomers in January, Mrs Melaney Adams and Mr Ferdie van Wijk have added so much colour and character and value to our staff. Every time I see Mrs Adams arrive for school with the tools of her trade, I am reminded of Mary Poppins.

My thanks to Dr Don Paine who is an experienced instructional leader who brings strong administrative and technical skills to our team; Mrs Maureen Botha is indispensable to our quest for excellence through consistent and ever-broadening opportunity; Mrs Mag Marais literally devotes her life to extending education beyond the classroom for our seniors, in particular, with devotion, creativity and style; Mrs Musgrave puts Eunice at the forefront of computer skills education; Mrs Norval devoted every spare moment this year to writing the new Home Economics textbook; Mrs Antoinette Steenkamp ensures that we maximise classroom focus at Eunice. I cannot but single out Dr Niel van Niekerk whose multi-talented, unconventional style and willingness served to bring out the very best in so many of our girls this year.

There are many boarder parents here this evening. On their behalf I would like to thank the staff of Eunice House, a facility difficult to match in schools far and wide. My thanks to Mrs Karen vd Merwe, Mrs Loraine Wilson , Mrs Jackie Truter and Miss Michelle Sangerhaus as well as Sr Steenkamp and all our support staff. Mrs vd Merwe tackles such major projects with professionalism and a smile. Working with you is such a pleasure, Karen.

I thank Maggi du Toit, Edna vd Merwe and Kate Honger for their passionate and intensive commitment to our school since their first Grade 8 day – a very challenging day filled with apprehension, excitement and a driving ambition. All three were new to Eunice. Thank you for the respect you earn, the love you give, the example you set and the atmosphere you create. Edna you gave your school so much more, Kate, so loved by all, again reached the Midmar shore, Maggi you lead with heart and many goals did score. You are an uncomplicated, spirited and responsive matric class. Thank you for your support.

Mr Pat Uys offers Eunice and its principal so much experience, such personal support and a working relationship which makes every day a pleasure. Mrs Pautz, Miss Taylor, Mrs Paine and Miss Mayiyane provide our school with a totally professional financial administration. I make special mention of two longstanding servants of Eunice: Mrs Dolly Wedderburn and Mrs Amal de Vries

A special word of gratitude to all the parents whose association with this school ends with the matriculation of your daughter this year. My thanks to the Parents’ Association, and especially to Mr Andries Bester and Mrs Sandra Haasbroek. Sandra’s three-year term of office as Chairman ends this year. She has supported Eunice tirelessly and generously in terms on time and sacrifice in such a hands-on manner and with loyalty, charm and style.

Mrs Dale, we’ve worked together for 11 years now in close association on major projects. We share so many of Eunice’s challenges. Last week was the opening night of Pied Piper and it was icy cold and Mrs Dale couldn’t wear the outfit for the occasion. I don’t have such problems. Your toddlers become our teenagers and we share in their pride tonight. Mr Cairns, has thanked our governors for their love of Eunice and their willingness to give in service and expertise. Duncan, your confidence in our school is inspired leadership in action; Eunice is developing visibly. Thank you for all the optimism, input and fun.

I would like to thank those closest to my daily schedule who bear the brunt of my many weaknesses, especially Mrs Myra Wienand in our front office and Mrs Sharon Nelson, my personal secretary who allow me to serve simpler, better, faster and my wife, Moira, whose considerable sacrifice over the last 18 years, uncompromising values and loving support allow me to serve Eunice deeper, stronger, longer. I am afraid swifter and higher are forgotten concepts for this greying principal.

Tomorrow is the matric dance. I have signed permission notes for boarders for weeks now for nails, for sun beds, for dress arrangements. No one asks for time off to find a partner. No one ever has. Men don’t really count here.
 

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