Message from Executive Headmaster: Mike Thiel

The cycle of school life is mostly predictable. We all know the skeleton of the final academic term – what sports and culturals happen when, tournaments and festivals, matric prelims and then finals, matric valedictory and the end of Prep school for the Grade 7s, First Holy Communion for the Grade 3s and Confirmation for the Grade 11s, the shift (in both College and Prep) in student leadership from Grade 12 to 11 and from Grade 7 to 6 boys, the Grade 9 Journey, exams and assessments across the school, welcome evenings for next year’s new boys, and the final farewells typical of year-end as we hand out final reports and move on in anticipation of the summer holiday, Christmas and New Year celebrations.

What makes our school special is the meat that we put on this skeleton, and this is less predictable as groups of boys change, staff focus on different areas, new programmes are introduced, and each year brings diverse community and societal challenges. As I write to you, the generator is humming in the background, the Prep boys are returning from their break time games on the first day of school, and the College boys are already deep into their academic classes while the Grade 12s write their Afrikaans and IsiZulu Prelims. So, all is normal, and the diaries outline a three-month term of many diverse activities. In the opening College assembly yesterday, we spoke about the busy nature of our lives here at school, in the context that learning to balance multiple activities while at school teaches the lessons for coping in adult lives.

The staff had spent Monday on a mini-pilgrimage around the school, considering our Marist roots, and the irony of being encouraged to live with simplicity alongside our busy calendar was not lost on me! But as I reminded the boys, school is about learning how to balance our activities and working hard rather than opting out of them or finding excuses for our non-performance. I encourage parents to remember that school is not meant to be the pinnacle of performance or achievement in life but rather a foundational time where our boys grow into themselves by experiencing and learning- making mistakes and getting up and trying again the next day. Not all our boys will be the Head of School 2024 – many could do the job well, but only one will be announced. This doesn’t make the other boys any less worthy or important. It certainly doesn’t mean they have failed or done something wrong – it simply means that they will serve and lead in other spaces. Let’s go into the term embracing the endless possibilities of the many activities and encouraging our boys to be themselves and explore their limitless potential.

One of the different highlights of the term this year is next Thursday’s blessing by the Archbishop of our satellite campus in Alexandra. So many people worked hard to bring this project to the opening point in January, and I would like to thank them for their role in our new educational model. The Alex Campus is not a separate school or an outreach initiative. It is St David’s Marist Inanda’s extension of who we are to give access to excellence to another 250 boys, to break down the historical barriers between Sandton and Alexandra and to allow our boys from both campuses and different communities to grow up in the Marist tradition together. It is our way of living the five Calls to action from the last Marist Brothers’ General Chapter in Colombia:

1. To be beacons of hope in this turbulent world

2. To be the face and hands of God’s tender mercy

3. To inspire our creativity to be bridge-builders

4. To journey with children and young people living on the margins of life and

5. To respond boldly to emerging needs

There can be no better way of preparing future leaders for our country than by preparing our boys with these calls as the foundations of their character. When our boys lead as adults, they will be ready to shape the future of our world from their Marist experience here at St David’s. Let us all experience this term trusting each other and working together, being fully present at each event and remembering that how we interact with each other defines our humanity.

As I said to the boys in Assembly…

“Gentlemen, I am going to reach the end of this Assembly by encouraging you not to wait for others to do things for you. And not to be entitled and feel that anything is below you because the truth is that, in life, we need to be the type of person we want other people to be to us.

Then, we will find others reaching out and supporting us in similar ways.

Be the mentor you wish to have when you need help.

Be the friend you wish to have when you are alone and lonely.

Be the leader you wish to have when you need someone to follow.

Be the team member you wish to have when working towards a goal.

This term, be better to the people around you and bless others because you do not know what they are going through.

Gents, many exciting moments and opportunities are ahead of us this term. Remember, it is up to each of us to do the work to make things memorable. Let’s head into the term determined to use our talent and possibility to do amazing things in the world.

Good luck – your potential is unlimited.”

Mike Thiel

Executive Headmaster