Grant Nupen 2005 - 2008: Expansion
The rumble of innovations and adaptation continued. By now, the quick wins that had been identified were in place and the school year was settling into a new and busy pattern. The academic programme remained central, and there were many successes to celebrate. The sporting calendar was full and the efforts of the boys were well rewarded. Culturally, the music programme, the society meetings, the drama programme of school plays and one-act festivals steamed ahead. Pastorally, the house system, the tutor system and the BSU created the environment for the boys to reach for and achieve their own goals.
And while this remained the bedrock of Bishops life, the 2010 initiative kept expanding. Under the Development Office, concerted efforts were made to get the Bishops database in order, which involving capturing contact details of parents, past parents, and old boys into one central database. The fundraising plan was developed along Advancement principles, with help from UCT’s programmes, and the plan was marketed as the Three Pillar Plan. This had three arms – Building and Infrastructure development; Bursaries; and Building the endowment. Projects already initiated such as the Investec project were beginning to show results.
Arising from the new spirit of openness, a group of black parents formed a forum to alert the school to issues about acceptance and belonging in which they felt the school was falling short. Meetings were arranged between the forum and several groupings of people, with a stress on the need for a change of heart and mind regarding transformation at the school, sensitivity training for staff, and the introduction of a formal grievance procedure. Council took note of these meetings and responded by reviewing the roles and structures of Council committees and the school’s executive committees. Mercia Isaacs was appointed to Council and a specific Council committee called the Diversity and Transformation committee was instituted.
An internal and external quality management body was set up in the College, following the guidelines of the Independent Quality Assurance Agency as well as the national Umalusi structures. This body, made up of staff and executive members conducted questionnaires, held interviews and focus group discussions and reported its findings and recommendations back to the Executive and to Council for implementation.
At the end of the year, James McGregor had completed his full term as Chairman of Council, and following Council guidelines, he stepped down as Chairman. Grant Nupen acknowledged the huge role that James had played in support of the 2010 Initiative, as well as guiding him through the intricacies of managing strategies for change. Geoff Everingham was elected to succeed him from 2006.
Geoff had served on Council since August 1997, and had chaired the Finance Committee throughout this time with great skill and thoroughness. He was the Sonnenberg Professor of Accounting at UCT, had been educated at St Andrews, Grahamstown, and had recently been appointed to the board of Transnet. He chaired Transnet’s Audit Committee, and also served on the board of the V&A Waterfront Company.
2006 started with a full Staff Conference, the theme of which was “Looking in, Looking out and Looking beyond”. The new state curriculum called Curriculum 2005 was introduced at Grade 10 level, which had the effect of replacing OBE with a more balanced approach, clarifying what content material as well as what outcomes needed to be taught in classes. New subjects were introduced – Life Orientation became a full matric subject as did Economics and isiXhosa as a second official language (first additional language).
In March the Ditikeni Empowerment Trust was launched as a BEE compliant company which members of the Bishops community could use in their compliance programmes. The Development Office projects included a R2,5 million sports sponsorship from Vital Foods.
Grant Nupen took a term’s long leave during which time he attended the G20 conference of schools – 5 each from Britain, South Africa, Australasia, and the USA/Canada. He was also able to join the Choir and Brass tour of Russia. Stuart West was appointed as Head of Dainfern College in Gauteng, and Peter Westwood was appointed to replace him as Vice-principal Pastoral.
Support staff undertook leadership training and 13 support staff worked on ABET courses through St Cyprian’s.
At the beginning of term 3, the staff conference entitled “Harmonising Bishops – Diversity and Harmony” was held following on from the Black Parents’ Forum initiative. The school’s Quality Management Committee in its second year examined governance and management issues.
In October, Interact arranged an interschools Soccer tournament with Rondebosch and Wynberg.
It was decided to move College Evensong from Sunday to a midweek event on a voluntary basis on a trial run during 2007. The following year, the executive decided to keep Evensong as a once-a-term compulsory weekday service.
In his newsletters, Nupen was still concerned about alcohol, drug abuse, and parties, as well as the conflict between what parents expect and what the school expected from the pupils.
Gray House launched an event called the K4K Charity Relay and Walk in 2006. The goals were to help charitable causes, empower the boys as entrepreneurs and event organisers, involve the larger community, and tie this all together through promoting a way of life, involving fitness and the camaraderie that goes with working together for others. The event was a huge success – it attracted 60 corporate teams, 200 walkers and 30 school teams. The Leap School joined the community on the day and provided us with 10 competitive teams. As a result of the efforts of the boys, parents and staff of Gray House (particularly of Housemaster Dean Sudding and his committee of Grade 11 boys and parents) the House was able to hand over a cheque for the amount of R50 000 to the charity of their choice – the boys’ choice was Little Angels Place of Safety and Help Centre, a non-profit organisation that relied entirely on gifts from individuals and irregular donations from the corporate world.
The key events of 2007 included the first time Bishops hosted the Worlds Debating competition, and the first rugby bursaries were awarded to promising rugby players. The Three Pillar Plan directed its focus on the development of rugby infrastructure – the upgrading of the Heatlie Pavilion on the Piley Rees, and the building of the Rick Skeeles Pavilion on Lutgensvale.
Expanding Bishops - GEMS Dubai and the Bafokeng initiatives
After the success of the LEAP interaction, the school attempted two further expansions of the school’s influence. With introductions being made by a parent, Michael Louis, Nupen, King and Setterberg went to Dubai to meet the Chief Executive of the GEMS group of schools. Serious talks were held about GEMS setting up a Bishops Dubai, a school based on the ethos and approach of Bishops and following the South African curriculum, but in Dubai. GEMS was a big organization, with over forty schools, and they were looking to attract South Africans stationed temporarily in Dubai. After an encouraging start, the possibility of the school collapsed in part because of the global financial crisis of 2008/9.
The third attempt to expand the school’s outreach again following on from the principles of the 2010 conference. Nupen and Everingham issued a statement of Intent between Bishops and the Royal Bafokeng Nation. The gist of the statement was a proposed collaboration with the Royal Bafokeng Nation to create a school in the Bafokeng Region of the North-West Province, based on Bishops. The school would be a joint venture, owned and financed by the Bafokeng, but to which Bishops would bring educational excellence and managerial expertise. This venture was based on a clear commonality of purpose in the Bishops vision with the Bafokeng’s 2020 Vision. At that stage, the intention was to bring this vision to a reality by 2012. As with the GEMS initiative, the global financial crisis brought this endeavour to an end, but Bishops maintained contact with the Bafokeng, and several groups of pupils and teachers visited Bishops.
As had become customary, the Elective Assembly for the next archbishop was held in the Bishops Chapel. Ngongonkulu Ndungane and Desmond Tutu had been elected at Elective Assemblies held in the Bishops Chapel previously. This time, Thabo Makgoba was elected Archbishop, and so became the next Visitor to the school.
Jake White brought the World championship rugby cup to Bishops on November 5, which attracted large crowds of patriotic Bishops rugby players.
At the end of the year, Tim Hamilton-Smith, Vice-principal since 1993 retired, and Midge Hilton-Green retired as Headmaster of the Prep. Andre Jacobs succeeded Tim as Vice-principal Sport and Discipline, and Greg Ferguson-Brown was appointed to fill Midge Hilton-Green’s place.
2007 ended with the First Epic in the Cedarberg. Mark Hanley, initiator and leader of this initiative reported in the Magazine on the first Epic.
“The Bishops Epic was envisaged as a 16 day journey at the end of the year by Grade 10 boys through a series of bases across the Cederberg, where they will experience a wide range of activities which will test them physically and mentally, and allow them to appreciate the landscape as well as the people and the history of the area. The boys will be supported by a team of teachers, ODs and Scouts. backed up by ‘Wild-Medix’ and members of the forestry department at Algeria. The Epic takes the place, and is an extension of, the Adventure Course that has been run by Bishops in the Cederberg since 1968. At Sanddrif boys learnt to abseil, taught in a farm school, jumped at Maalgat, visited the Stadsaal, heard talks by Quinton Maas from the Leopard trust and visited the Observatory (before the moon got too full). There were also visits up the Wolfberg Cracks and Arch and many boys completed their compulsory 24-hour solos along the river banks north of the Dwarsrivier farm.
Each group completed a three-day hike with a staff member along a range of routes and reached the summit of at least one major peak – Tafelberg, Sneeuberg, Apex, Krakadouw being some of the larger ones that groups scaled. Later in the Epic they completed another three-day hike on their own between Sanddrif and Algeria – along the east and west side of the valley. All the routes had been used before in the old Adventure Course and although blisters were many, there were no major emergencies. The weather was generally mild and for the most part the serious weather experienced in Cape Town missed us.
At Elizabethfontein, situated over the magnificent Pakhuis Pass, boys stayed in a sprawling old farmhouse, worked in the local farm school, played many new games and learnt about the local San art by walking along the Saville Rock Art Trail. The highlight here for many was the local Khoi San Kitchen where they sampled some of the local culinary delights laid on by the Strauss family. Most walked here or walked back to Algeria via Krakadouw over some of the most rugged terrain of the area – sunburn and blisters being part of the reward! At Algeria boys spent time helping the forestry department clear the path between the camp site and Uitkyk Pass and the other half did their solos in the surrounding forests in the company of some curious baboons and owls.
The highlight for most boys was the cool relief of the water base on Clanwilliam Dam where they lived on the water’s edge and learnt to water ski, build rafts and played hours of volleyball and touch rugby before navigating their way around the orchards in night orienteering. Despite the constant attention of ducks and thorns it gave many boys the opportunity to recover from their hiking and cycling legs. The cycling legs between Algeria and the water base were tough on bikes and riders and many rated this activity as the toughest of the Epic – cycling gloves will be added to the kit list in 2008.
The boys learnt a lot over the sixteen days about themselves, and tolerance and appreciation of others also being something we hope they would have learnt. They pushed themselves physically and had the experience of observing and working in communities where people are less fortunate than themselves. We are confident that the majority has grown in self-confidence and independence and that they all will remember fondly “the journey that lasts a lifetime”.
In the years that followed, the basic outline remained much the same, but the effects on each group of boys who experienced it, if anything, grew in intensity. Teaching staff and other experts vied with each other to be included.
Developments within the Pupil Leadership System
Under the guidance of Peter Westwood, changes were developed during 2008 for the pupil prefect leadership system. The prefect system operated by elevating a small group of the matrics to leadership positions, which often denied other boys the chance to develop their unique leadership skills. The new system aimed to allow all matrics a chance to lead in specified portfolios in their houses. A workshop was held in which a new set of badges for the proposed new system was developed in September – to be introduced the following year when the new system was launched. The central icon was the Mitre, long regarded as the most recognisable symbol of Bishops, and behind the Mitre were crossed the sword and the shepherd’s staff – symbolising the combined roles of authority and pastoral. The Head of House wreath was in gold, all the others were in silver. There was some initial reluctance to accept this – many fathers who had been prefects in their day wanted their sons to be able to wear their prefect badges – but very quickly, the change was widely accepted.
Preparations for the new Heatlie Pavilion
The fundraising target for the rebuilding of the Heatlie was reached, and construction work had begun. There was another Classic Pops concert in the City Hall, and the end of year projects, Epic, the Grade 11 leadership camp and the Grades 9 Activities week went ahead.
New exective structure to be implemented
During 2008, Council approved a change to the executive structure at the College. In a communication to the Bishops family, Geoff Everingham explained the new role envisioned for the Principal. The Principal had previously been expected to be both Principal of all three sections of the school, as well as line manager Headmaster of the College. The change was the creation of a new position of Headmaster of the College, thus allowing the Principal a different focus, which was to operate more directly as the ultimate custodian of the vision, values and spirituality of all three sections of the school. As the chief executive of the School the Principal would report to the College Council; strategically market Bishops to attract pupils and staff, particularly addressing transformation and global competitiveness; position the school at the forefront of educational developments in South Africa and globally; build relationships with the Bishops Family, including the OD Union, current, past and prospective parents, and friends of the school; and finally drive the funding of the school through marketing, endowments and sponsorships.
There was to be a School Executive of the Principal, the Deputy Principal and two Headmasters, and a College Executive made up of the College Headmaster and the three Vice-principals (now to be called Deputy Heads). The Prep Executive would be the Headmaster of the Prep and the two Prep Deputy Heads together with the head of the Pre-Prep. Central to his restructuring was the opportunity for the Principal to develop and continue the benefits of the 2010 project.
At the beginning of the third term, the school held the Next Wave Summit, also on Appreciative Inquiry lines, with the purpose of following up on the achievements of the 2010 Conference by re-calibrating the strategies and policies that would be needed to maintain the momentum the school had developed. The main mini-summits that gave the format to the conference addressed: The Bishops Family, Parenting, Leadership and Global Citizenship, Resilience and Sustainability, Teachers and teaching, and Technology. The conclusions and decisions from these discussions were fed into the school programme from 2009 onwards.
The matrics wrote the first matric exams of Curriculum 2005, which were for the first time nation-wide exams, instead of the previous provincial exams.
At the end of the year, Shirley Lamb retired. She had been a very powerful head of English department, but she led the way for women at Bishops by being the first Assistant Housemaster, and then Assistant Vice-principal Cultural, in which role she was a strong enabler of various areas of Culture at the school. Her place was filled by Mark Mitchell from the beginning of 2009.
Mayhem
But 2008 ended on an unfortunate note. It had been a custom on the night preceding the Valedictory for the matrics to engage in what had been and were supposed to continue being harmless disruptive pranks on the school grounds. This had been given the code name of Project Mayhem. While this had continued taking place, with the school’s response over the years not always consistent, the activities of this year went further and tipped over into quite serious disruptions. On the morning of Valedictory, the executive cancelled the Valedictory service. This was a massive reaction, and despite pleas from the now contrite matrics, the cancellation stood. That evening, over 100 matric gathered outside the Principal’s House, and the Senior Prefect in person issued a powerful apology to the Principal. A number of boys owned up to some of the incidents and also apologised. Parents also got involved. The end result was that the Principal organised a Reconciliation Service for the matrics a month later, in which a kind of peace was agreed. The Principal outlined the events which had led to the cancellation of the original valedictory, the Senior Prefect replied, and again apologised. Nicholas Bestbier on behalf of the matrics handed over to the school their Matric gift, which was a stained glass window on the north wall of the Brooke Chapel. As is often the case, not everyone agreed with what had happened – Mayhem itself, the cancellation, and the Reconciliation Service. Over the years since then, the College Executive and Housemasters put a lot of effort into preventing any repeat of this, and by 2023, the end of year celebrations were spirited but appropriate.
