Sport plays a significant part in the life of our school. It is, however, an addendum to school life. 

At the recent Boys’ School Headmaster’s conference an outstanding presentation on concussion was given by Dr Dan Exeter. Dan did more than tell us about the medical significance of concussion he placed sport in perspective and his messages are worthy of sharing.

We must see sport for what it is – a pathway to stay physically active and an environment within which to develop camaraderie, values and ethics and life skills.

Concussion is brain injury. It is under reported and it is a Doctor’s problem. A physiotherapist or coach cannot determine when someone has recovered from concussion. Concussion is more severe for young people who take longer to recover and more likely to develop complications. Players who have been concussed are more likely to develop musculoskeletal injuries. You do not need to be knocked out to be concussed and 80% of concussions do not involve losing consciousness. You do not even need to be hit in the head to be concussed.

We only have one brain. A return to play before a doctor’s clearance is not worth the risk and this is clearly illustrated by the likely earnings from professional sport. There are only 200 super rugby contracts in New Zealand with an annual average value of $200,000. There are only 600 NRL contracts across New Zealand and Australia and the average earnings across an NRL player's entire career are $100 000. Even our most successful sportsman will need a career post sport that involves their brain. The reality is that very few sportsmen will make this level. Only 60% of those who play for the New Zealand Secondary School rugby team will play ITM cup and only 33% of those will play Super Rugby and only 23% of NRL juniors will play NRL.

Returning to learning must be achieved before a student returns to play. If a student cannot focus at school after an incidence of concussion he must not be allowed to resume contact sport. The key phase in recovery is the first 48 hours and if concussed students must have physical and mental rest for all of this time. Mental rest includes not using back lit devices such as phones or computers. If a student is concussed they need to send a message on their social media accounts saying they have been concussed and they won’t be using their phones for a while and then turn them off. Parents need to police this.

 Mouth guards and headgear provide no protection against concussion. The only things that reduce concussion are tackling technique and playing by the rules. Rugby is not actually an outlier in terms of concussion statistics and in fact the highest rate of concussion for U15 year old sport occurs in women’s football.

This Pocket concussion recognition tool can be used to identify concussion but only a Doctor can return a player to activity. All concussions need to be reported and treated seriously.

Lots of our teachers and departments are doing excellent work, however, I do want to draw some attention to some of the work that senior students are doing in Business Studies. Business Studies students create businesses as part of their course work and their success is judged on a quadruple bottom line. Profit, sustainability, social good and bicultural promotion are the four criteria by which students and then their teachers assess their business success. Be sure to keep an eye out for more information from these groups coming soon to your inbox. This is a great example of the New Zealand curriculum in action, teaching both academic skills alongside values. It also does make good business sense. Arie de Gues worked for Royal Dutch/Shell for 39 years becoming the head of strategic planning he was also a visiting fellow of the London School of Economics and worked with MIT. De Gues in his research found that 40% of newly formed companies last less than ten years. Long lived companies, those who had been in existence for more than 50 years, had a strong moral purpose and set of core ideals.

This sense of moral purpose is especially strong in teenagers today, as was reinforced to me when I recently interviewed candidates for the Sir Arthur Sims Scholarship (which this year provided just under $50 000 for CBHS Old Boys to study at Lincoln). These boys are ambitious, decent and community minded and along with other members of the interview panel I was very proud of them.

Further congratulations is due to our teachers and Heads of Department. We have recently been visited by NZQA who have reported that our moderation agreement rate for internal assessment is the highest in the South Island. Our community can be very confident in the quality and integrity of NCEA results at School.

Thank you to the PTA for their recent support at a number of events, ANZAC Day, Founders Day, the raffle, Bingo Night, and the Year 13 Parent Evening. We are very fortunate for the support of this dedicated group. Mike Boomer, Head of the English Department will be speaking at the June 7 PTA meeting on SOLO taxonomy which is a learning framework that the English department is using this year and that will be rolled out across other departments.

Altiora Peto

Nic Hill
Headmaster