2018 Prefects taking the Prefect Oath by TBHS

Rector's message - November 2017

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Congratulations to Ryan Greenslade for being appointed Head Boy for 2018. We know Ryan will do his utmost to honour the position and to discharge its duties effectively in support of students, staff and our wider community. Ryan is joined by Mac Edwards and Tyler Sparks, each as Deputy Head Boy, and James Watt, our newly appointed House Captain.

These four Prefect Leaders are in the company of 13 other promising prefects readying themselves for the opportunities and challenges ahead. The announcement of these four positions for the first time at Senior Prizegiving, rather than in the following year, added a special dimension to the event. It represented a ‘changing of the guard’, as each incumbent from 2017 presented the badge personally to the young man soon to occupy his role. Our current prefects have served the school very well this year and so a strong lead can be taken from them by those soon to serve. In Senior Prizegiving over 140 boys were celebrated for their academic achievements. We were reminded of just how diverse not only the boys are but the nature of learning itself - given the range of the subjects in which they excelled. While we work hard to develop important well – roundedness in our boys, academic achievement, working to the best of individual ability, remains the primary focus. Each commitment to a course of new learning is a commitment to a successful future.

At the apex of attainment Louis Low was announced 2017 Dux, and Hamish Dunbar Proxime Accessit; each a tremendous achievement and wonderful personal affirmation. It was our pleasure to host Old Boy David Rendall for the ceremony, visiting from Swaziland where he resides. David, as guest speaker, shared his perspective on the qualities of ‘good men’; a perspective tempered by 35 years’ experience in Not – For – Profit work in the Developing World, including with the United Nations, helping people to learn to farm to feed themselves, to subsist, and to overcome significant local barriers.

We welcomed the 2018 Year 9 last week; those in the hostel having their first overnight stay. All new boys, day and hostel, completed some baseline testing and first induction over a morning. We can see that there are a lot of fantastic young men coming through, whom we also enjoyed meeting during the interviewing last term and now look forward to bringing into the fold increasingly from here.

Thank you to the PTA for its organisation of the tremendous Fireworks Display on 29 October. It was a striking spectacle made all the more atmospheric by timely arrival of thick fog that shrouded the stadium in mystery just before ignition. This created quite a dramatic stage effect as our explosions came to us through the ether!