By Nick McIvor | Posted: Wednesday May 25, 2016
We finish Term 1 with our traditional Anzac Service on Friday 15 April at 2pm. Please join us in Hogben Hall if you can make it. All the boys will process through the Memorial Library at the end, to respectfully place their poppy before one of our 3 commemorative wreaths. The guest speaker for 2016 will be Lieutenant-Colonel Eugene Whakahoehoe - Old Boy and current Commanding Officer of Burnham Military Camp.
One hundred years ago, in 1916, the school was reeling from the Gallipoli failure the previous year. It was a failure that had tested us terribly as a South Canterbury community and nation. Gallipoli was, however, soon surpassed by fighting on the Western Front, in the 700km trench system in Belgium and France. Our Old Boys were deployed to the nightmarish Somme Offensive in mid - September 1916; one described by historian Lyn MacDonald, as being ‘the mouth of hell’[1]. The 1916 Timaruvian tells us that by December 191 Old Boys were in active service, fighting alongside 4 staff who had been teaching in our classrooms only a year before. Sadly, this 1916 publication also mourned 43 Old Boys on The Death Roll, and referred to 1 taken prisoner. In his Prize giving speech of 1916, Rector William Thomas, expressed concern about the effect of the prolonged conflict on the boys. He remarked: ‘Of course you have been fully occupied with your studies, your games, your drill and your music, but the whole of your school life has been coloured by war. You have of necessity less of the happy careless spirit which is the prerogative of youth. But if you have lost in one way you have gained in another, for, earlier in your career, you are learning something of the seriousness of life – learning that life is not roses, roses all the way.’[2] He also informed them that ‘in this time of stress, men of sturdy character are needed’[3] – perhaps preparation for the inevitable sacrifices to come given the state of the War. Thomas finished by mentioning difficulty staffing the school in wartime and thanked senior boys profusely for stepping in to teach younger ones; this positive instruction and support of Year 9s by Year 12 and 13 boys, continues to this day.
In completing the first 11 weeks, all our boys should have awareness of where and how much they have grown, and where their next growth will occur; to consciously move on their 2016 goals, knowing what success in their school life looks like and what it requires of them. This is a year for each boy to change how he meets the challenges of his schooling. If there is no change in approach to learning, achievement, and connection to the school’s operation and culture, no substantial change to personal outcomes will happen in 2016. Doing the same things as 2015 will predictably generate the same outcomes in 2016. These Term 1 holidays provide a good chance to contemplate what has already transpired with a view to setting up well for Terms 2 to 4 both in and out of school.
Nick McIvor
Scientia Potestas Est
Mā te Mātauranga te Mana
[1] MacDonald, L. Somme (Penguin, London, 2013), p 253.
[2] Thomas, W. 1916 Timaruvian, p43.
[3] Ibid. p44.
