Headmaster's Letter January 2014

[Michael Alexander]

As attached , January 2014's letter from the Headmaster.

[Bertie Horak]

Since I'm not there and don't know the students and/or teachers - just my thoughts:
I find it strange that results can differ so much between grade 10 and grade 12. If this was a national problem, I would assume that there's a bigger "jump" in mathematical difficulty in the last 2 years than in the preceding years, making it difficult for the students to climb the ladder at their usual pace, getting on top of the level of difficulty.  If it's only local - my guess is that there might have been some teething problems like getting through the curriculum at the best pace for the students. After all, they (the teachers) didn't have an experience to compare it with.

In MY case (regarding MATHS)... I did OK in maths in OPS, and in the first 2 years of high school. Unfortunately from grade 10 I struggled, and in my case I KNOW it was because of my teachers at that stage who simply didn't explain the work, and I was in a hostel and had nobody to help me after hours.  I struggled in matric as well, but then, when I got to university, I aced maths again... we had a great lecturer and the methodology of teaching university maths was different, with group tasks, tutorials and small self-marking tests every week with the correct results available afterwards so you can see where you went wrong...

So, in my case I know it was the way the maths was (not) taught and the attitude towards us (hostel learners) that really gave me nightmares.  Fortunately I managed to climb the ladder and enjoy maths again at uni.

Once again, I'm not pointing fingers at anybody, like I said, I'm not in OPS, or know the facts of all parties involved. This is just MY story.