We have come to the end of another successful year. The theme for this year was again to “Get Involved” and a lot of our boys did that. As in previous years, a large number of our boys have excelled in a number of areas and have made us as a school, extremely proud. It is important to also acknowledge the contributions of all our boys this year and not only those who achieved in various areas. They supported from the stands and made up the teams for these boys to excel. The NSC Examinations went well and I am sure we will have good results.
Mr and Mrs Hellenberg took over the running of the BE in 2015 and I am delighted that they have been able to make a significant impact in such a short space of time. The BE is a very important component of the school and as I said before it is something we need to nurture and cherish. It continues to be the “backbone” of the school. I also want to thank my staff and in particular my Management Team under the leadership of my Deputies, Mrs Vermaak, Mr Norton and Mr Hellenberg for their support and hard work this year.
A large number of our educators went off at the end of last week to mark the NSC (Grade 12) papers. It is a credit to the school that so many have been identified to mark and for their own personal growth, it is good that they will interact with other educators, from other schools, at this level.
This was our 149th year of existence and we are getting excited of the milestone we are about to reach next year. I am saying it was a successful year and not a spectacular one because there are still many more areas that we want to improve on.
The fields, pool and gardens are in good condition after the rains we had recently and I want to thank my ground staff for that. My concern is that some of our buildings are in urgent need of attention. On a more positive note, I have seen the plans for our new Victor Diatz Maths and Science Building and the Music Centre and it looks spectacular.
On the academic front we have boys who have excelled but then again you also have those boys who have not yet reached the level of maturity to realise that it is a tough world “out there” and that they are going to come up against tough competition in all spheres of life after school.
Our sports teams have also had their “ups and downs” this year. Our Basketball and Badminton teams are ranked 1st in SA and our Water Polo team 4th. But we have struggled in sports like Rugby, Cricket and Hockey, our traditional sports. I was very pleased with our “new look” 1st XI Cricket that won their T20 match against Northwood on 20 November to move to the top of the pool we are playing in. They are unbeaten in this competition and it was most pleasing to see in them the fighting spirit that we have all come to expect from DHS boys. Our U16 Rugby team is a talented bunch of players with a number of them in the SA squad. It looks good for next year, but I have seen too many times how talented sides or teams that have excelled as juniors not live up to their potential to predict an “all conquering” team for next year. They have been working very hard in the off season and if they can continue doing that they will be successful next year.
Culturally, we are in a good space at the moment but again there is room for improvement. Our Brass Band is working extremely hard and our choirs are great ambassadors for the school.
A lot still needs to be done, but a lot has happened over this year for me to be confident that we are well on our way to becoming the school we all want DHS to be.
As I mentioned a few times before, a good school is a busy school and a significant number of our boys are involved in various activities over the December Holidays:
Nathin Pillay, Rylen Naicker, Sridhar Chandraduth, Cayden Pather and Thirushan Pather will be representing KZN at the SA Chess trials in Cape Town early next year from 3-10 January 2016.
The DHS Badminton Team (we are also the SA Schools Champs) consisting of Muhammad Mirza, Mikaeel Mirza, Tonderai Ndudzo, Nischay Jairaj and Jaydon Beru will be participating in the SA Men’s International Tournament from 3-6 December 2015 and the All Africa Schools Tournament in Cape Town from 29 November to 3 December.
Two of our boys, Yashil Soni and Sheroze Khan, will represent the KZN U17 Cricket side and our 1st XI Cricket team will play in our 150th Cricket Festival from 6-9 January 2016, with our U15A side playing in the Westville Festival from 5-8 January 2016.
Maxim Birch will represent the province in the National Debating Championships at Treverton College from 12-17 December.
We also have a large number of Water Polo players who will represent SA and KZN in December. Jeandré Petersen and Matthew Hamilton will represent SA in test matches against Australia from 10-14 December in Cape Town. Aston Lawson, Michael Paul, Joshua Spooner and Matthew Trichardt will play for the KZN U19A side andDuveaine Naicker and Steven Waites for the KZN U19B side. Mohammad Khan is also included in the U15 KZN side.
We have just heard that DHS 1st XV Rugby player, Gert Coetzee, has been selected as a member of a 40-man U18 South African Rugby Union (SARU) High Performance Rugby Camp to be held in Stellenbosch. Gert is one of only two players from Durban to be included in the squad.
As a school we are very proud of these boys.
Lastly I want to wish every member of the DHS family safe travels and a blessed Christmas.
Leon Erasmus
14th Head Master