Junior Academic Awards Ceremony

On Friday 1 February, we hosted our Junior Academic Awards Ceremony to celebrate the  academic achievements of the young men of Durban High School in 2018 for Grades 8 to 11. The event was attended by parents, invited guests, staff and boys, as well as Guest Speaker, Dr Jonathan Spanos.
The Junior Academic Awards Ceremony is a learner centred ceremony, with most of the formalities being conducted by the boys themselves. The Head Prefects welcomed the guests, presented a reading, introduced and then thanked the Guest Speaker.  The Prefects helped the Guest Speaker hand out the awards and the RCL Chairmen gave an address. And the audience was entertained by the Music boys.
The Guest Speaker, Dr Spanos is DHS Old Boy, Class of 2010. In his address, he shared with the audience, and the boys in particular, the eight lessons that DHS taught him:
Lesson 1 – you will always grow into your blazer; be comfortable with being uncomfortable with the faith that it is just a matter of time until everything fits
Lesson 2 – dedicate your life, event in part, to the service of others
Lesson 3 – don’t forget to make the memories
Lesson 4 – find meaning in your mistakes and you will conquer life
Lesson 5 – don’t grow up too fast, it’s okay to believe in the impossible
Lesson 6 – if you keep telling yourself “this is not something I need to know” you will have wasted your time
Lesson 7 – it is not the results you get on a test, it is about being the person with the skills and knowledge necessary to get the mark on a test
Lesson 8 – wherever you go in life, you will always be a DHS Old Boy
In conclusion, Dr Spanos said: “Today we celebrate not only the achievements of these fine young men, but the School that fostered in them both a desire for excellence and provided them the platform to attain it.”
Dr Spanos was invited to present the awards to the deserving learners that achieved over the past year.
The main awards for the day were the Top 3 pupils in each grade. They were as follows:
The top three in Grade 11 in 2018 were as follows:
Thirushan Pather (3^rd),
Abdul Osman (2^nd), and
Rashae Govender who took 1^st place and was presented a Certificate of Merit, the subject prizes for Afrikaans, Life Orientation, Physical Sciences and Life Sciences, The PricewaterhouseCoopers Award for Mathematics, as well as the UKZN Outstanding Achievement Award for Mathematics and Physical Sciences.

Grade 10 Cambridge Academy, 2019 – Adam Mohamed (1^st),
Viseshan Govender (2^nd) and Karan Moodley (3^rd)

Grade 10, 2018 – Mas’ood Bassa (1^st), Mu’aaz Bassa (2^nd) and Ntando Mpuqa (3^rd).

Grade 9 Cambridge Academy, 2018 – Naseem Essa (1^st), Sharik Ramjee (2^nd) and Nathan del Fava (3^rd).

Grade 9, 2018 – Mikail Kreuzer (1^st), Tusani Mthembu (2^nd) and Jaydin Dayanund (3^rd).

Grade 8, 2018 – Darian Robert (1^st), Yash Haricharan (2^nd) and Vitthal Ramessur (3^rd).

Durban High School congratulates all the prize winners and thanks Dr Spanos for taking time out of his busy schedule to share his story with the boys and guests.
Well done, Gentlemen!