r '^"^IVHIfZEALAND Iwas most fortunate to be given the opportunity to travel to our two tri-nations counterparts over the past September/October holidays. The purpose of my visitation was twofold. Firstly, to attend an International Conference of Round Square schools in Alice Springs, Australia and secondly, to visit various Middle Schools in both Australia and New Zealand. The Round Square Conference, hosted by St Philip's College, was attended by over 400 delegates from 53 schools around the world,five of which came from South Africa. The Round Square is an association ofschools, which follows the principles of education formulated by Kurt Hahn, and focuses on personal development and responsibility through challenge, service, adventure and international understanding. Three Kearsney boys,Andrew Meyerowitz,PierreArno Taljaard and Brett Bisschoff, also attended the conference as they were on exchanges with some Australian schools. These boys have proved to be wonderful ambassadors for Kearsney. The conference was very well organised with various walks,talks,discussions and outings ofrelevance. The second part of my visit was spent visiting various Middle Schools in both Australia and New Zealand, which was a most rewarding experience. Kearsney's Middle School was only initiated last year in 1999, so I had much to learn from the well established Middle Schools of,in some cases, more than 20 years experience. Middle Schools,or Intermediate Schools as they are called in New Zealand, are very common down under(perhaps one in three). One ofthe Andrew questions I asked ofeach school was: "What is the main focus of your Middle Schooling?" Almost without exception the reply was centred around Pastoral Care. In other words,making each child feel comfortable with him or herself, with a degree of self-worth. Other common replies were: "... To develop the whole child", and,"... to broaden each child's lifeskill base". Each school had something to offer, which could be adapted to the Kearsney situation. What was most encouraging of all was that I came away from each visit realising that Kearsney was a great school and that we were already addressing most topical issues with a fair degree ofsuccess. Meyerowitz, Pierre-Arno Taljaardand Brett Bisschoff,proved to be wonderfulambassadors for Kearsney. I would like to mention some of the systems,of which we can be particularly proud at Kearsney. Our Leadership,Entrepreneurship and Outreach programmes are second to none. Our Mentorship and Pastoral Care policies, although still in their relative infancies, have great potential. Our subject packages at Middle School level are broad-based and even offer choices in the form of Elective Modules. Our co-curricula programme is very extensive and offers something for everyone,be he a musician,artist,sportsman, or actor. And, we have wonderful facilities, which are made available to other sources during the holidays - to bring in extra funds for(interalia)our staffdevelopment programme,so that members of staff(like myself)can travel to far away schools and conferences - to bring back new ideas and reassurances. RDEVILLIERS 16
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