44 The IEB Grade 12 marks begin with the submission of the oral and written portfolios. I was very pleased to note that there were 49 distinctions achieved for the oral portfolio which is a testament to the communicative and conversant nature of the Kearsney boys. 51 distinctions were achieved in the written portfolio and once again some boys produced some finely crafted creative pieces. The IEB NSC results of 18 distinctions and a 70.4% average puts us at an advantage against other boys’ schools and is a testament to the work ethic of the Kearsney Boys. While the Grade 8 group grappled with coming to terms with their new beginning at high school, their English content reflected this. The Grade 9s covered ‘War and Conflict’ as a theme in the first semester and then moved onto the dystopian genre where they read the classic work of Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451 as well as the more contemporary, South African film District 9. Grade 10 boys delved into the Bildungsroman, or ‘coming of age’ story and read the novel Flat Water Tuesday in conjunction with Hamlet. Both texts offered them insight into the complexities of navigating youth and becoming a young adult. The literature also required critical engagement with current social issues and the challenges that young people are faced with. The literature in the second semester added to this theme and the boys were asked to make judgements regarding their moral responsibility by learning through the characters of J B Priestley’s play An Inspector Calls as well as F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. The reading programme was also implemented in the Grade 11 syllabus and the first semester encouraged the boys to grapple with the theme of ‘The danger of a single story’. The idea was to show how reductive single stories are and to increase their awareness of the inherent and subconscious bias found in writing. The boys had to read several short stories as well as Ian McEwan’s novel Atonement. This year, a total of 66 boys participated in the De Beers English Olympiad. The Olympiad tests not only creative writing ability, but also demands that the boys answer questions regarding grammatical function and transactional writing. This year the Grade 10 boys also wrote the Olympiad examination and their results were very pleasing, considering their age, and bode well for future essayists. The results were pleasing and Kearsney achieved 1 Gold certificate, awarded to Matthew Strauss, 23 Silver and 29 Bronze certificates. Matthew Strauss placed 51st in South Africa and was the seventh boy overall. Boys also submitted poetry entries into the Wole Soyinka writing competition, which is open to entrants from all over Africa. The department continued to grow and we welcomed two babies into the department. Mr Adrian Ryan became a father to Cameron and Mrs Emily StockilSmith was overjoyed by the addition of her daughter. Cade McEwen joined the department as an intern and he has quickly endeared himself to the senior boys. Sadly though, we have lost another staff member this year. Mrs Arielle Perrett, who joined us at the beginning of the year, will be leaving us as she and her husband Dylan will be travelling overseas next year. Arielle has been a remarkably patient teacher and she has required that the junior boys engage critically and mindfully with the content she has taught. She is a linguist at heart and her thorough teaching of grammatical rules will stand her boys in excellent stead for their Kearsney careers. I wish both Arielle and Dylan all the best for their future teaching careers and I am sure they will make the most positive of impressions on the children they will teach. I would like to thank all of the members of the English team for the effort that they have made during the course of 2019. Helen Keller was accurate when she said ‘Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.’ 2019 has been a year of progress. Each member of the department has worked together to maintain the interest of the boys. This is no mean feat and technological devices constantly replace books and the need to read and write creatively is falling by the wayside. The English team have all had only one thing at heart – ensuring the success of each boy who has passed through their classroom doors. They have all worked with common purpose, each in their individual capacity, to ensure collective success. I have valued the input that each of them has given and appreciate the effort they make to create a lively and interesting department. Mrs Jane Curtiss HOD English Academic Review ENGLISH The English team have all had only one thing at heart – ensuring the success of each boy who has passed through their classroom doors.
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