LEADERS
My own journey into the realm of education has an origin which is difficult to determine precisely. I remember living in Burgersdorp, where I was taught until Grade 4. This was a special time because there was only one class which contained only five pupils, ranging from Grades 2 to 5. We were all taught together. The teacher coped by keeping everyone busy, and I coped by working furiously quickly so that I could set my own task aside in order to eavesdrop on what was happening with the older pupils. This inquisitiveness, always wanting to understand more, is key to the process of the acquisition of knowledge. When I joined Clarendon Junior School, in East London, for my Grade 5 year, I learned that learning at school is not something solely facilitated by adults. While my stern Grade 5 teacher eventually left to become a missionary, my young confidante at the time, Merle Masson, was loyal and unwavering in her commitment to our close friendship. Merle had polio, but this played no part in our mischievous antics and how talkative we were. Nowadays our paths cross less frequently than they once did, because our journeys have taken us in different directions. I have come to understand more and more, whilst travelling through life, that memories are signposted by emotions. People tend to remember with great accuracy how events and others made them feel. I’ve never forgotten, for example, how I felt when one of my junior school teachers forced me to eat a tomato sandwich! My own journey, now more specifically as an educator, was initiated by the passion instilled by my own Grades 11 and 12 History teacher, who was inspirational and interested in my individual progress. It was therefore before completing high school that I had already decided a career in teaching was to be my chosen path. This journey in education eventually brought me to Rustenburg High School for Girls but, truthfully, it felt more like a return than something altogether new. My own alma mater, Clarendon, is uncannily similar to Rustenburg. Both schools have a similar architecture, structure and history. Riebeeck College, where I had served as principal prior to my appointment in Cape Town, is even slightly older than both Rustenburg and Clarendon. My journey into schooling seemed strangely destined towards establishments of heritage and tradition.
From the Principal Ms Laura Bekker BA, HDE
Rustenburg High School for Girls is on a journey, as we all are.
It was in a strange little wooden room, now defunct, at the front of the school where I waited my turn to be interviewed for the position of principal of Rustenburg High School for Girls. Ms Gillian Cockram, a softly spoken Rustenburg stalwart staff member, had been appointed to guide me through the school building towards the Media Centre, where the School Governing Body was scrutinising applicants. As Ms Cockram led me through the open porticos and colonnades, I remember thinking, “I feel strangely at home here.” There was something unexpectedly homely about both the building and the atmosphere of the property. One of my first goals as the newly appointed principal was to meet and interview every single staff member who serves the school. Personal one-on-one conversations helped me to understand the many journeys these people each were on. The general insight shared by so many was that Rustenburg was ready to change, to embark on a new route, so to speak, but there was also a degree of apprehension how this should begin and where this might eventually lead. Inadvertently, it became my task to lead the school towards change. I remain immensely grateful to the School Governing Body at the time for having the foresight and vision to set Rustenburg on its latest journey. This was a tenacious and dedicated group which looked into the future and set to lay out a path on which our school currently travels. It was Ms Alicia Bleby, Rustenburg’s very first principal from 1894 – 1911, who perhaps initially paved the way. And it will be my successors, long after I have left, who will again scan the horizon to determine where it is that Rustenburg must go to next. A dynamic school can never rest on its laurels, or become complacent, or celebrate only its current state. A dynamic school is one that actively seeks out change, growth, development and improvement. I am humbled by the immense contributions to the school which have taken place recently, not only the physical structures of the Mathematics and Physical Sciences Centre and the Astroturf Hockey field, but also the resilience of staff members, pupils and their parents to some considerable curriculum changes which have come our way. While there have indeed been several exciting additions to Rustenburg subsequent to my appointment, I do not accept singular responsibility for steering the school in any particular direction. Countless invested stakeholders, many well before my time, had the wisdom to set Rustenburg on its journey as the lauded educational institution it is. Now, as I stroll through the open porticos for the last time before relocating to Pietermaritzburg to assume the role of principal of Epworth School, I am filled with an indescribable degree of pride. It is a similar feeling, I suspect, which binds all Rustenburg girls, both past and present.
RGHS MAGAZINE 2015
7
