Headmaster’s Report

The new year saw four additions to our permanent staff: Mr Allen, Mr Cook and Mr Orr to the Science Department, and Miss T. Carter to the position of H.O.D., Commerce.

Mrs Henshilwood joined us to take three junior French classes, and Mr Brommer to take fourth form Music.

We welcomed all these teachers to our staff and they proved to be good colleagues — soon settling in to the routine of college life. It was good to see Mr Hawes take up full responsibility in the Music Department. Of course the return of Mr Ted Clayton after 12 months overseas was greeted with enthusiasm by his friends. Mr Clayton appeared among us a little heavier than when he left. He had a most interesting year in the U.K. and Europe. He immediately took over the position of Careers Adviser, a position he had several years ago.

Comings and Goings: We had the usual number of changes of staff during the year. The departure of Mr Orr left a big gap to fill in the Physics and Science field. Fortunately Mr Delceg turned up out of the blue, so to speak, from the good old U.S. of A.

Mr Cardale, who had been suffering from ill-health in the latter part of last year, decided to retire from teaching after 22 years at Wellington College and a lifetime of service to the profession. The staff farewelled him at a special function on the last day of term 2. Mr Cardale was a splendid colleague over the years. He was branch president of the P.P.T.A. and staff representative at conference and later regional conference on many occasions. In his early days at Wellington College he was in charge of the Cadet Corps. He took his full share of extracurricular activities and finished his career as Head of Biology — the subject that was his first love. He was a keen teacher and will be fondly remembered by many hundreds of Old Boys throughout Wellington. He has moved to Auckland, to a warmer climate, and to be nearer to his daughter. To Ewen and Mrs Cardale we send best wishes for the future and a happy and contented retirement.

Dr John Mehl took up the vacancy left by Mr Cardale and he is now ensconced in Lab. 406.

Two staff, Mr Anderson and Mr Paulson, asked for and obtained leave from the Board to travel abroad in the third term. Both have gone to Europe and the U.K. and will be returning early next year.

Mr J. Bradley, who in previous years had done quite a lot of relieving for us, took up the third term vacancy left by Mr Anderson, Mr R. Elder and later Mr W. Bertens took over Mr Paulson’s programme.

Mrs Power, the Head’s secretary, left for a rather extensive world tour in May. Mrs Power certainly deserved her long holiday. We will be seeing her again in November.

Correspondence: We had letters and cards from: Mrs Power (U.S.A., Canada, U.K., Germany, U.S.S.R. and Poland); Mr John Tate: (U.K.); Mr Ray Meldrum: (U.K., Canada); Mr R. Anderson: (Netherlands).

We wish to record the bout of ill-health of Mr Fred Cormack early in the year which meant he was unable for the first time for many years to do relieving jobs for us. It is good to hear he has made a good recovery.

Relievers: During the year we enjoyed the company of a large band of relievers. We as a staff greatly appreciate the help we receive from these people: Mrs Romanovsky, Mrs Woodbury, Mrs Corner, Mrs Hay, Mr Guthrie, Mr Toft, Mr Stubbins and for two days, Mr Tu Wylie.

We have had a quieter social year this year, possibly because the strain of the job is becoming greater, but more likely because the economic situation has made it more difficult. The greatest crisis this year has been the financial worries of the staff room committee in financing adequate tea facilities. Although heavily subsidised by the Department, and a generous donation from Hygrade we still do not seem able to employ a tea person without calling for a subscription. We would require a subscription of at least $50.00 per head, plus the Education Department’s handout to carry on next year. Well, we will have to settle that argument at the beginning of next year.

All in all, 1982 has not been a bad year as far as the staff is concerned. Some good staff meetings have stimulated a few ideas worth pursuing and some worthwhile changes could well come about. We are all ready to enjoy the long break and no doubt will look forward to 1983.

THE TEACHING GAME......

HEADMASTER’S REPORT — DECEMBER 1982

Mr Chairman, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys of Wellington College: —

It is my pleasure to present the 115th Annual Report of Wellington College and my fourth as Headmaster of the school.

VALUES OR VANDALISM

In the middle of the fifth century AD the city of Rome was attacked. It was easily taken. For two weeks it was scientifically and ruthlessly pillaged.

The attackers were the Vandals — A Germanic people who had overrun Gaul, Spain and North Africa.

It is from them we take the term vandal, as applied to one who wilfully destroys or mutilates property.

The Vandals were not the conquerors of Rome.

They were the scavengers on the corpse of an empire that had declined and was in its death throes by the end of the third century. The strength of Rome had long departed when the Vandals arrived at its gates.

Its army had been barbarised. Indeed, its active defence was entrusted to barbarian mercenaries under their powerful chiefs. They cared not for the traditions, beliefs, or ideals of “pax Romana”, but only for the cash the empire would pay for their services. The empire in the west did not fall; it petered out. While it did so, the Vandals marauded.

When, in 1970, Alvin Toffler published his well-known best seller “Future Shock”, he examined the psychological breakdown that he maintained was occurring because of the confusing and fast rate of change occurring in society. The signs of confusional breakdown we see around us”, he says (p312), include “the spreading use of drugs, the rise of mysticism, the current outbreaks of vandalism and undirected violence, the politics of nihilism and nostalgia, the sick apathy of millions. Toffler may have concentrated on the new rate at which change is occurring. The symptoms only differ in the rapid intensity of their appearance. They may have been less quickly identifiable in the Roman Empire or any of a number of great empires; but they are the same.

This year New Zealand has witnessed a rise in acts of vandalism among children and young people. Many instances of vandalism have featured schools as targets. The Minister has in recent years actively and creditably worked at schemes to counter the negative destructive forces that lead to our high rate of vandalism.

As in Rome, the vandals are attacking marauders, not conquerors. When vandals succeed they demonstrate the decline, the decay, even the death of a society’s values.

SPORTS/ARTS CENTRE

Without doubt the most impressive item on the Board’s agenda during this year has been the proposal for the Sports/Arts Centre.

The first mention of the need for a new ‘gymnasium’ was made by the Headmaster early in 1979 to a group of College Mothers meeting in Room 601, the then ‘Penthouse’. At that stage and for the two following years the idea gained only token support.

The cost was estimated at $400,000 and there was little hope of finding enthusiasm for such fund-raising.

The Minister of Education agreed that the present gymnasium was ‘under code’ and, in June 1981, approved a grant of $125,000, to be inflation-adjusted up to time of payment. The Wellington College Old Boys’ Centennial Trust sold its major asset in 1981 and, in 1982, pledged its next four year’s income to the project. That amounted to $180,000.

Various other sources brought the total available funds up to $400,000. We were, by early 1982, clearly looking at not a simple gymnasium, but at a facility for much wider use.

The Board accepted the Headmaster’s concept of an ‘Arts’ centre and soon renamed the project as the ‘Sports/ Arts Centre.’

Plans for the ‘Sports’ facility were well under way by mid 1982, at which stage two well-known, distinguished businessmen, Mr Ron Brierley and Mr Frank Renouf, both college old boys, each offered $100,000 towards the project. These most generous gifts made the whole thing viable and the Board proceeded to enter into a contract with a Project Funds Appeal Director. An appeal committee, under the general chairmanship of Mr Renouf, and the executive chairmanship of Mr Peter Kemp, has begun the work of establishing the framework for the major appeal in 1983.

Meanwhile plans for the ‘Arts’ facility are well advanced. Mr Gardiner, Deputy Principal and foremost in our school’s drama, has been working with Mr Richard Campion and others to provide an ‘architect’s brief’. First indications are of a very fine facility, not merely for the school, but also the city. It will include excellent facilities for music, drama, and the visual arts.

Only two weeks ago the Department of Education came forward with support for the Arts Centre on the basis that the school has no music facilities. The sum mooted is in six figures and the board will be eagerly awaiting confirmation of the amount early in the new year.

The year ahead looks like being one of the biggest in the last 60 years of the college’s history, at least in terms of building construction financed from donated funds.

It is not enough to cry out for “more authority”. What is needed is acceptance of the authority implicit in the values we have known and believed in and are still to hand.

At this school we value the traditions of the past our links with Old Boys, and the commitment to excellence over a wide field of endeavour. It is not in support of feeble nostalgia for past glories that we do this. It is with the implicit belief that the standards long espoused by this school are good, noble, and a guide for life. If they slip one must pull them up again; where they are strong in daily influence on the school and its people, we must

keep them so.

Educational expansion in the 1960’s — 1970’s created, through necessity, too many new institutions which either ignored or only half-heartedly, and at times incongruously, adopted the tradition standards of older, established schools. It is no secret that I greatly respect and seek to strengthen the strong commitments to values retained in this school through the times of change over the past twenty years.

It is a credit to our pupils and staff today that vandalism is negligible. May our acceptance and promotion of the highest standards of personal conduct, social conscience, and genuine concern for the needs of others be our highest goals in the educational endeavour of this school in the years ahead.

THE SCHOOL

THE ROLL: School commenced with a roll of 1029.

Form 7 — 91; Form 6 — 219; Form 5 — 268; Form 4 — 228; Form 3 — 223.

The school has once again had applications for enrolment numbering well in excess of positions available. For 1983, due to a large number (16) of late ‘in-zone’ applications (which we are obliged to accept), we have had to add an extra third form.

With the problem of declining rolls now only two years away from making significant impact on Wellington secondary schools, it is obvious that the whole question of zoning needs to be re-examined.

This school should share the roll decline. We accept the need for that.

What we will not accept is a change in the mix of pupils from the wide variety of catchment areas around Wellington. That wide cross section of Wellington’s young men which has long been a feature of this school, is also one of its strengths. I do not want to see it significantly altered. Dare anyone try.

ACADEMIC RESULTS (1981)

School Certificate: 67.5% gained full and direct entry to Form 6. This reflects the calibre of the year group as tested on entry. Its potential was predictably lower than the previous two years intake.

However, overall, 81.2% gained passes in S.C. subjects, which is a significant achievement.

University Entrance: 62.4% passed (National figure, 59%). Of the 213 Candidates, 113 (53%) were accredited (National: 44% and 13 (6.1%) passed by sitting (National: 15%).

The school’s objective is to maintain an overall percentage pass significantly above the national average. To do so we require as few as possible to sit the examination. It has been reassuring to note that our accrediting procedures are refined sufficiently to ensure that by only 1.1 % do we exceed the requirement of the University Entrance Board that 5% must pass by sitting the examination papers.

University Bursary and Scholarship

Number at:

National % of 7th Form CandidatesWellington College Wellington College % of 7th Form Candidates 1980 1981 1980 1981 Scholarship 2 4 2.2 2.2 2.4 4.4 A Bursary 16 25 23.0 24.1 19.8 28.1 B Bursary 17 23 36.0 36.6 21.0 25.8 Totals 35 52 61.2 62.9 43.2 58.3 Total Entry 81 89

Wellington College National Totals

UE Candidates 1980 1981 210 213 32,994 31,980

UB/US Candid. 1980 81

8,401 1981 89 8,600 Wgtn. College % National % % of UE Candidates who remain to enter for

UB/USB 1980 1981 38.6% 41.8% 25.2% 26.9%

Two observations can be made.

First, there has been a significant improvement in results at the 7th form level. The overall pass rate for UB/ US has stepped up from 43.2% to 58.3%. This is in accord with our observations in last year’s report that there had been a noticeable improvement in the tone and work of Form 7. That improvement has continued in 1982 and the Form 7 year-group has been, for the most part, a pleasure to have leading our school. While lifting the academic level — which may surprise some of them — the senior pupils in this year’s Form 7 have also contributed widely and well to overall school life. We expect the academic results to be as good as and perhaps even better than in 1981.

Secondly, we can observe that the number of pupils in Wellington College who remain for a year in Form 7 is well above the national average. In 1981 the difference was 14.9%. In other words, this school carried many more pupils into Form 7 than most other schools of approximately the same size. As a result, we must inevitably count into numbers entering for UB, a higher percentage than most schools of those pupils who will not or cannot aspire to success at UB level. This is reflected in our lower percentage of ‘B’ Bursaries attained.

The overall attainment of a 58.3% pass in UB/US compares more than favourably with the national average. If the unwilling candidates were pruned to give a Form 7 which retained a proportion of Form 6 pupils closer to the National average, then the pass rate percentage would be impressive indeed. As it is, it is quite satisfactory.

It remains only to be restated that this school fully supports the lifting of UE into the Form 7 year. The favourable decision of the Minister in this matter would be well-received by secondary teachers.

SCHOOL ACTIVITIES

Recalling what was written in this report last year, it