St David's Newsletter

Prepare the Child for the Path

I would like to share some thoughts from Mike Boyle, an American sports coach. He echoes much of what we are hoping to achieve with our boys at St David’s.
His favourite quote when it comes to dealing with children is, “Prepare the child for the path, not the path for the child”.

The reality is that you will not always be there to pave the way for your child, fix things, argue with coaches, etc. Children will grow into adults and experience grumpy co-workers and mean bosses. Constantly insulating children from difficult situations and consistently cleaning up the mess they create, defeats the purpose of many youth extramural activities.

School is about learning to succeed and to fail, not just to succeed. Children’s activities and experiences should primarily provide life lessons. If the life lesson learned is that Mom and Dad can and will fix everything, later life will be difficult.

The failure lessons may in fact be more important than the successes. Everyone wants his or her child to succeed, it is universal, and it is part of being a parent. However, it is when we attempt to alter the normal path that we err as parents. Protecting your child from difficult situations only delays lessons that are very necessary. Failures experienced as a young adult are far more painful than those experienced as a young teenager are.

Our job as educators, coaches and parents is to help create a competent, capable adult, not a dysfunctional child.

The next time you make a decision involving your child’s activities, ask yourself “Am I preparing the child for the path or the path for the child?”. This simple step will guide your decision making every time.

Winter Sport and Cultural Fixture

This weekend sees us hosting Clifton School and St Henry’s Marist College, both from Durban, in a fixture across a variety of sports and cultural activities. This afternoon sees golf, chess, debating and hockey being contested. Tennis, Cross Country, Rugby and Hockey will be taking place on Saturday. Thank you very much to the families that have volunteered to host the visiting boys. Your support is much appreciated.

Jaguar Land Rover Sandton Giveaway

Our winter sport sponsor will be giving away a wonderful prize on Saturday morning during our fixture with Clifton. One lucky schoolboy will walk away with a Land Rover watch and TWO tickets to the Rugby Test match on 9 June at Emirates Airline Park between South Africa and England. The names of five boys will be drawn and these boys will get the opportunity to kick for goal just before the final match of the day at 11:55 on the La Valla A field. Boys must be present at the fixture to stand a chance of winning the prize.

Arts Explosion Weekend

Last weekend we were fortunate to witness a number of excellent performances from boys in a variety of Cultural activities. The Glory of Music with acclaimed conductor Richard Cock was a wonderful event held last Thursday and Friday. The performances by the various St David’s choirs and bands were of an exceptional standard. The choir continued to impress audiences when they performed at the University of Pretoria’s Youth Choir Festival on Saturday. The weekend culminated in very enjoyable performances of 12 Angry Men at Theatre on the Square on Sunday and Monday. I was so impressed by the quality of each of these performances. The boys and the staff are to be commended on the quality of their efforts. They have set an incredibly high standard and they can be very proud of their achievements.

South Africa Cricket selection

Cricket South Africa yesterday announced the SA under 19 squad to tour England next month. We are delighted to announce that two of our current St David’s Marist Inanda 1^st XI cricketers have been included in this squad. We would like to congratulate Jacob Miltz and Jarred Jardine on their selection. This is an incredible achievement and we are all extremely proud of them. The tour will include two four-day Youth Test matches and three Youth ODI’s.

Jarred Goncalves-Jardine and Jacob Miltz

Southern Gauteng Hockey selection

The provincial teams were announced earlier this week and the following St David’s boys will be representing Southern Gauteng in various tournaments next month.

Under 14
Alexander Bone (14A), Anthony Lombaard (14B), Aidan Krog (14C)
They will be playing in the interprovincial tournament hosted in Johannesburg 1-7 July 2018.

Under 16
Luc Bouic (16B), Liam Talbot (16D)
They will be playing in the interprovincial tournament hosted in Durban 9-15 July 2018.

Under 18
Joshua Pilling (18A), Aidan Jordaan (18B), Euan Talbot (18B)
They will be playing in the interprovincial tournament in Durban from 25-30 July 2018.

We congratulate these boys and wish them all the best with their respective tournaments.

Say Something Nice Day

On June 1 (today), be kind to everyone you meet and say something nice to them because it is ‘Say Something Nice Day’, an unofficial holiday. The day aims to encourage people to spread cheer and goodwill by opening channels of communication and by focusing on the good in everyone. The message of the day is that positivity goes a long way in spreading happiness and joy. When we are kind in our interactions with others, we receive positivity and kindness back. This makes us happy and keeps us healthy.

Say something nice to everyone you meet
Use this day to see the positive in people you may not always like
Do something nice for a friend or family member

We should try making every day a Say Something Nice Day. Our relationships and interactions with those around us would be so much more pleasant.