The Old Diocesan Issue 13 - Magazine - Page 15
SCHOOL NEWS
Water polo kings
In one of our standout sports
stories in recent times, Bishops
has been ranked the numberone water polo team in the
country for the past two seasons,
having won every major school
tournament at least once since
2024. This year has seen national
victories at the St Andrew’s and
KES tournaments, and continued
dominance in local fixtures.
Among many astonishing stats,
head boy Michael Mafunda (left)
had played 125 matches for the
1st team as of March. Michael is
now the SA U18 team captain,
and in September a record 32
College boys, across U14 to U19
age groups, were selected for
WP Schools. Bishops’ run has
even inspired an excellent article
in Daily Maverick, “How Bishops
rose from contenders to kings
of schoolboy water polo”. It’s
well worth looking up.
Tony with 2026 Head of School Michael Mafunda (O), who was selected
to captain South Africa at the U18 Water Polo Championships in June/July.
to the school. This has drawn
widespread interest and publicity
across the country and indeed the
world. We have never shied away
from criticism or from the right of
people to express their points of
view. In fact, the latest discussion
about signs and symbols at school
has been good for the school, as
it has provided the opportunity
for us to have some difficult
yet courageous conversations.
What has concerned us, though,
is the speed at which a point of
view is arrived at without a full
understanding of the issue at
hand. In some cases, there have
been personal and unpleasant
remarks made against both
individuals and the school
itself, behaviour that is simply
unacceptable in a community
that purports to nurture its young
men and show them, by example,
how adults should behave.
At Bishops, we would like the
boys to understand that, while
the goals we set out to achieve in
life are important, how we conduct
ourselves in achieving those goals
is often equally important.
Sometimes more so.
We are slowly but steadily
launching our strategic initiative
for the next few years. Titled
Inspiring Individuals, Growing Good
Men, it will focus on the character
and values of our boys from 4 to
18 years old. The intention behind
it is to help them develop their
own roadmap to adulthood,
anchored in our base values
of courage, humility, integrity,
kindness and respect.
We are spending a great deal of
time asking the boys what they
regard as the qualities of good
men, and reinforcing these stated
school values. The language of the
strategic plan is deliberate, as we
try to recognise boys doing things
right, publicly acknowledging them
for their actions, their kindness and
their behaviour towards others.
We want our boys to see their
own behaviour and the behaviour
of others through the lens of
kindness and goodness – what
we would expect from good men.
When they leave us for the wider
world, we want them to go with
a solid base of values and a
willingness to engage respectfully
with others, with curiosity and not
fear of difference, ready to tackle
whatever comes their way.
THE OLD DIOCESAN | 11
