BP Staff - the backbone of our school

Our school is blessed with beautiful facilities. Upon entering our campus one can only appreciate the attractive grounds, from indigenous gardens, dams, sporting facilities and classrooms which reflect our tradition, our origin as well as our educational progress into 21st century spaces. You are most welcome to arrange a walkabout and tour of our school, where we would willingly show you our facilities, teaching and learning spaces.

Furthermore, this walkabout would allow you to witness the true backbone of our school – The gift that is our passionate, positive and extremely skilled staff.

The single most important factor determining the quality of a boy's education (at least for me), is the quality of his teachers. Each day I get to walk amongst “inspirational giants”, men and women who love their place of work and love seeing each boy reach his potential and experience "happy fulfillment".

I have always enjoyed the mantra: “The road on the extra-mile is less congested” – I am confident that a Saints Boys’ Prep staff member more often than not travels that extra mile. Our parents and the management team collectively affirm the good work produced by staff. One just needs to see the boys in the class or outside of the formal class on the sports fields, stage or in music settings to measure the validly of this article. 

Times have changed and now, more than ever, teaching has become complicated; demanding expansive knowledge of material, curriculum, pedagogy and assessment, technological appreciation, sound classroom management, a love for serving and the ability to “juggle several balls” at one given time as we work with boys aged 9 -13 years.

So what do I get to experience daily that quantifies my statements that our Boys’ Preparatory staff are the backbone of our school:

·         Boys’ Prep teachers set high expectations for all our boys and our colleagues. We expect that all boys and colleagues can and will achieve in their classroom as well as within their chosen extra-mural interest.

·         Boys’ Prep teachers have clear objectives. Boys are directed both with their academic and extra murals. Rich assessment and varied teaching give our boys a clear idea of what they will be learning.

·         Boys’ Prep teachers are prepared and organised. They are in their classrooms and sports field early and ready to teach/coach. Our classrooms reflect and environment conducive for boys to learn, while our arts, culture and sports programmes allow for added stimulation, individual and team participation.

·         Boys’ Prep teachers fully engage our boys with age-appropriate material and skills and we encourage our boys to be global in their outlook. We use facts as a starting point, not an end point; we ask “why” questions, look at all sides and encourage our boys to engage with contemporary news, environmental concerns and global issues. Each boy is seen as the unique gift that he is and a genuine effort is made by each teacher to engage each boy.

·         Boys’ Prep teachers enjoy our boys placing value on strong relationships with each boy and their parents. I genuinely feel my colleagues are approachable, caring and passionate. Their enthusiasm towards happy fulfillment is contagious and can be measured by their commitment to the prep.

·         Boys’ Prep teachers are both “Masters of their trade” and “Jacks of all trades”. They display proficiency in their learning areas while continue to attend courses and workshops. Producing material which is sensitive towards the individual needs of our boys is a hallmark of our teaching. Offering our boys exposure to musical instruments both classical and traditional African instruments, singing lessons, drama, art and 13 sports is further testimony towards the competence of our teaching team.

·          Boys’ Prep teachers communicate frequently with our parent body. Round table meetings, social media, web articles, weekly newsletters, email, focus reports and telephone calls add to our open door policy of communication.

·         Boys’ Prep teachers are human. We try leaving our own concerns and troubles at home so that we can give of ourselves fully to the boys. We are authentic in our interaction with one another, boys and parents. Who we are at school is the same person to who we are in our private lives. We err and yet I believe we own it and work towards rectifying errors. We are an optimistic, positive and enthusiastic staff. Fortunately we don’t take ourselves too seriously. We love our work, we love a laugh and we care for our school.

To my fellow "teaching giants", thank you for inspiring me.

Yours in education,

Q Pascoe

Deputy Headmaster