Delivered by Mrs Tumelo Baloyi

Good morning to all of you attending this special occasion this morning.

Congratulations to the matric class of 2023, you have done so well to reach this milestone and you must be super proud of yourselves, your parents and teachers are proud of you, also relieved that the end is near for this chapter and we all wish you well for the next one.

It’s a privilege for me to get a chance to say a few words and I would like to thank the school for entrusting me with the opportunity to lead the Herschel Council.

I have been on council for about five years and the only Chair I served under was Adv Tracey Dicker, I watched her from day one of her role as chair, in fact, the day I attended my first council meeting it was an Annual General Meeting and the day to vote for a new chair of Council as the former chair Alex Watson stepped down.

So I witnessed and saw how Tracey operated, led the council, and supported School leadership for five years. There are so many responsibilities of a council chair that we can never finish the list in this one sitting, but I have witnessed Tracey leading this school through the joyful times and through the rough times, she has always been very stern, empathetic and always having our students and pupils as the end in mind. Tracey your legacy at Herschel is intact, we thank you for all the sacrifices you have made to be on duty in odd hours at Herschel. Early morning meetings in the head’s office and very late night meetings in various meeting rooms on campus, we thank your family for sharing with Herschel.

To Prof Sarah Howie and the current Herschel Council members, I am so grateful to be serving with you, all you amazing selfless individuals who are so passionate about this school and eager to see the school succeeding in all spheres. What I love is the mix of board members we have, some are parents from prep & senior school, Herschel alumnae, and others are independent just from our community in Cape Town but passionate about service and contributing their skills to this beautiful school.

To the head of school, Mrs Goedeke, Mrs Swartz and, your management team, and all staff, Tracey has already thanked you, but I want to emphasize that as council we are here as your support system and like die Bokke, we are stronger together (that’s if they win against France on Sunday).

As I conclude I want to let you know that as the deputy chair of the council, I had the privilege to lead one of the most important subcommittees in the council and that is TEB (Transformation, Equity and Belonging), those who are not aware, this sub com of council meets four times a year and representation of all school stakeholders attends this meeting i.e. student leaders, parents reps, Herschel Union (alumni), heads of school, Anglican Church rep, heads in sport, music, staff rep etc.

Throughout the years I have witnessed the commitment of people coming together with a goal in mind that anyone entering Herschel should have a sense of belonging, feel safe, be heard and see themselves represented in the school. The picture is not perfect but I assure you things have not remained stagnant, we have seen a positive shift. In this forum, we assess how far we have come and we do not shy away from tackling issues raised by student leaders, parents and staff. With Mrs Goedeke at the helm, she champions that TEB is operationalised in all areas of the school.

I would like to thank those who have used the opportunity to use the email “[email protected]”, please note governance protocol is always observed and every email whether anonymous or with a name is treated with the sensitivity it deserves. I would like to thank Mr Khanya Mncwabe who agreed to take over the reins to chair this committee going forward.

To all, let’s continue to work as a community for the betterment of our school, The best is yet to come. In my daughter‘s words “Matrics 2023, Go Slay”.

Ad Dei Gloriam