Principal’s Weekly Update: 12 October 2026
Dear Parents, Grandparents and Guardians
I know we are technically still in spring, but I reckon summer arrived on Saturday. Prep and Senior School first teams recorded excellent starts against Highbury and Glenwood, backed up by a barrage of confident performances from the age groups. It seemed like a good day to lose the toss as our friendly opposition almost exclusively opted to bat first – that is normally a good decision, but not this past Saturday. Perhaps the day for SCC boys will rub some of the sting out of letting Australia off the hook.
The day is coming
I’m not sure who thought that political parties should run cities, but there is a way to get that to happen better. On November 4 we get to vote, and since we are told a number of people won’t be voting, your vote carries extra punch. A passive country deserves a passive government – but worse than that can happen – a noisy extreme minority will end up making decisions if the middle does not pitch up. Old or young, busy or retired, this is not an election to skip.
Day 20 (Saturday)
On that day, when I join the queue and use my newly acquired smart ID card (with a photo taken this century), I hope to have swum another 510 lengths of the AquaPark pool. I don’t know when this ability deserted me, but if I drop my ID card, I am now able to bend down without pain or fear of finding myself on all fours. Swimming did that. I have also started to record waking blood pressures of 126/78 – that is, before taking the three tablets that were keeping me alive. We don’t always get a warning shot, so I hope to learn the lesson before life decides to teach it to me.
I was told that exercise makes you hungry, and it's true – but I have always been hungry. I was wondering, however, what the opposite of ‘no pain no gain’ would be. Whatever it is, I think it will still involve pain.
Keep on keeping on
As a parent, you will know that some nights are rough. A sick child vomiting all night when the next day is going to require all your strength happens – and more than once. We don’t allow ourselves to imagine anything further but to just keep on going until the temperature subsides and, even if we find ourselves filling out forms in the emergency room, we know how to instinctively keep on going. When the light of tomorrow starts to arrive, and we haven’t slept, somehow, we just keep on going.
It occurred to me that today our businesses might be behaving just like the vomiting child. The fallout of imbalance in the world is not funny, and it seems unrelenting, but we need to apply the same measures we would take for our sick child. We put one foot in front of the next and pay attention to the important stuff – take advice from experts, collect the prescription, make sure that we apply the whole course of medicine and, most importantly, we keep going – because things are more likely to change when we keep moving forward.
No casual invitation
When scripture (1 Peter 5:7) invites us to "Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you", it is not a casual invitation. The invitation is given because we need it. So today, you can take heart, because He is also the one who said: “A bruised reed He will not break and a smouldering wick He will not extinguish;” and for those who need it: “He will faithfully bring forth justice.” Isaiah 42:3.
There are days, and this might be one of them for you, when we feel like we are hanging on by a thread; but when we are surrendered to God, that thread is a steel cable and you can put your full weight on it – He will not let you down.
Yours faithfully
Allen van Blerk
PRINCIPAL