Rector’s eNews 33: 29 October 2025

On Sunday evening we held an Induction Ceremony in our Chapel to honour the Senior Prefect, the Second Prefect and the Heads of House who have been elected School Prefects for the year ahead. The photograph of these boys entering the A Block appeared in last week’s eNews. At the ceremony it was made plain that we have high expectations of them in terms of their service to the members of our school and the school itself. At the heart of our expectations, we trust that they will set a good example, that they will be proactive in anticipating issues which may arise and taking action to prevent negative outcomes, that they will be reactive when things have not gone as expected and that they will be sensitive to the needs of our broader community. The notion of service has to be at the top of their minds and this is neatly summed up in the motto or strapline which guides officers from all over the world who attend the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst – Serve to Lead. More has been written about leadership than about most other subjects in the Twenty-First Century but the notion of servant leadership underlines the message which they received on Sunday evening. I attach my message below for your interest. The words apply equally to those who will serve as House Prefects; the boys holding this office have recently been announced in their Houses. Inevitably there will be some boys who are disappointed not to have been elected to such an office but there is a possibility that, following a period of continued good service, they could become prefects at some stage during next year. They could also engage in a Rector’s Leadership Portfolio which enables the boy to embark on a worthwhile project directed by the Rector/Acting Rector to demonstrate his leadership capacity. Following this the Rector/Acting Rector would write a testimonial carrying more than a small amount of weight concerning the boy’s project and how he has carried it out.

This was my challenge to the boys on Sunday evening:

“We have gathered as a school community this evening to induct the new Senior Prefect and School Prefects, who are also Heads of their Houses. It is an important event in the school calendar since those eleven boys who are moving into the A Block have been chosen as the principal leaders of the school. Their actions and contributions to the lives of their fellows and their capacity to lead others have been evaluated by the staff and you boys and they have been elected to the highest office held by boys within the school. We are here to celebrate with them, but also to indicate that we have significant expectations of them.

The expectations of our leaders are already well-known to many of you boys: they are based on the age-old, traditional Michaelhouse values of integrity, courage, compassion and humility which, as you know, have often been discussed in tutor groups, House meetings and assembly. These values have to be underpinned in our leaders by the desire to serve. Without the will to serve others, the Michaelhouse values will be like seed cast on stony ground.

Backed by these values and the desire to serve, our leaders must have a sense of purpose, they should understand and act on the knowledge of the difference between right and wrong. They should be the type of people who put others before themselves. They should have initiative and enthusiasm for the task of leadership, they should be able to motivate others and they should also acknowledge their mistakes. But there is so much more to leadership than just that which one can quantify as our elected leaders will learn. However these qualities and attitudes are the essence of what makes for a good leader in the Michaelhouse context.

If one can distil all of this into three areas, they would be:

1. 1. A leader must set the example. It must be a powerful example. We want someone to lead with dignity and honour so that we can respect that person. He has to earn our respect but he is the leader of our House or School and we should be completely confident that he will do the right thing. We have confidence in him because we know he has integrity and other qualities.
   2. We want a leader who empowers us. We want him to be enabling for us so that we can do our best in everything that we do. A coach may be such a leader who empowers us in a sport by demonstrating a skill so that we can perform a skill better. A School Prefect may empower us by giving us an opportunity, by congratulating us when we have done something well, by making what we have done seem important to him. Empowerment is a critical part of leading; it implies respect for those whom you lead.
   3. We want a leader who will serve us. We don’t want somebody who is full of his own importance and arrogant. We want a leader who will demonstrate that we are important to him. We want somebody who will anticipate problems arising and prevent them occurring if possible, someone who plans ahead and someone who will react to those problems if and when they do arise in an intelligent and sensitive way. We want them to understand our needs and to be sensitive to those needs.

The notion of service is clearly exemplified in the life of Jesus Christ and, whether you are a particularly strong Christian or not, one has to acknowledge that he lived a life of serving others – never once did he promote his own interests at the expense of others, even to the extent of dying for others. This is all documented. And as an Anglican and Christian school, we take our lead from the life of Christ.

Now those of you who have been here for a couple of years will know that part of the way I try to demonstrate and fix in your minds the importance of service to others is by our ceremony of the washing of feet. And I have done this year after year.

Centuries ago, when Jesus Christ ministered on this planet, the ultimate act of service was washing someone’s feet. The roads were extremely dusty in what is now the Middle East and the heat intense. Feet were dirty and smelly after a journey in sandals. To wash someone’s feet you also have to bend down or kneel. It is a position of subservience. It was basically the job of servants – those who served. So, as I have said, I am going to do as I did last year and the year before and the year before that when I induct School Prefects at Michaelhouse and that is to wash the feet of a random selection of boys who have been elected into this role. I will risk your thinking that I am being ridiculous because I want to make the point that leadership is about service. That is what being the Rector is about. That is what being a Prefect is about. The metaphor will be obvious to you: it is symbolic of the fact that I expect School Prefects and other prefects who are elected in their Houses to serve others at Michaelhouse. I am supposed to be at the helm of our community and theoretically the most important person in our community, but service is my principal task. I trust that you will appreciate the symbolism in what I am doing: nobody in our Michaelhouse community is above doing the most menial of tasks in the cause of serving others. So I hope that this evening will have an impact on our incoming leaders who will take this motif with them through the year. Leadership is about service.

And so I invite three boys at random to come up and sit in these chairs: let’s have Brent Tayengwa, Matt Hunter and Thomas Pakendorf. And I ask the Chaplain, Reverend Chris Meyer, to bring through a bucket of water and I also ask Max Oliva to provide me with a cloth and I will go ahead with the task before me. Thank you all for your attention.

I have nothing more to say but all our leaders in this school have much to do.”

 

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