Rector’s eNews 21: 24 June 2026

As we reach the conclusion of a vibrant and demanding term, I am filled with gratitude for the incredible spirit that defines our community. This past weekend’s traditional fixtures against Hilton College were a wonderful celebration of music, sport, sportsmanship and camaraderie.

The weekend commenced on a spectacular note with the Two Schools in Concert hosted by Hilton College on Thursday. It was a wonderful, thoroughly enjoyable evening of music, and bringing our two communities together for such a celebration was the perfect prelude to the weekend’s events. The sporting action began on Friday afternoon with a few closely contested hockey fixtures, setting the tone for a wonderful weekend of sport.

Saturday turned out to be a beautiful day for the main fixtures. Across both rugby and hockey, our boys delivered outstanding performances, with the vast majority of the matches going in our favour. To put it into perspective, these are arguably amongst the best-ever results we have recorded against Hilton College. This achievement represents a massive, highly impressive turnaround from our first fixture back in early May. We are incredibly proud of our boys for their grit and growth, and equally grateful to our coaches who have poured an enormous amount of time and expertise into their teams to make this success possible.

Beyond the scorelines, Saturday epitomised what schoolboy sport should be: good, highly competitive rugby and hockey, played with excellent sportsmanship. What stood out just as much was the camaraderie. The sight of our boys fiercely supporting their friends from the sidelines was matched only by the wonderful, vibrant support from our parents and the wider community. Thank you for sharing such a special day with us.

Hosting a weekend like this involves an incredible amount of work and I would like to publicly thank our operations team, our functions team and catering team for everything they did to make the weekend a success.

Our thanks also go to the Parents who Pray for organising the special prayer day in our beautiful chapel this weekend. It provided a serene space for reflection amidst a very busy Saturday, and I trust many of you managed to spend a few quiet minutes there.

As we navigate the final stretch of the term, our thoughts are also turning toward an exciting new chapter for the school. As a reminder, our new Rector arrives in Balgowan in the second week of July and will officially take up the reins at the start of the third quarter. I know that our entire community will join me in extending a traditional, exceptionally warm Michaelhouse welcome to Bart Wielenga and his wife, Lara, as they settle into our community.

Thank you all for your continued partnership and for making this past weekend one for the history books. Thank you also for your support throughout this term. I wish you and your boys a safe and happy holiday.

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