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A warm welcome to all as we meet this year to celebrate the achievement of our learners and instructors who have gone out of the way to excel. It is my honour to present the 2017 synopsis of events at the school.

May I hasten to point out that the school was on December 26, 2016 severely hit by a storm which caused extensive infrastructural damage. The administration block especially the school head’s office had its roof completely blown off, after a big gum tree fell on the deputy head’s office. The office was drenched by water and a lot of documentation was soiled and tattered.

The dining hall’s back also had its roof blown off. The Form One boys’ dormitory too had its roof completely blown off. The matron’s house and three of the girls’ dormitories were also damaged. Trees were uprooted. The big security fence fell. We were indeed grateful that this happened when there were no pupils around and it was a public holiday because we were going to have injuries as zinc and asbestos sheets were flying all over; we retrieved some from the top of trees.

This was two weeks before schools opened and firms had closed down for the festive season which put us under immense pressure, however, the home church in Scotland intervened there and then and released $50 000 through which we contracted about five firms to repair the damages, and when we opened schools on January 10, 2017, repairs had been done.

The parents board through FIM also chipped in with $6 000.

Our mission, as a church school is to teach learners to be responsible and upright adults by inculcating moral and Christian values in them, while at the same time passing their exams.

We are so grateful to the home church in Scotland from where comes our main support enabling the school to grow both quantitatively and qualitatively.

1.  Enrolment
We have 659 learners
Girls                                                                         333
Boys                                                             326
Boarders                             623
Day pupils                                            36

We also have a Resource Room for visually impaired pupils. Learners are well-behaved and pleasant. Keep up this spirit of ubuntu learners.

2.     Staffing
We have 34 teachers
Males                                                                             22
Females                                                             12

All well-qualified, pleasant and exhibit a high standard of professionalism. Staff turnover is very negligible.

Missionary Staff

These are the institution’s henchmen. Good infrastructure, facilities, vehicles and learning materials are courtesy of them. We are sorry that our Reverend AB Maclean could not be with us the whole of this year due to some ill health, and we have been without Miss NB Maclean who has been nursing him at home in Scotland since February.

3. Ancillary Staff

It includes 14 workers covering boarding and dining hall, the bursar, clerk, librarian and two lab technicians. Staff are locally recruited.

4. Results
These continue to please that is both Cambridge and Zimsec at ‘O’ and ‘A’ Levels.

Cambridge: 100 percent for both ‘O’ and ‘A’ Level

Zimsec: 98,7 percent for ‘O’ Level and 100 percent for ‘A’ Level

‘O’ Level
12As:    2 candidates
11As:    6 candidates
10As:    6 candidates
9As:    15 candidates
5As or more:    80/130 candidates    = 62 percent

‘A’ Level
24 points        1 candidate
10 + points        29 candidates

Only 2 scored below 10 points as they scored 8 points.
5.    Curriculum

The updated curriculum while it provides broader opportunities has some challenges and demands especially when it comes to the tasks and projects that learners are to carry out. For example, this term almost every day pupils are out on field trips, which increases costs.

6. Menu
Our diet is healthy and balanced and pupils go to the dining hall five times a day.

7. Fees
I am happy to remark that you are good parents as almost 100 percent have paid children’s fees, please continue being good payers, and may I urge “amatshida” who cost us 100 percent fees payment record to strive to be paid up as well.

8. Arts, Sports and Culture
We boast of provincial, national and international contestants in these areas.

9. Good Citizenship
We are perennial leaders in donating blood and I know the secretary general of the parent’s board walks tall as his school never disappoints him. Parents you have a critical role in shaping the future of the learners in life long attributes. Schools should be extensions of what happens at home, so provide basic needs for them (Maslow’s hierarchy) and teach them to respect themselves and others, and also to refrain from poking their fingers in what does not belong to them, above all teach them to pray and to fear God.

10. FIM Developments in Progress
-Landscaping the school grounds i.e. paving courtyards, roads e.t.c
-Venturing into poultry and piggery structures
-Slaughter house construction
-Dining Hall cooking shed
-‘A’ level labs toilets
Challenges
-When our only generator broke down, we were grossly affected causing us to realise the need for a back-up one or consider solar powered engines.
-Bank statements do not capture names of pupils, and hence monthly reconciliations are a problem.
-Parents allowing themselves to be hoodwinked or arm-twisted by learners, e.g. a pupil who has not done well appeals for parents’ sympathy by blaming teachers, boarding master, the school etc and parents fall for it. Some write me emotionally charged letters saying teachers X or Y are not good teachers etc, please, where you have an issue to raise do not hide but come out and I am happy that we enlighten each other for the good of the child but if you hide yourself and just complain from a vacuum, it does not help any of us, myself, yourself and the child.

-If Form One 2018 enrolment is done wholly online, it becomes problematic as our internet connectivity or system is erratic and many times has even failed us, so it is indeed a cause for concern. I think of fellows from Maguswini in Nkayi where I come from; the online system may marginalise them, to some extent.

Future Plans
-Sports arena
-School pavilion
-Teachers’ cottage
-‘A’ Level extension

As I wrap up my remarks allow me to refer to one great writer who asserted that we are all given equal time (365) days in a year, and the difference comes in the usage of it, so be wise.

Those leaving us for good this year, please be good ambassadors of the school wherever you are and remember the three G’s:
Go
Grow
Glow and fourth G to be added is
God to be remembered.

May I congratulate those who will receive prizes, and to the rest, do not despair as the playing field is level.

I thank you

Mr Bonakele Ncube, Headmaster