Edition 3: 6 February 2020

For me, one of the best sights at Clifton is watching a Clifton Prep boy gleefully running barefoot across the grass outside Heritage House on his way to C-Café. The question that probably comes to mind is “so what?”. Wait a while and keep watching; soon you will begin to observe something different about the way the Clifton College boys make their way to C-Café. The College boys don’t cross the grass. They are not allowed to walk on the grass. Whilst, in many other boys’ schools, the privilege of walking on the grass is for the senior grades (normally the Grade 12s) at Clifton, that right is for the Prep boys. Having spent most of my career in boys’ high schools, I chuckle at the scene, purely for the reversal of the perceived norm of this particular type of rule.

As educators, parents and humans we always seem to feel a need to justify the rule. Whilst theories abound as to why the “grass rule” exists, I can only say that it is an unwritten rule. I have checked all our policies and procedures and, indeed, there is no mention of the “grass rule” anywhere.

My thinking is that we could justify the rule by saying that the Prep boys are more often than not barefoot and they are naturally lighter than the fast-developing, bigger young men of the College, thus the potential damage to the grass is lessened by allowing the little guys to run on it.

Perhaps we could further validate the rule by saying the prep boys were here first, by about 78 years! Although this is quite a petty validation.

Or we could explain it with a simple visualization exercise. Bear with me here, please…

Remember when you were a youngster, about six or seven years old.

Remember playing on the grass in the garden, in the park or on a field.

There may have been a few friends playing a game with you.

The N3TC Drak Challenge took place on the Mzimkhulu River with three Clifton boys participating. The water level was very low, which made the rapids difficult to navigate as many of them were so shallow that the paddlers scraped the bottom of their boats on the rocks. Our Clifton gents aquitted themselves extremely well finishing a very tricky race with these excellent results:

Jarryd Walker: 36th Overall, 6th Under 18 boy (K1)

Benjamin Maehler: 91st Overall, 3rd Under 16 boy (K1)

Rory Steele: 17th K2 paddling with his dad

Well done, gents!

At the Durban Central Athletics Trials, Keagan White placed 1st in the Boys U10 1200m, Benjamin Wilson 1st in the Boys U11 1200m and Declan Jackson 5th in the Boys U12 1200m. Kyan White placed 2nd in the Under 12 Long Jump. Well done!

Clifton Old Boys

We were delighted to welcome Mike Boulle (Clifton Prep Old Boy 1961) back for a visit last week. Mike’s son attended Clifton and he currently has a grandson here too.

He is pictured below with Mr Barry Mezher and Mrs Susannah Knowles in our Heritage Centre.

Mike is keen to reconnect with other Clifton Prep Old Boys from the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s and any grandfathers that may have a Clifton connection or a grandson at Clifton. Please get in touch with Susannah at: COBWEB@cliftonschool.co.za