Interview with Cynthia Hildyard - Staff 1970 – 1985 Cynthia taught grade 2 while at St D’s. Those were the days of ITA spelling which did not work well and was later dropped. It was a very different school while boarders were here. Lunches consisted mainly of roasts and vegetables. Matron Buckley-Jones had her room next to the old library (now the Music centre). Brothers she knew whilst she was teaching were Br Anthony the headmaster, Br Bosco (Mario), Br Aidan, the bursar, a very quiet man, Br Andrew (Dracula), Br Bernard – excellent at photography and art, Br Ronald who left very quietly, Br Mario a Mexican brother taught Maths but the boys found it very difficult to understand him. Old Boys she remembered were Kevin Carter who was with Ken Oostebroek when he was killed while photographing the riots, Alexis Apostolides who had growth behind the eye and went to America for treatment, the Slaven brothers Andrew, John and Jeffrey. Cynthia has two sons who attended St David’s. John matriculated in 1974 and Mark in 1978. Interview: Monday 11 October 2010 GA
Greg Royce 1989 to 1995 Greg was deputy head at St Martin’s until March 1989 before being appointed as prep headmaster at St David’s. He and his wife Pam were very touched as staff held a welcome lunch at the tennis courts. Greg stated that the school was running well despite the lack of a headmaster for so many years. The only problem he found was that each person was doing their own thing instead of sharing ideas with each other. His first task was to formalise things and found that he got on well with the staff and that they accepted him. He always got on very well with Willy Castle and, on one particular occasion Willy wanted a meeting with Greg. A date and time was duly arranged but Willy didn’t pitch, Greg found out later that Willy and Carol Ansell were having lunch together and that Willy had forgotten about the meeting! Greg worked well with his deputy, David Spence. David had a flair for implementing Greg’s many ideas and worked hard to implement the thinking skills and helped arrange for Dr Edward de Bono to visit St David’s. Under Greg’s guidance St David’s became the first school to introduce Kumon in South Africa. The nursery schools were also asked not to concentrate on table top activities but rather to concentrate on gross and fine motor activities. Greg was also instrumental in introducing remedial therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy into the school. He also encouraged the reintroduction of music into the curriculum. Working with Paul Davies proved difficult at times due to Paul being very dogmatic but on the whole they worked well together. Paul introduced the house system and he brought more formality to proceedings. Greg felt that the prep should be represented on the board and wrote a letter requesting prep representation. This was a slow process and took about 2 years before Greg was allowed to attend and address prep issues. Greg always found the parents warm and supportive but unfortunately they always compared St David’s to St John’s or St Stithian’s. The one thing the parents didn’t take into account was that the fees were substantially lower than these other schools so the school didn’t have the funds and thus it was difficult to compete with them. The prep pavilion was built during Greg’s stay at St David’s. Greg had budgeted for a double garage to be built to house equipment but once the parents saw the building in progress, they willing gave money and so the whole project expanded and a concrete slab was laid to provide for a first floor. The school expanded into 3 streams per grade, which made St David’s more competitive and also provided more capital for projects. As regards the board, Greg felt that Terrence Wilkinson was an excellent chairman. He brought professionalism into the board and the school started to flourish under his guidance. The PTA also played a huge part in school life. One major project was when they erected the roof over the stands surrounding the pool under the chairmanship of Mike O’Shea. Greg decided to leave St David’s in March 1995 because he was offered a very good package from St Peter’s and with a growing family this was important as was the fact that Greg was an anglican and of course St David’s was a catholic school. Greg has fond memories of St David’s as their third child, Liam, was born while Greg was headmaster here. Liam enjoyed the life at school and a familiar sight was Liam being pushed around the campus in his pram. Greg loved his time at St David’s where he worked hard and played hard! He started the potjiekos competition which still takes place, as well as the staff christmas ‘thank you’ party. Greg enjoyed his wine but also loved the bush and nature. He encouraged the school to plant indigenous trees and also took groups of boys on camps into the bush. Greg loved animals and encouraged the staff to look after the birds and animals in the birdcage in the prep playground. The guinea fowl on the property had chicks but one got isolated and was struggling to survive so Greg put it in the birdcage for protection because he felt it would not survive outside. He, unfortunately, had to release the bird due to huge pressure, but as suspected, the bird was killed on the first day that it was released! In closing Greg stated that he enjoyed his time at St David’s and has fond memories. He also enjoyed working with the Brothers and meeting the other Marist Heads. January 2011
