Founders' Day

Good morning, to the Headmistress, Mrs Benzon, the staff and to especially the new Form One pupils of Watershed College. I am delighted and honoured to be here today to celebrate with you the 35th anniversary of the founding of this very special school, Watershed College. It is such a privilege to have been invited and the opportunity this has given me to take the time to travel down memory’s lane has brought me such joy and warmth and laughter.

Although not a founder member of staff, I did join Watershed College at the beginning of its third year, and so with your indulgence, I would like to tell you a little bit about what it was like here in the early days. To help me, I asked my friends Mr Steve and Mrs Shay Geach, who were here right from the beginning to fill in the details of those very early years. This is what Mr Geach had to say … We started in 1987 and one of the main reasons that Watershed was established, was to offer girls a top private school education and to cater for boys who were seeking more practical subjects. The classrooms were very basic, and the hostel was a farm house on a nearby farm. Girls slept in the dining room and boys in the lounge. The meals were cooked over a fire outside the back door and a few staff members stayed in the bedrooms. The ablutions were not big enough for everyone, so the girls and boys used the showers and swimming pool on alternate days. The pupils were carried from the farmhouse to the school on the back of an open trailer towed by an old farm tractor. Lunch was served at the school and consisted mainly of polony sandwiches. Do you still get polony sandwiches?

The school was designed to fit into the environment as best as possible, keeping the cutting down of trees to a minimum. Many lessons in the early days were taught sitting outside under the beautiful trees. The normal subjects were offered but the pupils were all expected to take up practical subjects as well. Agriculture, taken by Mr Marowa, was compulsory and every pupil was expected to dig, prepare and grow vegetables in an allocated piece of land. The seniors were taught to grow maize and tobacco. Mechanical lessons and building construction were also part of the agriculture course. Like today, animal husbandry was also a significant part of the farming curriculum of the school. The buildings developed steadily over the years, classrooms, staff houses, hostels, workshops, and the surrounding sports facilities. Both staff and pupils played active roles in much of the improvements.

Mr Geach was the woodwork and metal work teacher and many of the class projects involved working on school developments. The benches in the workshop and the original science tables were all made by the pupils. Mrs Geach was the art and sewing teacher and had to be very inventive keeping costs down and utilizing natural materials, like charcoal for drawing and horsehair for paint brushes. The Geach’s were the first staff members to move on to campus. There was no power or water, so they would drive to Marondera Sports Club for a shower in the evenings.

The staff pub was a very important addition to the school. It was a centre for many social interactions, developing wonderful staff spirit and served as a venue to entertain visiting staff who were chaperoning sports teams. Mr Geach was the teacher in charge of Gombora and in his words ‘ in those days they were by far the best house winning most of the Interhouse activities’. Even to me this sounds a little bit biased, but I wonder if it is the same these days? Is it? Initially as a small school, Watershed struggled to compete against larger on the sporting fields. However, after a lot of hard work by both staff and pupils, the teams became more and more competitive.

Mr Brown, the founding Headmaster, and Mr Whalley, the first Deputy Head were excellent coaches and did the school proud. Offering boarding facilities seemed to attract quite a few naughty pupils. I think some of the parents sent their children to school to get a break. There were many naughty but funny incidents that occurred over the years. One of the funniest was when a boy called Oliver Radford, accepted a dare to swim across the sewage ponds. Needless to say, he wasn’t too popular when he returned to the hostel. To end his account, I am going to use Mr Geach’s own words “Shay and I are very happy and proud to have been founder staff members of Watershed College. We really enjoyed our teaching years there and continue to reminisce about all the wonderful times we had and all the special friends we made. I am an avid Facebooker and watch with pride and joy how well the school continues to perform in all its endeavors. It is obvious that the school has a wonderful leader maintaining high standards, upholding wonderful values and morals. The 2021 exam results were brilliant and you should all be proud of yourselves. Your sport teams are excelling and the music department is amazing. The marimba bands are exceptional and I love showing my kiwi friends how you dance and play at the same time. I wish you all a very happy and safe 2022 and hope the school continues to be successful. Ex Ardius Florio’ Some insightful and inspiring words from the past, and my thanks to Steve Geach for taking the time to put pen to paper for us. But now I would like to look to the future. I would like to begin by acknowledging the wonderful things the staff and pupils of Watershed continue to achieve. I want to make special note of the impressive IGCSE and A Level examination results from this past year. Congratulations to all of your senior pupils for doing so very, very well in spite of all the disruptions to your learning and the extended period of online school you survived and even thrived through. You should be very proud of them. Well done. Well done too, and heartfelt thanks to your teachers whose dedication and professionalism cannot be faulted.

Over the last two years the whole world has experienced disruption, isolation and anxiety on a level never before experienced in our lifetime. We really hope that things are now returning to normal but still, you have all been through a lot and so you all need to be patient with each other and each must play your part in maintaining grace and dignity throughout your school. You can do this by intentionally showing compassion, empathy and respect to one another. Set out to make the most of all the opportunities that you have here. I am hoping, and asking you to embrace the principles that make Watershed College a great place to be. More than anything else, My prayer for your school is that teachers and pupils alike will treat each other with love and grace. Good relationships are foundational to making sure Watershed continues to be an excellent school. I am asking that you would show patience and understanding with each other. It is so easy to react negatively to people who have different opinions - but different views are not a threat, they very often lead us to dig deeper and grow in the process. Sometimes what is true for you is not true for the next person. Our personal experiences and beliefs shape each of our truths differently and that is okay! All of you, all of us, must strive to entertain different opinions, to promote freedom of expression in a way that is honouring of people and of God. There are, however, some definite truths that we have never budged on at Watershed and this morning I’d like to bring your attention the truth that I think is the most important - each and every person, all of you, have infinite value in our eyes and in the eyes of God. This means that not only do we want and hope for you all to feel happy and safe at school but we expect you to do you all you can help your peers and friends and your teachers feel the same. And so I would like to leave you today, on your Founders Day with this challenge. As you go out into this week and into the year ahead, think on the wonderful opportunities your parents have given you by sending you to this school. Think on the solid foundations on which Watershed was built - the physical foundations but also the moral and Godly foundations. Think on how you can be a positive contributor both now and in the future in the continued growth of your school. I’d like you to focus on kindness - be kind to yourself and most importantly be kind to others.

Thank you so much for having me here today. Could I ask you all to join me in prayer as I close. Heavenly Father, today we give thanks for Watershed College and all who work and learn here. We think of the past 35 years and we give thanks too, for all the dedicated people who have been before us and helped to make this school a beacon of learning, of playing and of light and hope in Marondera. May you continue to bless this school both now and in the future and may young men and women emerge from here equipped to lead in a way that others will chose to follow. Will you fill the people here today with love for their school, and will you give them wisdom and grace to fulfill their roles in a way that is pleasing to you.

Amen.

Mrs Claire Hough