Published in July 2024
👉🏽 Return to School Website
https://youtu.be/YuUpLX3JzCs?si=4BzIzCWQ5CjfF1CQ
The vision of our founder, an Anglican priest, Canon James Cameron Todd, was “to make, not accountants, not clerks, not clergymen, but men; men of understanding, thought and culture.”
Those words articulated at Speech Day in 1897 have endured for one and a quarter centuries. They have been the guiding words for Teachers, Rectors and Governors who have encouraged the 8,898 boys who have passed through the gates of our great school to live lives according to the Christian values of integrity, humility, compassion and courage (conveyed in the Michaelhouse Way) in service to our community and our country.
As we move forward, following our 125th anniversary in 2021, we have reflected on how far we have come: the triumphs (and the mistakes). We remain proud of the idea and the institution that is Michaelhouse, but there is still much work to do to ensure we remain relevant in a changing world and that our good traditions endure.
The things towards which we are striving in the years ahead will take time. They include innovation in education, estate planning and management, transformation, community outreach, sustainability and more.
There are parts of the generational plan that focus on things that Michaelhouse needs (capital projects, bursary endowments, etc); but our greater purpose is for Michaelhouse to create things that the world needs (innovation in education, problem solvers, contributors to the betterment of humanity, etc).
We are also very aware that our collective time as stewards of this school is finite and will end; but, in having a generational plan that will outlast all our tenures, we will provide continuity, lessons and a foundation on which our successors are able to build**.**
The Board of Governors
While we have given much collective thought to the direction the school will take over the coming quarter of a century, we do not profess to have all the answers or to know exactly where we will be in 2046: our 150th anniversary. We do, however, believe that there are a handful of enduring characteristics and objectives that will be as relevant in a generation’s time as they are today.