Thinking Skills - A Level Results
St Andrew's College pupils love audacious challenges. 13 Grade 10 and 11 boys participated the Cambridge International Examinations A Level course in Thinking Skills.
Deputy Headmaster, Aidan Smith wrote: "This is a skills-based subject that requires highly critical thinking in language and numbers. We trust that it will hone the analytical skills of these boys and stretch them by making them "think hard" about what they are reading.
I am absolutely convinced that this is a vital skill for children to acquire at school, and will stand them in good stead at University and in their careers.
It is cause for great concern that the digital media are eroding good reading skills. One might think that children are reading a lot more due to the internet, but studies are indicating that children are just skimming the vast amount of information, finding something that vaguely resembles what they are looking for, and then accepting it as the only truth without interrogating it for flaws in logic or substance. In the light of our knowledge of how boys learn, this is an intervention which I trust will accelerate them out of their dormant reading state in the junior grades, and unlock the thrill of reading with care and understanding."
All 13 boys have passed the A Level Examination. Charles Price-Smith achieved 91%, William Cahill 87%, MJ Rosslee 85% and Graham Mc Naughton 80%. The other pioneers, Litha Bakumeni, Luke Boshoff, Chris de Blocq, Johnathon Dempster, Nicholas Jackson, Mark Jones, Duncan Ralston, Gregory Slack and Oliver Wale garnered 6 Bs, 2 Cs and 1 D between them. Warm congratulation to all of them.
These are outstanding results which benchmark our boys' mathematical and language thinking skills globally. Special thanks must go to our Meister Debating coach, Mr David Molony, and to Mr Andrew Maffessanti, for so enthusiastically taking on this venture, and with such great success.
William Cahill, Oliver Wale, Nicholas Jackson, Charles Price-Smith, Gregory Slack, Graham McNaughton and Mark Jones. In the front row, from the left: Luke Boshoff, Johnathon Dempster and Litha Bakumeni. Absent from the photograph are: Chris de Blocq, MJ Rosslee and Duncan Ralston
