Three Grahamstown boys recently excelled in an international A Level Thinking Skills exam. Aaron Graham (90%), James Godlonton (89%) and Frans van Hoek (80%) were among 24 St Andrew’s College pupils who wrote the exam through the Cambridge International Examination body.
Three Grahamstown boys recently excelled in an international A Level Thinking Skills exam. Aaron Graham (90%), James Godlonton (89%) and Frans van Hoek (80%) were among 24 St Andrew’s College pupils who wrote the exam through the Cambridge International Examination body.
Jono Gibbs, Peter Maffessanti, Teb Schlebusch, Michael Bennett, Nicholas Benecke and James de Beer achieved B-symbols in the exam. "This skills-based course requires highly critical thinking in language and numbers and hones pupils' analytical skills, making them truly get to grips with what they are reading," deputy headmaster Aidan Smith explained.
"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 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 will accelerate them out of their dormant reading state in the junior grades, and unlock the thrill of reading with care and understanding. "
The course is run by English teacher and debating instructor David Molony, who is a qualified lawyer and maths teacher Andrew Maffessanti, who is a qualified actuary.
