Core Values

The Oude Molen badge and motto

Scotsman James Watt, born in 1736, began work as an instrument maker. Because of his unrivalled skill, he was asked to repair one of the earliest steam engines. He became so interested in these engines that he soon invented one of his own. Together with many of the essential components of engines as we know them today, this genius of applied science invented a centrifugal governor.

Using the principle of proportional control, the centrifugal governor controls the speed of an engine by regulating the amount of fuel admitted so as to maintain a near constant speed whatever the load or fuel supply conditions. Watt's name will go down in history as one of the originators of engineering. The watt, the international unit of power, is named after him.

The governor on our badge indicates the technical knowledge and skill of a great pioneer of engineering. Similarly, the governor on our badge exhorts all at Oude Molen to use our pride in and loyalty to our school to regulate our actions appropriately.

It is a logical step from the symbolism of Watt's governor to our motto. Docere mentem manumque can be translated from the Latin to mean Teaching the mind and the hand - the emphasis being on knowledge and skill.

The three golden circles on our badge symbolise the three traditions of our school, and are the pillars on which the Learners' Code of Conduct is based. The traditions are:

1. Excellence as a person. We conduct ourselves according to the respecting and respectable values of Ubuntu. Ubuntu is the African humanist philosophy of people's allegiances and relations to one another. Emeritus Archbishop Desmond Tutu held: "A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed."
2. Excellent scholarship. Whatever we do at school must be to enrich and improve our education and our community.
3. Excellent participation. When we participate in academic, sport or cultural activities, our success is measured by our positive attitude.