Exchange report: Dawid Swart

Harrow School, UK

I spent the whole day packing and trying to squeeze everything into my bag and at the same time staying within the weight restrictions for flying. After countless hours packing, unpacking and repacking I finally managed to get everything into my bag. My original flight was scheduled to leave at 20h00 and my family and I left our home in Pretoria to get to OR Tambo International at about 17h00. After waiting for what felt like a lifetime I got to the counter for them to tell me that my flight had been overbooked. They informed that my new flight would now be leaving at 19h00. I rushed to book my luggage in and then had to sprint across the new section of OR Tambo to reach my terminal. By the time I got there I was already pouring with sweat and being my optimistic self I was sure that they would upgrade me to 1st class because of the inconvenience that was caused. I was unfortunately denied this privilege and was instead placed in a window seat next to this irritating Dutchman from Hollland that got absolutely intoxicated during the journey and passed out on my shoulder. As you can imagine my journey didn’t start off as I had hoped but honestly didn’t care one bit about what had happened. I was way too excited and ecstatic that I was on my way to England, Harrow School and I was eagerly anticipating everything that was waiting for me.

My December holidays flew by me in an instant and before I knew it I was already on the plane to England. I had spent the beginning of the holiday organising passports and id’s which I needed to go overseas, but other than that I had honestly not spent a lot of time thinking about exchange. During my flight, which was 8 hours long, I had plenty of time to think about Harrow School and what I was about to experience while on exchange. In all honesty I was just speculating as I had no idea what to expect. A million thoughts were flying through my mind, which is natural when one is about to venture into the unknown. I was quite apprehensive, but very excited about what lay ahead of me. I clearly remember a thought that dawned on me while on the plane. I was officially on my own for the first time in my life at age 17. I was half way across the world from everything that I knew and held dear. I was venturing into the unknown by myself, but I was ready for my journey to begin and I was eager and determined to conquer it and take advantage of everything that came my way.
I was very fortunate because I managed to get a spacious and comfortable room. I had 24 hour heating, which was awesome, because it was unbelievably freezing over there. All the boys have their own rooms at Harrow, and only in the shells (which are the equivalent of our Form 1 year) do the boys share a two man room. This was very different from Hilton as there were no dorms, dorm cops or lights out. The boys were also mixed up and weren’t put in corridors or floors according to their year.

School started off a bit strangely for me. To start with I didn’t really have anyone to show me where to go and as you can imagine I went to all the wrong classes for the first few days, I was clueless. I am actually pretty grateful this happened because I got to explore the whole school and I learnt that I needed to ask for help otherwise I was toast. The teachers at Harrow are also different to the teachers here. They all have an amazing sense of humour, as most English people do, and they make an effort to build a strong relationship with the boys in their class. Technology is heavily implemented at Harrow, even more so than Hilton. Teachers often showed us videos on the internet or went onto the internet for research. All the classes are equipped with either a smart board and the teachers who don’t need one have a projector. The classes at Harrow are also a lot smaller than the classes here. You’ll be lucky to find more than 15 boys in a class. This makes your learning experience more personalised and you have the opportunity to build a strong relationship with your teacher. The boys at Harrow also undertake A-levels which is very different to the IEB system that we undertake here at Hilton. Once you reach Lower Sixth, which is the equivalent to Form 4, you would have chosen four A level courses that you will complete over the next two years. I wanted to do things that weren’t offered here at Hilton and ended up taking Business Studies, Economics, PE and Maths. The one thing that I never got used to was the fact that at Harrow I had class in the morning, had lunch and then we had a two hour break for sport, and went to class again in the evening until dinner. It made sense though because the sun went down and it got dark really early, at about 16h30. I must say that the work was definitely more challenging and demanding than the work here in South Africa.

A big difference for me was how hard every single boy worked at Harrow, it was mind blowing. The work ethic and intelligence of the boys at Harrow is on another level. It wasn’t a rare occurrence walking into a boys study late at night to see him working. This hard work and diligence paid off as many of the boys excelled while I was there, some even being given Oxbridge acceptance, which means that they will either be accepted at Oxford or Cambridge University.
 

Harrow has eleven official houses and one smaller house, used for boys who are struggling or don’t get along with either the boys in their house or the housemaster. I was very grateful to be put into Druries House for three reasons. The first was because I was the last exchange student that Mr Elleray, who was my housemaster, would see come through the school. Mr Elleray was in his last year of being a housemaster and was moving onto a full time position on the FA board. Mr Elleray is an ex-FA football official and I will never forget the pictures in his study, of him giving the likes of Wayne Rooney and David Beckham red cards. Mr Elleray was Head of Boarding, Housemaster of Druries and was very influential figure within the school. He is a very well respected man that will be sorely missed at Harrow school and I am extremely grateful to have known him. The second reason was because of the boys in my house. The boys of Druries house are an awesome group of people. I had the best time ever in that house and I can owe it all to them. I made some really great friends while I was at Harrow and most of them were in Druries. I will definitely stay in contact with them and hopefully I will be able to meet up with some of them in the years to come. Last but not least was my Matron. She is honestly the most amazing person I have ever met. I spent countless hours in her apartment, which was right next to my room, drinking hot chocolate and just talking before bed time. She would cook for me every single night when I came back from rugby training and her food was amazing. She helped organise my clothes, my laundry, she basically helped with everything. I do not know what I would’ve done without her. I can best describe her as an angel. She loved all the boys in the house and they loved her just as much. She was an absolute legend at the school.


On my birthday I played my very first Harrow football game and I fell in love with the game that very day. I was privileged enough to be chosen for the house first team. I represented the house enough times and was also awarded my house Fes, which is the equivalent of “colours”, which was a great honour. It's difficult to explain the game, and no one actually knows all the rules. It's a mixture of rugby, soccer and NFL football. My favourite part of the game is that you can just plough over someone even though they don’t have the ball. You also get to play in the most horrendous conditions ever. It’s always ankle deep in mud and it is either wet or covered in snow, but I loved it and so did all the boys at Harrow. Before the Inter-house competition started Druries was ranked 5th and we weren’t seen as a possibility to win the final. This view very quickly changed when we progressed into the semi finals and beat Moretons, who had most of the school First XI. We creamed Bradbys, our opposition, in the Cock House Final, as it is traditionally known, and we were officially champions of the school. Harrow Football is a very unique game and is held dear in the heart of Harrow School.

The amazing thing about Harrow school is that there is always something to do, which makes it pretty similar to Hilton. The only big difference is that Harrow will go out of their way to organise anything extra that a pupil wants to undertake. I believe that Hilton can’t do this because we are quite limited as a school in the sense that we are so isolated. Harrow is situated on the outskirts on London and therefore the boys of Harrow had the “world on their finger tips”. Every afternoon I either had a massive homework assignment to complete, had sports practice or on the rare occasion that I had some free time I’d spend some time in the Hill Cafe with some mates. What makes Harrow quite different is that the school is surrounded by and integrated into a town. There are no school gates or fences... nothing. I mean I had to wait for buses to pass on my way to classes and it took some getting used to. There are also cafes are shops between all the houses and the school resembles a town that is alive and well.
Harrow can basically be defined as an international school. The guys that I met in my house, in the classroom and on the sports field were awesome. There were guys from Mainland China, Hong Kong, South Korea, America, Australia, France, Zimbabwe and even Tonga, the list is endless. All the boys from England either live in London or in the countryside. The boys from the countryside get quite posh and have funny accents and carry titles such as “The Honourable” for example.
 

At Harrow I never had leaves like we do here at Hilton. Instead there are two set weekends where the boys get to go home at 10h30 on Friday morning and need to be back by 21h00 on Sunday night. These weekends are in the middle of every half term. I think it is quite convenient because then the whole school goes out at the same time and no guys are left behind alone. On my second exeat I got a chance to meet up with some of the old Hiltonians who had recently finished at Hilton. I found it amazing how even though all the old Hiltonians were scattered across England, working and studying at different places they still went out of their way and made the effort to meet up. This is what makes Hilton so special in my eyes; the boys form a bond so strong at this school that nothing will ever break it.

While I was at Harrow the Head of Sport, Mr Coulson, managed to organise that I join the London Wasps Academy. I went to the Academy every Tuesday and Thursday evening with two other boys from Harrow, Ali Bone, who played u18 England South East, and Callum Stidsonott, who played Scotland u18 and was also Deputy Head of School. It was an unbelievably experience as I was surrounded by some of the best players that England had to offer at u18 level. It was an extremely beneficial experience and I am forever grateful to coach Lloyd, Taps, my conditioning trainer, Ellen, the physio and the whole Wasps Academy for everything that they did for me.
While at Harrow I was confronted by my business studies teacher, Mr Terry, about playing for the Independent Schools Barbarians. I accepted without hesitation and was selected to play in the u18 Barbarians game against Cambridge u19A’s. I was very honoured as I managed to make the starting line up and was playing at no 8. One of the best parts of playing in the game was being able to have a look at the Cambridge University campus. I must say I was left speechless; the campus was absolutely massive and unbelievably beautiful. All the players got together before the game and I managed to meet guys from all around England which was an eye opener. We trained for about an hour and then got ready for our game. We played really well and the scores were tied until the last movement of the game when Cambridge managed to score a try. The final score was 22-17 but we weren’t too upset as we were playing guys 2 years older than us and we didn’t actually do to badly.

While at Harrow I experienced some of the traditions that are fielded at the magnificent school. First there was house songs, which is a formal house event, where the whole house gathers in the call over room, which is the equivalent of our common room, and they sing chosen songs. As I was a new boy I had to sing the New Boys solo in front of the whole house, which was quite daunting but I thought it was a really awesome tradition. The second was school songs, and for this the whole school gathered in the hall in full “tails” and the old boys from 1960-1969 were chosen to return. Again certain songs were chosen to sing and articles were read about from “The Harrovian” from when Winston Churchill was at Harrow. This was a real eye opener because I was walking on the same road, and in the same corridors as Winston Churchill did. Harrow has a lot of school traditions and this is understandable seeing as the school is 766 years old. It was great being able to experience some of them while I was at the school.


Half-term was absolutely amazing. Nick Platt, Tom Schorn and I made the effort to meet each other in London and spend most of the half term together. I stayed with Nick for most of the half term in Hampton Court, with a family friend. Tom then met us and we spent the final weekend with my parents in London, as they came over on holiday and to visit me for a short period of time. Our half term was very productive as we went to watch London Irish vs Harlequins, we went to watch the play “Billy Elliot” which was just unbelievable, we did a bit of sightseeing and took a boat down the Thames and I got to spend some quality time with my family.


While I was at Harrow I played waterpolo and sevens rugby. From the beginning it was clear to me that sport, in general, wasn’t taken very seriously at the school. This got very frustrating for me at times and it showed in the waterpolo pool where I got a cap off during one of our games. I also found that school sport wasn’t taken very seriously but as soon as it came to Inter-house sport it got very competitive and I didn’t understand this. Surely the school sport is more important than the house sport. Harrow did however have the best sporting facilities that I have ever seen. The indoor centre with its heated pool was magnificent, the fields were pristine and the first team rugby field and the world class athletics track were unreal. The boys who were keen on sport really had it all at their fingertips. The facilities, along with an awesome coaching staff, allowed the boys who were good at sport and were keen on sport to excel.

Unfortunately I missed the beginning of the rugby season at Hilton Even though I had the privilege of going to the Wasps Academy, where the training was on a very high standard, there was still something missing. I thought about it a lot and I realised that it was the school spirit and camaraderie that just wasn’t there. Playing rugby with your peers, your best friends, and the whole school shouting until they are blue in the face, was missing.

I would just like to formally thank Mr Higgins who is in charge of exchange at Harrow School. Without him my exchange would never have been as marvellous as it was. Mr Higgins went out of his way to make sure that I was enjoying myself and that every opportunity was available to me. I am very grateful.

I would also like to thank Mr Guthrie, the exchange committee, Mr Lovatt and Hilton College for granting me the opportunity of going on exchange. It was an experience of a lifetime. I grew as a person and learnt a few very valuable lessons and was introduced to a few new and different ideas that could maybe one day be adopted and implemented by Hilton in the years to come.