President’s 2026 New Year Message

Greetings Fellow Princewaleans

 

I wish you and your families a happy and blessed New Year. I pray that 2026 will bring you all that you wish for yourselves. I am filled with immense pride and gratitude for the confidence you have entrusted in me to serve you and the association as President for the next two years. 

The year 2025 now gone was truly remarkable and we are all blessed to have witnessed the celebration of 100 years of excellence of our beloved Alma Mater. Our Association, ably led by our first Female President Dr Dilys Benjamin, played a significant role in celebrating a truly wonderful year to mark 100 years of excellence, a remarkable achievement. We contributed £10,000 towards procurement of 100 piece band instruments, we donated 500 centenary ties to OPWA Freetown, with proceeds from the sales being our contribution to the centenary fund. We also gifted 3000 centenary ties to the students which was distributed with pride by POWAA UK. 

 

We also hosted a number of successful events to mark our centenary celebrations. It was started with Skool Daze in November 2024, a Band Concert in February 2025, our Day of Worship in April 2025, a Dinner and Dance in May 2025 and our Summerfest in July 2025. As we are about to commence our journey into the next century of excellence, we hosted a successful Skool Daze event in November 2025. Plans have already started for our Day of Worship which will take place on 19 April 2026. As we are all aware, the current state of our school is in a desperate situation. Notwithstanding, as we have just celebrated a “Century of Excellence “, significant strides have been made to bring about much needed change if we are to be proud once again of our beloved Prince of Wales school being labelled that centre of excellence. The Single Administration System (SAS) spearheaded by Dr Alex Blanshard with the assistance of Dr Lucien Turay and the support of the Board of Governors, have been given formal approval by the Chief Education Officer. The SAS proposed structure is for one Principal, supported by two Vice Principals. An electronic timetable for teachers will be introduced to ensure teachers are more accountable for their actions should they fail to deliver. 

 

The implementation process of the SAS has commenced and regular updates will be provided as things progress. The STEAM and QSCI-MATHS projects are currently being developed and will form part of the curriculum to bring about this much needed change. I endeavour and with your support continue building on the foundation already laid to move the Association forward and work even harder towards our fundraising initiatives. I am appealing to Princewaleans to contribute to the The Prince of Wales School Alumni Foundation (POWSAF). This Foundation is a US based charity formed to raise funds which will be invested in the stock markets. The aim is to maintain the capital investment, whilst all investments proceeds will be used to support educational attainment at the school. Newsletters/information on POWSAF are regularly shared on the Members Forum. 

 

With your help, my aim is to reach out and encourage as many Princewaleans out there to join the ranks with us to swell the chorus as together in strength, we can all make a difference. I am proud to say that our scholarship and mentoring programme continue to go from strength to strength and I will encourage Members to consider taking on the role as Mentors to help guide the students for the future. My aim also is to build on the relationship already established with other Alumni Chapters, in particular OPWA Freetown and form a stronger collaboration under the Global Body to achieve our desired goals as a unified force. Sadly, we lost two founding Members in the last year, Mr Sam Kaikai and Dr Adu Seray-Wurie. 

 

We have also lost a number of Princewaleans who were with us celebrating our centenary together. May their souls and the souls of the faithful departed continue to rest in perfect peace. I will conclude by wishing you all a blessed and fruitful year ahead. I pray for good health, strength and that the Almighty God will guide and direct our deliberations for the coming year. May unity and cordiality continue to prevail amongst us as we keep a niche within our hearts for Prince of Wales, Kingtom.

 

Donald H Hanciles 

 

Your President.