A college is born
St George’s College was established in 2001 by the St George’s Preparatory School. The idea of a College that would serve as a natural progression for St George’s Preparatory pupils had been under discussion for many years. Once the decision to start the College was taken in 2000, Mr Trevor Long, a principal of many years’ standing, agreed to forget his retirement and accepted the position of principal.
When the school opened its doors in 2001 in the music block adjacent to the Prep, the initial enrolment was seven pupils with two fulltime members of staff, Mr Long and Mr Mark Barclay, and a number of part- time teachers. From the beginning there was a wonderful spirit of friendliness that permeated throughout the school and the close bonds that were forged within the school soon became a feature of the College. This, together with the quality teaching on offer, saw St George’s pupils growing into well- rounded young adults with bright futures.
The early years were extremely challenging. As the school was still new, there was, at that stage, no record of continued success to attract new pupils. While enrolment figures were climbing steadily, the College needed to speed up the increase in its enrolment. In order to facilitate this, the College, in its third year, decided to reduce its school fees and the staff agreed to a reduction in their salaries to make this possible. This tough decision and the sacrifice by its committed teachers saved the College, and, as numbers grew, the College moved to its current premises.
The establishment and survival of the school would not have been possible without the enthusiasm and dedication of Mr Gavin Harvey, the first Chairman of the Governing Council, whose vision and immense contribution helped carry the school in its early years. Mr Garry McWilliams has also been central to the success of the College. His constant support and particularly
his acquisition of the College’s present building, have been central to the growth of the College. It is therefore no surprise that when the first two houses at the College were established they were called Harvey House and Mcwilliams House. The school continues to enjoy the support of these two gentlemen.
In the middle of 2003, after steering the College through its initial challenges and establishing the working structure of the College, Mr Long retired, for a second time, and was succeeded by Mr Mark Barclay. Mr Long has continued in his dedication to the College. He not only serves on the College Governing Council, but continues to assist in managing the College finances.
2005 marked another milestone for the College when the first group of seven pupils wrote matric. Each subsequent year has seen a growth in numbers. 2011 marks another milestone in that there are two matric classes with a total of 32 pupils. Except for a few places in Grade 10, the school is full at 122 pupils and desperately needs more classroom space to accommodate expansion.
Two of the main underpinning principles of the College are independence and academic excellence. For this reason the College writes examinations of the Independent Education Board. Although these exams are tough, our pupils have excelled. 2010 was a particularly good year and our pupils obtained their best record to date. Rachel Mullins and Samantha van der Westhuizen, both ex-St George’s Prep pupils, set the standard by obtaining six and four distinctions, respectively.
From the outset, pupils at the College flourished not just academically but in all spheres. This is well illustrated by our participation in the President’s Award. We are not simply participants, but leaders in this award. Last year eight of our pupils obtained Gold Awards. This was the highest number for any school in the Eastern Cape.
In many ways, the President’s Award exemplifies the type of pupil we strive to mould at St George’s College. We are a small school but outward looking, and encourage our pupils to be active participants within the broader community in a variety of spheres. Whether it was our Junior City Mayor — Loide de Almeida (recently awarded the Alan Gray Scholarship) or Thandokazi Ngcelwane, who was appointed as a brand ambassador for Mark Shuttleworth’s Hip282 science initiative — our pupils excel in what they do and are actively involved in a diverse range of programmes such as a community outreach project to hack alien vegetation out of the Baakens Valley.
From the very beginning this sense of engagement with life has been central to the ethos of the College. The College has rapidly begun to build a record of continued success.
Committed & Highly-Qualified Staff
In only 10 years the College has achieved much, and this is due to our highly-qualified and dedicated staff. The St George’s College staffs have a wealth of experience and are our greatest asset. There is a spirit of purpose amongst all the staff and they are committed to every aspect of their jobs. They have seen our pupils grow in confidence and self-belief and are proud of their many achievements and successes over the years.
Cultural Activities & Achievements
At St George’s College we have always encouraged our pupils to be as actively involved in as broad a range of activities as possible. We offer a variety of cultural activities including:
· Ballroom dancing
· Hip hop
· Dancing
· Belly dancing
· Yoga
· Debating
· Community service
· The President’s Award
· Chess
· SCA
We have also had representatives on the Junior City Council for eight of our 10 years. We have come quite far culturally if you consider that we started in 2001 with only seven Grade 8s. Marylin Gibbs started most of our cultural activities in 2003.
Our community service includes activities like removing exotic plant species from the Baakens Valley, visiting children’s homes, donating blood, undertaking coin drives for various community projects and beach clean ups.
There have been many awards that we are very proud of:
• Luke Caldecott received a best supporting actor award at the Showtime Awards in 2005;
• Loide de Almeida was the Junior Mayor in 2010;
• Vuyokazi Sigodi and Lauren Dickason were chosen to represent the Eastern Cape in the 2010 National School Moot Court Competition (participating in arguing in a mock court on human rights issues);
• Rochelle Velkers was the best dancer in the PE dance festival in 2010;
• Caylee O’Leary represented South Africa in Irish dancing in 2007;
• Our 2002 recycling initiative, where we created a plastic bag chain around St George’s Park, received national attention when we were interviewed on the SABC News;
• The Science Expo has always been one of the annual highlights for the College and we remain one of the top schools in this event.
We continue to encourage our learners to push their own boundaries so that we can continue to be proud of their achievements in our extended community.
The President’s Award
Established in 1956, the President’s Award for Youth Empowerment is an international youth development programme which is affiliated to The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award Association. The Award Programme is available in over 130 countries around the world with over 700 000 participants and has been operating in South Africa since 1983. Their mission is to empower young people between the ages ofl4 and 25 by providing a balanced, non-competitive framework for self-development that will increase their self-esteem and enhance their capacity to achieve in whatever field they choose, thereby enabling them to become responsible, involved citizens within their communities.
St George’s College has been actively involved in the President’s Award Programme since 2004, with a total of 63 pupils registering for either the Bronze, Silver or Gold level. Many have completed all 3 levels. The four focus areas of the programme are skills development, physical recreation, community service and the adventurous journey, which has seen over 10000 active participants from schools, community youth groups, residential youth facilities and correctional centres across South Africa taking part.
Gold Award Ceremonies are a highlight of President’s Award programme, recognising the achievements of the participants who have met the requirements of this prestigious level. These ceremonies are held, on average, every two years and guests-of-honour in the past have included, the Duke of Edinburgh HRH Prince Philip, Mr Nelson Mandela, the Earl of Wessex HRH Prince Edward, the Countess of Wessex, South African Cabinet Ministers, as well as leading business and political figures in South Africa.
The 2010 Eastern Cape ceremony was hosted at collegiate High School, with Minister Collins Chabane as guest-of- honour. St George’s College is the one of the smallest schools to participate in this programme in the province and, with our 8 Gold Award recipients, we are proud to have had the largest number of achievers at this level in 2010.
An Allan Gray Scholarship
Loide de Almeida matriculated in 2010 from St George’s College as our Head Girl. She displayed exceptional leadership qualities from herGrade9year.
She has always been involved in community projects; she was the school representative forthe Presidents Award and a member of the Junior City Council, eventually becoming the Junior Mayor.
In order to be awarded the Allan Gray Scholarship, the learner should demonstrate the hallmarks of intellectual imagination, personal initiative, spirit of selflessness, courageous commitment and achievement excellence. The Allan Gray Scholarship is called a fellowship scholarship. The organization gives the learner support throughout their studies in order to nurture young entrepreneurs. The Allan Gray Foundation can allocate 100 of their scholarships a year, but they have never found 100 learners that meet their criteria.
We are so proud of Loide for her achievements and we wish her the very best for her Business Studies at UCT.
College Sport
From small beginnings, sport at St George’s College has shown tremendous growth over the last 10 years.
During the summer we offer boys and girl’s tennis, as well as a tennis clinic, cricket, water polo and golf, while our winter sports are boys and girls hockey and tennis, soccer and netball. Although the College focuses on these, we encourage our pupils to also take part in as wide a variety of sports as possible. Many of our pupils have excelled at these.
All the sports teams compete in local leagues in and around Port Elizabeth, with the College teams holding their own on all fronts. The enthusiasm and dedication of all the pupils and staff have resulted in this tremendous growth and the future looks bright for our teams.
EP Sport Representatives
2006
Michaela Botha (Gymnastics)
Harold Greeff (Tennis)
Caylee O’Leary (Highland Dancing)
2007
Michaela Botha (Gymnastics)
Nosidima Hempe (Hockey)
Caylee O’Leary (Highland Dancing)
Emma Pook (Tennis)
2008
Michaela Botha (Gymnastics)
Caylee O’Leary (Highland Dancing)
Emma Pook (Tennis)
Jessica Thompson (Squash)
2009
Sheldi Botha (Hockey)
Memento Ngapi (Hockey)
2010
Evan Johnson (Waterpolo)
Sport Tours
St George’s College aims to ensure that our boys and girls are always involved in active competition and have as wide an exposure to sport as possible. We thus provide as many sport tours as possible. In 2008 we entered the schools’ Pro2O cricket tournament in East London for the first time. After a very successful tour against some strong opposition, this tour has become a fixture in our calendar.
Following the successful cricket tours, our 1st Girls’ Hockey team toured the Netherlands in 2009. The team flew to Amsterdam and then travelled by bus between Utrecht, Nijmegen, Provincie Zeeland, Rotterdam and Haarlem, where they played a total of eight matches. The girls acquitted themselves well against some very strong opposition and the experience that they gained was carried through when they returned and won every match they played for the rest of the season.
In 2010 our Girls’ Water Polo team toured the garden route and Cape Town. Once again this proved very successful. The experiences gained on these tours have proved valuable life lessons and memories for all those who took part.
