St Stithians College (colloquially known as Saints) is a

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

school A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the Educational architecture, building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most co ...

situated in the suburb of

Lyme Park Lyme Park is a large Estate (land), estate south of Disley, Cheshire, England. It is managed by the National Trust and consists of a mansion house surrounded by formal gardens and a Deer park (England), deer park in the Peak District National ...

in the border of

Sandton Sandton is a financial, commercial and residential area, located in the northern part of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. Formerly an independent municipality, Sandton's name came from the combination of two of its suburbs, Sa ...

and

Randburg Randburg is an area located in the Gauteng province of South Africa. Formerly a separate municipality, its administration devolved to the newly created City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, along with neighbouring Sandton and Roodepoort ...

in the

Gauteng Gauteng ( , ; Sotho-Tswana languages, Sotho-Tswana for 'place of gold'; or ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts f ...

province of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. Founded in 1953 by Albert Collins, William Mountstephens and Gilbert Tucker, it has consistently ranked amongst the top performing independent schools in South Africa. It follows a co-ordinate educational model within a village of schools consisting of boys' and girls' colleges, boys' and girls' preparatory schools, and a junior preparatory. It is built on a 100 hectare estate, one of the largest school campuses in the country. The College is organized into six schools on its main campus in Johannesburg and maintains facilities at the Kamoka Bush School near

Modimolle Modimolle, also known as Nylstroom, is a town located near the southern edge of the Waterberg Massif in Limpopo province, South Africa. It is a medium-sized town that focuses primarily on agriculture and farming (citrus, grapes and cattle) as well ...

and the virtual St Stithians Online School. As a

school, it has ties to

Kearsney College Kearsney College is a private boarding, English medium high school for boys in Botha's Hill, a small town between the provincial capital of Pietermaritzburg and Durban, in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. History Kearsney College ...

Epworth High School Epworth School is a private Christian School with a Methodist ethos, located on a campus in Scottsville in Pietermaritzburg in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. Epworth is an independent school (and a member of the Independent Scho ...

, Penryn College and Kingswood College. The Boys' and the Girls' Colleges are members of the

Round Square Round Square is an international network of schools, based on the educational concepts of Kurt Hahn, and named after a distinctive building at Gordonstoun. Founded by a group of seven schools in the late 1960s, by 1996 it had grown to 20 member ...

Conference of Schools and

G30 Schools G30 Schools, formerly G20 Schools, is an association of secondary schools founded by David Wylde of St. Andrew's College, Grahamstown, South Africa and Anthony Seldon of Wellington College, Berkshire, United Kingdom in 2006. The G30 Schools ha ...

Conference. St Stithians College is also the host of the annual Saints Sports Festival which is the largest and longest continuous school sports festival in the world. The 2017 edition witnessed over 1,400 participants in 8 fields of sport, 200 fixtures and over 50,000 spectators.

History

The Boys' College

The idea of setting up a

school in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

came to Gilbert Tucker, who wanted to base it on the pattern of his old school, Kingswood College in

Grahamstown Makhanda, formerly known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 75,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Gqeberha and southwest of East London. It is the largest town in the Makana Local Mun ...

. The Methodist accountant did not have the money so he turned to people who would be interested in financing it. He met two Cornishmen, both born in 1859, Albert Collins and William Mountstephens, who were Methodists and promising new businessmen who had started to make a name for themselves in their new country. Collins, who never married, died first and this led to the creation of the Trust for building the Methodist school Tucker had dreamt of. The Trust was formally opened in April 1941 and, at Mountstephens' suggestion, was named after Collins' birthplace,

Stithians Stithians (), also known as St Stythians, is a village and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It lies in the middle of the triangle bounded by Redruth, Helston and Falmouth. Its population (2001) is 2,004, increasing to 2,10 ...

, a village in

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

. These trustees were D.F. Corlett, C.H. Leake, J.B. Webb and G.K. Tucker. The Trust was able to purchase a piece of land, which was part of the farm Driefontein (one of the "fonteins" can be found on the grounds) for an amount of £8713 in 1943 but nothing further was achieved until after the War. At first it was thought that building costs might drop and so the trustees waited until it became obvious that prices would not drop and so the decision to build was made in 1951. Mountstephens lived to see the land purchased, but not the school built; his widow on the other hand, was to take an active interest in the school until her death. The school was to have been a secondary school only and at first, the debate on co-education was open. Circumstances were to make decisions for the Trustees: the area was new and remote; its people wanted a boys' school and a preparatory school as well as a secondary school. The first classes began on 28 January 1953, with Grades 1 and 2, and 8 and 9. On 3 February 1953 there was a formal opening ceremony. W.G.A. (Wally) Mears, formerly of

Rondebosch Boys' High School Rondebosch Boys' High School is a public English medium high school for boys situated in the suburb of Rondebosch in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is one of the oldest schools in the country, having been established ...

, was the first headmaster, and taught English, Latin, History and Geography to the high school classes, with Mr E.M. Harris teaching Maths, Science and Scripture, and Mr Minnaar teaching Afrikaans. In the second year (1954) classes in the school ran from Grade 1 to Grade 10, and in 1956 the first group wrote the matriculation examination. As the school grew, Wally Mears, the headmaster, did less teaching, and became more an administrator. The school's hall is named for him.

The Girls College

St Stithians Girls College was opened in 1995 to form the coordinate module with the Boys College. The founding headmistress was Mrs Anne Van Zyl. The initial opening classes were grade 0 - 3 which was to expand rapidly to include all the grades up to and including grade 11 with the first grade 12 class being inducted in 1997. The Girls College was originally named the St Stithians Girls Collegiate, which would subsequently be changed when expanded. During 1994 the first classes would be held on the boys 'side of the rugby field' using already available infrastructure. As a part of the co-ordination module girls and boys school often have mixed classes in Drama, English, isiZulu, Afrikaans, Art and Computer Science. In 1996 the Collegiate would move across the field to newly developed complete school. The College facilities was further developed to include a large library, several computer rooms, a 'tuck shop' and gymnasium as well as a lecture theatre - used for assemblies and individual class plays. The first Matriculents of the college would sit their exams 1997. In 1999 the founding houses of the Girls College were chosen. They were all named after towns within Cornwall, linking the college to its fore bearers. The girls were then to pick a name out of a hat to randomly divide the grades into the four houses. The names of the houses are Cambourne, Kenwyn, Stratton and Trewen respectively. These individual houses compete in various cultural and sporting house competitions as well as part take in different philanthropic endeavours. The uniform has changed over the years, with initially the girls wearing white floral dresses - which the girls prep still use as a summer uniform - to a Blue and red checked skirt and white blouse. The first top was a white golf shirt but this was changed to a white blouse in 2008.

The Badge

The Badge is based on the coat of arms of the

Duke of Cornwall Duke of Cornwall () is a title in the Peerage of England, traditionally held by the eldest son of the reigning Monarchy of the United Kingdom, British monarch, previously the English monarch. The Duchy of Cornwall was the first duchy created i ...

, which is a Crusader shield on which are displayed 15 golden

Bezants In the Middle Ages, the term bezant (, from Latin ) was used in Western Europe to describe several gold coins of the east, all derived ultimately from the Roman . The word itself comes from the Greek Byzantion, the ancient name of Constantinopl ...

in the shape of a triangle with the motto 'One and All'. The story of the 15 bezants occurs during the Crusades when the Duke of Cornwall was captured by the

Saracens file:Erhard Reuwich Sarazenen 1486.png, upright 1.5, Late 15th-century History of Germany, German woodcut depicting Saracens ''Saracen'' ( ) was a term used both in Greek language, Greek and Latin writings between the 5th and 15th centuries to ...

. A ransom of 15 bezants was set up. All the people of Cornwall contributed to raise the money for the ransom. It was paid and the Duke was set free. The inhabitants had all helped together One and All to raise the money – hence the motto. The founders decided that the shield would have to be modified to suit the school, as a new badge. It was then decided that it should have a dark blue border along the outside edge of the shield with 15 gold bezants arranged equally along either side on the blue border. On the inside would be a silver shield on which the red cross stands out boldly to signify the Christian foundation of the college.

House system

St Stithians College has a house system. Each house competes against each other in interhouse events to win the Harris Cup (Boys' College) at the end of the year. St Stithian's Boys' College has 10 houses, St Stithians Girls' College has 6, formerly 4. The Girls’ houses have officially been changed since end of 2023. Boys' houses *Collins (navy blue) ''boarding house'' *Henning (maroon) *Krige (purple) *Mears (green) *Mountstephens (red) ''boarding house'' *Penryn (white) *Pitts (grey) *Tucker (yellow) *Webb (light blue) *Wesley (orange) Girls' houses *Lakita (purple) *Mvelo (green) *Olea (pink) *Trina (blue) *Ubunye (grey) *Motheo (orange)

Academics

The colleges write the

Independent Examinations Board The Independent Examinations Board (IEB) is a South African independent assessment agency which offers examinations for various client schools, mostly Private school#South Africa, private schools. It is most prominent in setting examinations for ...

exams.

Sports

St Stithians Boys' College

The sports that are played at the school are: *

Athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competitio ...

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

Canoeing Canoeing is an activity which involves paddling a canoe with a single-bladed paddle. In some parts of Europe, canoeing refers to both canoeing and kayaking, with a canoe being called an 'open canoe' or Canadian. A few of the recreational ...

Chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

Cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

* Cross country *

Cycling Cycling, also known as bicycling or biking, is the activity of riding a bicycle or other types of pedal-driven human-powered vehicles such as balance bikes, unicycles, tricycles, and quadricycles. Cycling is practised around the world fo ...

Golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

Hockey ''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...

Mountain biking Mountain biking (MTB) is a sport of riding bicycles off-road, often over rough terrain, usually using specially designed mountain bikes. Mountain bikes share similarities with other bikes but incorporate features designed to enhance durability ...

Rowing Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically a ...

Rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby union: 15 players per side *** American flag rugby *** Beach rugby *** Mini rugby *** Rugby sevens, 7 players per side *** Rugby tens, 10 players per side *** Snow rugby *** Tou ...

Rugby sevens Rugby sevens (commonly known simply as sevens, and originally seven-a-side rugby) is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players playing seven-minute halves, instead of the usual 15 players playing 40-minute halves. R ...

Soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

Squash Squash most often refers to: * Squash (sport), the high-speed racquet sport also known as squash racquets * Squash (plant), the fruit of vines of the genus ''Cucurbita'' Squash may also refer to: Sports * Squash (professional wrestling), an extr ...

Swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

Table tennis Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...

Tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

Volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

Water polo Water polo is a competitive sport, competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the water polo ball, ball into the oppo ...

St Stithians Girls' College

The sports that are played at the school are: *

* Cross country *

Equestrian The word equestrian is a reference to equestrianism, or horseback riding, derived from Latin ' and ', "horse". Horseback riding (or riding in British English) Examples of this are: *Equestrian sports *Equestrian order, one of the upper classes in ...

Netball Netball is a ball sport played on a rectangular court by two teams of seven players. The primary objective is to shoot a ball through the defender's goal ring while preventing the opposing team from shooting through their own. It is one of a ...

Notable alumni from Boys' & Girls' College

Cricket

Roy Pienaar Roy Francois Pienaar (born 17 July 1961) is a South African former first-class cricketer. He played for Transvaal, Western Province and Northern Transvaal/Northerns in domestic cricket and spent the period between 1987 and 1989 in England playi ...

(class of 1978), South African professional cricketer * David Rundle (class of 1983), South African cricketer *

David Terbrugge David John Terbrugge (born 31 January 1977) is a former cricketer, who played in seven Test matches and four One Day Internationals for the South Africa national cricket team between 1998 and 2004. A back injury caused his early retirement. Terbr ...

(class of 1994) South African cricketer * Grant Elliott (class of 1997),

New Zealand Cricket New Zealand Cricket, formerly the New Zealand Cricket Council, is the governing body for professional cricket in New Zealand. Cricket is the most popular and highest profile summer sport in New Zealand. New Zealand Cricket operates the New ...

er * Michael Lumb (class of 1998)

England cricket The England men's cricket team represents cricket in England, England and cricket in Wales, Wales in international cricket. Since 1997, it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), having been previously governed by Maryleb ...

er * Enoch Nkwe (class of 2001) South African first-class cricketer * Yassar Cook (class of 2011) South African first-class cricketer. *

Kagiso Rabada Kagiso Rabada (born 25 May 1995) is a South African international cricketer who plays all formats of the game. He is a right arm fast bowler. He made his international debut in November 2014 in limited-overs cricket before going on to make his ...

(class of 2013),

South African cricketer Cricket is the third most popular sport in South Africa (behind association football, football and rugby union). Traditionally played by English-speaking White South Africans, Whites, Indian South Africans, Indians, Coloureds and more recently, ...

Ryan Rickelton Ryan David Rickelton (born 11 July 1996) is a South African international cricketer. He made his international debut for the South Africa cricket team on 31 March 2022. A left handed wicket-keeper batter, Rickelton represents Gauteng, and MI C ...

(class of 2014) South African first-class cricketer. * Marques Ackerman (class of 2014), South African first-class cricketer *

Neil Brand Neil Brand (born 18 March 1958) is an English dramatist, composer and author. In addition to being a regular silent film accompanist at London's National Film Theatre, Brand has composed new scores for two restored films from the 1920s, '' T ...

(Class of 2014), South African professional cricketer * Ricardo Vasconcelos, (class of 2015) South African first-class cricketer *

Harry Tector Harry Tom Tector (born 6 December 1999) is an Irish professional cricketer. He was part of Ireland's squad for the 2016 Under-19 Cricket World Cup. He made his full international debut for the Ireland cricket team in September 2019. In January ...

, (class of 2017) Irish professional cricketer * Kwena Maphaka (class of 2024) South African professional cricketer * Alastair Storie (class of c1983) English and Scottish professional cricketer

Golf

* Haydn Porteous (class of 2010) South African professional golfer

Rugby

* Lance Sherrell, (class of 1984) Springbok rugby player * Brent Russell, (class of 1996) Springbok Rugby player * Dave Wessels, (class of 2000) South African-Australian Head Coach *

Jono Ross Jonathan "Jono" Ross (born 27 October 1990 in Sandton, Johannesburg) is a South African former rugby union player who played mostly as a blindside flanker but also played at number 8. Career Youth Ross started off playing for the and repres ...

, (class of 2008) Blue Bulls/Sale Sharks rugby player. * Innocent Radebe, (class of 2013), South African rugby player. *

Asenathi Ntlabakanye Asenathi Ntlabakanye (born 15 April 1999) is a South African professional rugby union player who currently plays for the in the United Rugby Championship and in the Currie Cup The Currie Cup () is South Africa's premier domestic rugby uni ...

, (class of 2017) Lions & South Africa U20 rugby player. * TJ Maguranyanga (class of 2020), Current NFL & former professional rugby player.

Powerlifting and athletics

* Gordon Shaw (class of 2011) Olympic power lifter *

Andrea Dalle Ave Andrea is a given name which is common worldwide for both males and females, cognate to Andreas, Andrej and Andrew. Origin of the name The name derives from the Greek word ἀνήρ (''anēr''), genitive ἀνδρός (''andrós''), that ref ...

(class of 2011), para-Olympic sprinter and long jump athlete

Rowing

* Anthea Dickson (class of 2007) Junior SA rower * Kimberley Rheeder (class of 2008) SA Rowing * Kate Keeling (class of 2008) SA Rowing *

Holly Norton Holly Norton (born 1 January 1993) is a South African–British rower. Biography Born and raised in Harare, Zimbabwe, Holly's family moved to South Africa in 2003. It was at St Stithians Girl's College that she first took up rowing. She was ...

(class of 2011) British rower

Swimming

Jean Basson Jean Basson (born 5 October 1987) is an Olympic swimmer from South Africa. Jean Basson won the gold medal in the 200-meter freestyle at the 2004 African Swimming Championships in Casablanca. At the 2008 Olympic Games, Basson placed fourth in ...

(class of 2005) South African professional swimmer

Tennis

* Kevin Anderson (class of 2004) South African professional tennis player

Water polo

Lwazi Madi Lwazi Madi (born 12 December 1994) is a South African water polo player. He competed in the 2020 Summer Olympics. References

1994 births Living people Water polo players at the 2020 Summer Olympics South African male water polo player ...

(class of 2013) South African professional water polo * Shakira January (class of 2020) South African professional water polo * Jordan Wedderburn (class of 2020) South African professional water polo

Other sports

* Connor Beauchamp (class of 2015) South African field hockey * Paige Lindenberg (class of 2010) South African Racing Driver * Sarah Hill (cyclist) (class of 2011) SA Mountain Bicycle Rider *

Micaela Bouter Micaela Bouter (born 27 October 1995) is a South African diver. She competed in the women's 3 metre springboard event at the 2019 World Aquatics Championships. She finished in 35th place in the preliminary round. She attended and competed in d ...

(class of 2013) South African professional Diver * Hayley Lanham Parker - Olympic Equestrian Show jumper

Politics

Ian Shapiro Ian Shapiro (born September 29, 1956) is an American legal scholar and political scientist who serves as the Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale University. He served as the Henry R. Luce Director of the MacMillan Center at Yale Univ ...

(class of 1968) Political Scientist * Mark Blecher (class of 1977), Chief Director at the National Treasury of SA * James Lorimer M.P. (class of 1979) shadow minister for the Democratic Alliance

Theatre, film, broadcasting and acting

Gavin Hood Gavin Hood (born 12 May 1963) is a South African filmmaker, and actor, best known for writing and directing '' Tsotsi'' (2005), which won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. He also directed the films '' X-Men Origins: Wolver ...

, (class of 1981) filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, and actor

Music

Dave Matthews David John Matthews (born January 9, 1967) is an American musician and the lead vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist for the Dave Matthews Band (DMB). Matthews was born in Johannesburg, South Africa and moved frequently between South Africa, ...

, (class of 1985) lead singer of the

Dave Matthews Band Dave Matthews Band (also known as DMB) is an American rock band from Charlottesville, Virginia. The band's lineup consists of Dave Matthews (lead vocals, guitar), Stefan Lessard (bass), Carter Beauford (drums), Tim Reynolds (lead guitar), R ...

* Tokollo Tshabalala,

Kabelo Mabalane Kabelo Mabalane (born 15 December 1976), known by his stage name as Kabelo or Bouga Luv, is a South African kwaito musician, songwriter and actor. He is a member of the kwaito trio TKZee. He has opened shows for world famous musicians such as J ...

, (class of 1995) and

Zwai Bala Zwai Bala (born 15 February 1975) is a South African kwaito and gospel musician.zwai Bala (born 15 February 1975) is a South Africa Education Bala studied at the Drakensberg Boys' Choir School, near Winterton, KwaZulu-Natal, and matriculat ...

, (class of 1994) members of

TKZee TKZee is a South African kwaito music group formed in 1990s by three school friends, Tokollo Tshabalala, Kabelo Mabalane, and Zwai Bala. The group shot to prominence in late 1997 and early 1998 with their chart-topping singles "Palafala" and ...

* Kyle Watson (class of 2006) South African DJ and record producer

References

School History

External links

St Stithians College official site

Old Stithian Association
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Stithian's College Boarding schools in South Africa Christianity in Johannesburg Educational institutions established in 1953 Member schools of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference Methodist schools in South Africa Private schools in Gauteng Schools in Johannesburg Round Square schools 1953 establishments in South Africa Alliance of Girls' Schools Australasia