St Catherine's School is an independent, co-educational school in Germiston,

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

named after

Saint Catherine of Siena Catherine of Siena ( Italian: ''Caterina da Siena''; 25 March 1347 – 29 April 1380), a member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic, was a mystic, activist, and author who had a great influence on Italian literature and on the Catholic Church. ...

. A combined school, St Catherine's consists of a pre-school,a preparatory school and a senior school and is the oldest school in Germiston.

History

St Catherine's School was founded in 1908 by the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena, Newcastle, Natal in order to meet the increasing demand for education in the then 22-year-old mining town of Germiston (a product of the Witwatersrand Gold Rush of the late 1880s). The original school building was located on Hardach Street in central Germiston, and was built on land bought from the Simmer and Jack gold mining company. It was the first convent on the

East Rand The East Rand is the urban eastern part of the Witwatersrand that is functionally merged with the Johannesburg conurbation in South Africa. The region extends from Alberton in the west to Nigel in the east, and south down to Nigel. It includ ...

and the first high school in Germiston. By the 1940s, the school's environs in the Germiston CBD were undergoing rapid

industrialisation Industrialisation ( alternatively spelled industrialization) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive re-organisation of an econo ...

, concurrent with a general shift from north to south of much of Germiston's population, and in 1948 St Catherine's School relocated to the then newly developed suburb of Parkhill Gardens. Here there was also more space for sporting facilities. Toward the end of 1968 the school decided, in conjunction with its sister school St Dominic's in Boksburg, to cater for primary school pupils only: girls up to standard 5 (grade 7) and boys up to standard 1 (grade 3). Additionally, in 1970 the Transvaal Education Department recognised and registered the St Catherine's pre-primary school. The first reported

ghost A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to re ...

sighting at St Catherine's occurred on 17 August 1972, when a janitor cleaning the school hall after hours claimed to have been chased into the quad by an amorphous grey apparition or "spook" with "glowing red eyes". From the beginning of 1977, a wave of sightings followed of a "grey, hooded figure swaddled in flowing robes", often accompanied by a "'wailing' sound". The ghost, said to haunt the school hall, the chapel, the basement and a number of classrooms in the eastern wing, was soon dubbed Patrick, after one of the school's houses, St Patrick's. After 1977, ghost sightings at St Catherine's mostly ceased, although stories of paranormal happenings at the school persist to the present. In 1985, the school extended its education of boys to standard 5 again. This was followed in 1991 by the Sisters of St Catherine's moving into a private house, opening up more room in the school for classrooms. In 2001 the Board of Governors approved the re-opening of the high school, and that year saw the first intake of grade 8 pupils since 1968. At the same time the school buildings were expanded, with the construction of a new wing that was completed and fully occupied by 2007. Mrs J. Crosby, formerly of Boksburg High School, stepped in as high school principal in June 2007. In 2008 the school celebrated its centenary with a centennial mass, held under a marquee on the main soccer field which was attended by more than 800 pupils, parents, staff, past pupils and past teachers. In December 2015, Mrs V. Johnson took charge as the Head of School to focus on whole school development. The new Preparatory School Principal, Mrs S. Rodrigues, began her term in January 2016. With the retirement of the Pre-school Principal, Mrs T. Henry (who served the school for 35 years) the new Pre-school Principal, Mrs C. Stewart, began her term in January 2016. In May 2016, the Head of School, Mrs Johnson, announced that she would be retiring in December of the same year. She was succeeded by Mr Dennis Maritz in January 2017 as Head of School.Mr. Maritz has extensive experience in independent education. He was the Founding Head of Uplands College in White River and also served as Headmaster of St Martin's School in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity, and is List of urban areas by p ...

.He held the post of Headmaster of Cornwall Hill College in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foothi ...

prior to joining St Catherine's School as Head of School. The primary school is now known as the preparatory school and the high school is now known as the senior school. Concurrent with this restructuring, an expansion programme has been undertaken which has seen a marked increase in enrolment. St. Catherine's entered a new phase of its development in 2019 with the construction of the Aelred O'Donovan wing which was completed at the end of 2018. The wing consists of six state-of-the-art classrooms which were built to accommodate pupils in Grades one and two. The need for the wing became apparent in 2018 with the growth in enrolment which the school was experiencing. The wing bears the name of Sister Aelred O'Donovan who was the last Newcastle Dominican Sister to hold the post of Head of School.

Academics

St Catherine's matriculants and grade 9 pupils write exams set by the Independent Examinations Board (IEB). The IEB is an organisation whose examinations are written by independent schools throughout South Africa. These examinations conform to the requirements of the National Senior Certificate and are recognised both internationally and by all South African universities. The subjects taken from grades 1 to 3 (junior phase) are: *

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gr ...

* Zulu *

Mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

Religious education In secular usage, religious education is the teaching of a particular religion (although in the United Kingdom the term ''religious instruction'' would refer to the teaching of a particular religion, with ''religious education'' referring to t ...

* Life orientation *

Physical education Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E., is a subject taught in schools around the world. It is usually taught during primary and secondary education, and encourages psychomotor learning by using a play and movement explorat ...

Music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

* Computer studies The compulsory subjects for Grade 4 to 6 (Intermediate Phase) and Grade 7 (Senior Phase) are: *

(first additional language) * isiZulu (second additional language) *

Natural science Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

s *

Geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, an ...

History History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

Technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, scien ...

* Life orientation *

Drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

* Art * Computer studies * Economic and management science (Grade 7 Only) *

The subjects offered from grade 8 to Matric at St Catherine's are: *

Accounting Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the measurement, processing, and communication of financial and non financial information about economic entities such as businesses and corporations. Accounting, which has been called the "languag ...

(second language) *

Business studies Business studies, often simply called business, is a field of study that deals with the principles of business, management, and economics. It combines elements of accountancy, finance, marketing, organizational studies, human resource management, ...

* CAT (Grade 10 – 12) *

(compulsory) *

Creative arts The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both ...

(grades 8–9) and

Visual arts The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile art ...

(grades 10–12) * isiZulu (second language) * Life orientation (compulsory) *

or Mathematical literacy *

Life sciences This list of life sciences comprises the branches of science that involve the scientific study of life – such as microorganisms, plants, and animals including human beings. This science is one of the two major branches of natural science, th ...

Physical science Physical science is a branch of natural science that studies non-living systems, in contrast to life science. It in turn has many branches, each referred to as a "physical science", together called the "physical sciences". Definition Phys ...

(compulsory)

Houses

The school is divided into three houses, namely: * St Catherine's (yellow) * St Dominic's (red) * St Patrick's (green) These three houses regularly engage in inter-house events, including:

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), competi ...

, a swimming gala, bible quiz,

public speaking Public speaking, also called oratory or oration, has traditionally meant the act of speaking face to face to a live audience. Today it includes any form of speaking (formally and informally) to an audience, including pre-recorded speech delive ...

and fundraising. Activities may differ between school grades and phases.

Sport

St Catherine's athletes at Germiston Stadium

St Catherine's pupils also participate in a wide variety of sports. Sports at the school include

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cov ...

netball Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...

, athletics and swimming. There are both male and female soccer teams representing the school with the girls' soccer team being a new addition, nicknamed the 'Saint's Soccer Team'. St Catherine's has also, since 2007, been competing in the Germiston inter-high swimming gala, where it has been somewhat successful.

Notable alumni

* Tumi Mothei, entrepreneur and former guitarist of the band Heroes Wear Red.

References

External links

St. Catherine's official siteIndependent Schools Association of Southern Africa (ISASA)Catholic Schools Office (CSO)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Catherine's School, Germiston 1908 establishments in South Africa Educational institutions established in 1908 Private schools in Gauteng Schools in Germiston Reportedly haunted locations in South Africa