Rustenburg Girls' High School and Rustenburg Girls' Junior School are two separate public (fee-paying) schools with a shared history, originating in the suburb of

Rondebosch Rondebosch is one of the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town, South Africa. It is primarily a residential suburb, with shopping and business districts as well as the main campus of the University of Cape Town. History Four years after the first Dutch ...

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

, South Africa. Rustenburg was founded in 1894 and divided into separate junior and high schools in 1932.

History

The school was founded in 1894 in the historic Rustenburg House, which dates from the early years of the

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

settlement at the Cape In 1932, the school was divided into two schools, and the high school moved into its new buildings on Erinville Estate and Charlie's Hope in the suburb of Rosebank, while the junior school remained in Rustenburg House on Main Road, Rondebosch. Charlie's Hope was subsequently demolished in 1976, before being rebuilt closer to the school. Erinville is now the name of the High School's boarding house. Rustenburg House was declared a National Monument in 1941. Headmistresses of the Combined School: * Miss Alicia Bleby, 1894–1911 * Miss Jean Donaldson-Wright, 1912–1916 * Miss Caroline Kemp, 1916–1933 Principals of the High School: * Miss Caroline Kemp, 1933–1936 * Miss Gwen Hazell, 1937–1951 * Miss Margaret Thomson, 1952–1979 * Mrs Josephine McIntyre, 1980–1991 * Mrs Mary van Blerk, 1991–1999 * Dr Elizabeth Fullard, 1999–2006 * Mrs Susan Schnetler (Acting), 2006-2007 * Ms Laura Bekker, 2007–2015 * Mrs Susan Schnetler (Acting), 2016 * Mr Michael Gates, 2017–present Headmistresses of the Junior School: * Miss Marion Roper, 1933–1944 * Miss Zoë Orton, 1945–1967 * Mrs Ruth Jones, 1968–1977 * Miss Hazel Lentin, 1978–1998 * Mrs Joyce Conway, 1998–2007 * Mrs Di Berry, 2008–2018 * Mrs Belinda Petersen, 2019–present

Academics

In 2010, Rustenberg Girls' High School was placed third in a list of the top schools in the Western Cape after placing sixth in 2009. A 2013 survey by ''Fairlady'' magazine listed Rustenburg Girls' High School among the top 25 schools in the country. In 2014, Rustenburg Girls' High School again qualified for inclusion in the official top 20 schools list and was placed sixth. In 2015, the Western Cape Education Department stopped ranking the top schools in order of their performance and instead listed them alphabetically. In this year, Rustenburg Girls' High School was included in the list of the top 22 schools. In 2019, a Grade 7 student at Rustenberg Girls' Junior School came first in the

Western Cape The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the List of South African provinces by area, fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , an ...

at the Horizon Maths Competition. In 2023, a matriculant from Rustenberg Girls' High School was honoured as the country's top candidate overall as well as in Maths.

Sport

Rustenburg has historically been well represented in South African and

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teams. In 2012, two girls represented

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 ...

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 ...

and

artistic gymnastics Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines on different types of apparatus. The sport is governed by the Federation Internationale de Gymnastique, Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), ...

, while two staff members represented South Africa in

sevens rugby 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 ...

and

triathlon A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of Swimming (sport), swimming, Cycle sport, cycling, and running over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall completion time, racing each segment sequentially with the ...

. The high school has nine tennis/netball courts, a swimming pool and two hockey/cricket fields. An astroturf playing field was installed during 2014 with floodlights added in 2016 The following sports are offered by Rustenburg Girls' High School: cricket, cross-country, hockey, indoor hockey, netball, running, football, squash, swimming, tennis, touch rugby, waterpolo

Music

The school has an orchestra, choir, chamber choir, jazz band, wind band, string quartet, vocal quartet, string ensemble and savuyisa (marimba band).

Notable alumni

Frances Ames Frances Rix Ames (; 20 April 1920 – 11 November 2002) was a South African neurologist, psychiatrist, and human rights activist, best known for leading the medical ethics inquiry into the death of anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko, who died ...

, neurologist, psychiatrist, and human rights activist * Jodi Balfour, film and television actress *

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, singer *

Janette Deacon Janette Deacon (née Buckland, born 25 November 1939) is a South African archaeologist specialising in heritage management and rock art conservation. She has studied the changes in stone tools from sites in the southern Cape in relation to climat ...

, archaeologist * Mabel Malherbe, South African politician *

Hlubi Mboya Hlubi Arnold (née Mboya, born 2 March 1978), is a South African actress. On television, she has portrayed Nandipha Sithole in the soap opera ''Isidingo''. She also appeared in the 2016 film '' Dora's Peace'', for which she won the SAFTA Awar ...

, film and television actress and humanitarian *

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, broadcast journalist and television producer *

Leila Reitz Leila Agnes Buissinné Reitz, (née Wright ; 13 December 1887 – 27 December 1959) was a South African politician who served as the first woman elected to Parliament in South Africa. She represented Parktown in the House of Assembly of South A ...

, the first woman elected to South Africa's parliament * Edith Layard Stephens, botanist * Désirée Talbot, opera singerDésirée Talbot
/ref> * Marjorie van Heerden, book illustrator * Pauline Vogelpoel MBE, late director of the

Contemporary Art Society The Contemporary Art Society (CAS) is an independent charity that champions the collecting of outstanding contemporary art and craft for UK museum collections. Since its founding in 1910 the organisation has donated over 10,000 works to museum ...

and member of the International Council of the

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Gallery * Elizabeth Voigt, late director of the

McGregor Museum The McGregor Museum in Kimberley, South Africa, originally known as the Alexander McGregor Memorial Museum, is a multidisciplinary museum which serves Kimberley and the Northern Cape, established in 1907. Overview Housed at first in a purp ...

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In popular culture

Scenes in the films '' Spud 2: The Madness Continues'' and '' Spud 3: Learning to Fly'' were shot at the school.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rustenburg School For Girls Rondebosch Boarding schools in South Africa Schools in Cape Town Educational institutions established in 1894 Girls' schools in South Africa 1894 establishments in the Cape Colony Women in Cape Town