St Dominic's Chishawasha is a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

girls boarding school situated in Chishawasha valley, about 24 km from

Harare Harare ( ), formerly Salisbury, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of , a population of 1,849,600 as of the 2022 Zimbabwe census, 2022 census and an estimated 2,487,209 people in its metrop ...

, the capital of

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

. It began as an elementary school in 1898; the secondary school was opened in 1967. In 2017 the enrollment consisted of 420 full-time boarding students.

History

St Dominic's was founded by the Sisters of the Dominican Order in 1896, and is still run by them. Besides traditional school subjects, sewing, cooking, technology, and business courses are taught. Since 2001 the school has offered A-levels. In 2013, 89 girls from the school took O-levels and 93.26% of these passed, which ranked ninth in the country. The school was established as a sister school to St Ignatius College which is run by

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

priests. Together they produced a music album in 2017. The school is in the Chishawasha Mission parish of St. Ignatius Loyola. The school motto is '

Veritas In Roman mythology, Veritas (), meaning Truth, is the Goddess of Truth, a daughter of Saturn (mythology), Saturn (called Cronus by the Greeks, the Titan (mythology), Titan of Time, perhaps first by Plutarch) and the mother of Virtus (deity), Vi ...

', which is a Latin term for truth, and is the motto of the Dominican Sisters. The school badge has a black and white crest which has the cross and the school motto Veritas on the top.

Activities

Student clubs include

taekwondo Taekwondo (; ; ) is a Korean martial art and combat sport involving primarily kicking techniques and punching. "Taekwondo" can be translated as ''tae'' ("strike with foot"), ''kwon'' ("strike with hand"), and ''do'' ("the art or way"). In ad ...

karate (; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ), also , is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tī'' in Okinawan) un ...

, chess, drummies,

mbira Mbira ( ; ) are a family of musical instruments, traditional to the Shona people of Zimbabwe. They consist of a wooden board (often fitted with a resonator) with attached staggered metal Tine (structural), tines, played by holding the instrument ...

, traditional dance, LEO, drama, art, cheerleaders, and rosary group. Sports include basketball, volleyball, athletics, and soccer. In 2016 the girls won first place among 17 schools in a choral competition.

Notable alumni

* Petina Gappah, author *

Betty Makoni Hazviperi Betty Makoni is a Zimbabwean women's rights activist who in 1999 founded the Girl Child Network, a charity which supports Zimbabwe's young sex abuse victims. The organization has rescued more than 35,000 girls and provided mentoring to ...

, gender activist * Priscilla Misihairambwi-Mushonga, politician *

Zukiswa Wanner Zukiswa Wanner (born 1976) is a South African journalist, novelist and editor born in Zambia and now based in Kenya. Since 2006, when she published her first book, her novels have been shortlisted for awards including the South African Literar ...

, author * Divine Ndhlukula, Business woman

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Dominic's Chishawasha High schools in Zimbabwe Girls' schools in Zimbabwe Girls' high schools in Zimbabwe Boarding schools in Zimbabwe Private schools in Zimbabwe Catholic schools in Zimbabwe Catholic secondary schools in Zimbabwe Dominican schools in Zimbabwe Buildings and structures in Harare Province Educational institutions established in 1896 1896 establishments in the British Empire

History

Activities

Notable alumni

See also

References