Herschel Girls' School is a private

Private school

Private schools, also known as independent schools or nonstate schools, are not administered by local, state or national governments; thus, they retain the right to select their students and are funded in whole or in part by charging their students' tuition, rather than relying on mandatory...

, boarding

Boarding school

A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...

 and day school

Day school

A day school—as opposed to a boarding school—is an institution where children are given educational instruction during the day and after which children/teens return to their homes...

 for girls, located in Claremont

Claremont, Cape Town

Claremont is a suburb of Cape Town, South Africa. It is situated six miles south of the city, and is one of the so-called "Southern Suburbs". It is an important commercial and residential area, which is currently experiencing significant growth and development.-History:Until the arrival of Dutch...

, a southern suburb of Cape Town

Cape Town

Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...

, Western Cape

Western Cape

The Western Cape is a province in the south west of South Africa. The capital is Cape Town. Prior to 1994, the region that now forms the Western Cape was part of the much larger Cape Province...

, South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

.

History

Herschel was established in February 1922, on land which had been settled since the late 17th century. The property on which it stands belonged to V.A. Schonnberg who, when he sold the main estate in 1834 to Sir John Herschel

John Herschel

Sir John Frederick William Herschel, 1st Baronet KH, FRS ,was an English mathematician, astronomer, chemist, and experimental photographer/inventor, who in some years also did valuable botanical work...

, the astronomer

Astronomer

An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...

, retained this portion and named it after his illustrious neighbour.

In July 1921, the estate was bought by The English Church Schools Association, with the aid of a generous loan from the Hon. John Wiliam Jagger MP, to provide for the needs of the many girls living in the Southern Suburbs who wished to attend a private school. The first headmistress was Miss Morley Ralph Armitage, and the school opened on Wednesday, 1 February 1922, when the first seven boarders

Boarding school

A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...

 arrived.

On the following day, the rollcall was taken and the first school day began with prayer

Prayer

Prayer is a form of religious practice that seeks to activate a volitional rapport to a deity through deliberate practice. Prayer may be either individual or communal and take place in public or in private. It may involve the use of words or song. When language is used, prayer may take the form of...

s led by Archbishop

Archbishop

An archbishop is a bishop of higher rank, but not of higher sacramental order above that of the three orders of deacon, priest , and bishop...

 Carter. There were twenty-nine girls on the roll and seven staff members. The formal opening was held two weeks later, on Thursday, 16 February 1922. Dean Rolt conducted a brief service, John Xavier Merriman, the Minister of Education, performed the official opening and Jagger delivered the vote of thanks.

At this time the school comprised only what is now the Administration

Academic administration

An academic administration is a branch of university or college employees responsible for the maintenance and supervision of the institution and separate from the faculty or academics, although some personnel may have joint responsibilities...

 section, but it grew rapidly - the Mary Jagger Hall

Hall

In architecture, a hall is fundamentally a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age, a mead hall was such a simple building and was the residence of a lord and his retainers...

 (named after Jagger's wife) was added in 1926 and in 1930 extensions to the Hall - with the famous open sleeping balconies

Balcony

Balcony , a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade.-Types:The traditional Maltese balcony is a wooden closed balcony projecting from a...

 which were popular at the time, though not with the unfortunate girls who endured them until 1971. Sports facilities were built - the first tennis court

Tennis court

A tennis court is where the game of tennis is played. It is a firm rectangular surface with a low net stretched across the center. The same surface can be used to play both doubles and singles.-Dimensions:...

 in December 1922, though the school did not get its own swimming pool

Swimming pool

A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, or simply a pool, is a container filled with water intended for swimming or water-based recreation. There are many standard sizes; the largest is the Olympic-size swimming pool...

 until 1939.

The Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

 years were difficult for Herschel and numbers dropped. Miss Ralph resigned in 1933 and was replaced by Miss Harriet Robinson, who imposed higher academic standards and insisted on the building of a new wing to house the kindergarten

Kindergarten

A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...

 - in what is now the staffroom. In 1939/40 the Baxter library

Library

In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...

 was added. This is now the chapel

Chapel

A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...

. It was Miss Robinson who gave Herschel its motto Ad Dei Gloriam and who designed the new badge with the symbol for Uranus

Uranus

Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It has the third-largest planetary radius and fourth-largest planetary mass in the Solar System. It is named after the ancient Greek deity of the sky Uranus , the father of Cronus and grandfather of Zeus...

 as a reminder of the link with the Herschel family.

When Miss Robinson resigned in 1944, Miss Barbara Elcome was appointed, but her reign was short, for she was married in 1947 and left the school. She did, however, secure the addition of the crypt chapel - now the Matric common room

Common room

The phrase common room is used especially in British and Canadian English to describe a type of shared lounge, most often found in dormitories, at universities, colleges, military bases, hospitals, rest homes, hostels, and even minimum-security prisons. It is generally connected to several...

.

Miss Hilda Caroline McLean was Herschel's longest-serving Head - from 1947 to 1962. During this time, the kindergarten moved up to its own premises at 'The Hill', and the school's academic standards were given high priority. She left her successor, Mrs Mavis Kittow, a school to be proud of. In 1967 two new Science

Science

Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...

 laboratories

Laboratory

A laboratory is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. The title of laboratory is also used for certain other facilities where the processes or equipment used are similar to those in scientific laboratories...

 were built, while Mrs Kittow's love of the Arts led to many cultural innovations, such as the Holiday Reading required by the English Department over the June holidays.

When Mrs Kittow left in 1970, Dr Barbara Silberbauer was appointed and presided over the celebrations for the Golden Jubilee

Golden Jubilee

A Golden Jubilee is a celebration held to mark a 50th anniversary.- In Thailand :King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world's longest-reigning monarch, celebrated his Golden Jubilee on 9 June 1996.- In the Commonwealth Realms :...

 in 1972, as well as the building of two large new sections- the Arts Block 1977 and a classroom block in 1978. Her successor, Miss Pamela Geldard (1979 to 1985) felt very strongly that privileged girls should involve themselves in community

Community

The term community has two distinct meanings:*a group of interacting people, possibly living in close proximity, and often refers to a group that shares some common values, and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household...

 projects, and established a strong ethos of caring for others.

During Mrs Pamela Duff's headship (1986 to 1997), the school grew phenomenally. A new theatre

Theatre

Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...

 was added in 1988, a Resource Centre and classroom

Classroom

A classroom is a room in which teaching or learning activities can take place. Classrooms are found in educational institutions of all kinds, including public and private schools, corporations, and religious and humanitarian organizations...

 block in 1992 and a Sports Centre in 1994.

Mrs van Zyl in her seven years as headmistress has continued with the building and modernising process. These include a new Music

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

 Centre and Media (Library, Computer Lab and Project Room) Centre at the Preparatory School

Preparatory school (UK)

In English language usage in the former British Empire, the present-day Commonwealth, a preparatory school is an independent school preparing children up to the age of eleven or thirteen for entry into fee-paying, secondary independent schools, some of which are known as public schools...

; an enlarged Pre-Preparatory School catering for girls in a Pre-Nursery

Nursery school

A nursery school is a school for children between the ages of one and five years, staffed by suitably qualified and other professionals who encourage and supervise educational play rather than simply providing childcare...

class; a refurbished Mary Jagger Hall and both schools are now on a combined network. (Taken from the Herschel website)

2008 saw the arrival or Mr Bruce Probyn, BSc(UCT), BEd(UCT) as Headmaster of Herschel. Mr Probyn was formally Headmaster of DSG in Grahamstown and the Wynberg Boys' School nearby.

Academics

WCED Results	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2009
Number of candidates	72	62	71	86	79	85	88	84	103	74	91
Number of failures	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
University endorsement (%)	20.2	93.5	100	98.8	98.7	98.8	97.7	98.8	99	97.3	100
A aggregates (%)	31.9	40.3	51	32.6	44.3	59	73.9	48.8	61.2	52.7	39.6
Subject distinctions	106	92	152	156	151	222	283	208	307	189	296