The school's scholarship system was proposed by Lewis Michell, a South African banker, who wanted to represent the British culture in the country and create Anglican church schools based on the English public school system. The school's staff were British and came from an Oxbridge background.[2] In 1901, in ill health, Cecil Rhodes was persuaded to establish a scholarship system at the school, where successful graduates could progress to Oxford or Cambridge.[3]
More than 800 old boys from the Diocesan College served in battle during World War I, with 112 killed in action. The school has a roll of honour commemorating those who took service.[4]
Structure
The Woodlands Pavilion, Bishops Museum & Archives, and the Mitre (OD Union Headquarters) viewed from School House facing towards UCT and Table Mountain.
The institution consists of three schools: the college for grades 8–12; the preparatory school for grades 3–7, and the pre-preparatory school for grades N-2. The college is on Campground Road at the main campus, and a small portion of this land is used for the pre-preparatory school. The Preparatory School is situated in Fir Road, Rondebosch close to the college campus.
The college has eight houses: Founders, School and White are the boarding houses, and Birt, Gray, Kidd, Mallett and Ogilvie are for day-scholars. Each house has about 70 to 100 students, and is governed by a house director and an assistant director. The houses are further broken down into tutor groups of about 15 to 20 boys (three or four boys per grade). Each house is equipped with a common room, kitchen, study room, matric room, quad, dining hall, and offices for the head of house and house directors. The preparatory school has four houses: Van der Bijl (for boarders and day-boys), Bramley, Brooke and Charlton.[5] The institution also has the Old Diocesan Union which has over 5,000 active members in 28 branches around the world.[6]
Bishops is renowned as one of the top schools in the country for its academics.[according to whom?] It has consistently ranked within the top 10 schools in the country for Matric,[7] and as one of the top schools in the Western Cape. It is one of four schools in the world to offer an annual Rhodes Scholarship to an ex-pupil to attend the University of Oxford, having been part of the initial Rhodes Scholarship experiment. The school now shares the scholarship with ex-pupils of Herschel School, St. Cyprian's School, and LEAP Schools.[8]
The original HA Molteno Library (which was initially funded by Harry Anderson Molteno as part of the 125th anniversary of Bishops) was designed by Maciek Miszewski and opened in 1977, before which the library had been housed in the Brooke Chapel. It was renovated in 2013.[9]
In 2018, a new trans-disciplinary curriculum was introduced for Grade 9 students called Big Ideas, focusing on sustainability and promoting critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity. The curriculum was based on the framework of the UN Sustainable Development Goals as a way for students to learn about global issues, and culminated in a project undertaken by all students that tackled an aspect of a global issue.[10]
The school enters boys annually into a number of competitions such as the UCT Mathematics Competition and the South African Mathematics Olympiad, and students can qualify for the provincial or national Mathematics teams. The school also participates in the Eskom Science Expo, with students progressing to fairs such as ISEF. Senior boys write the National Science Olympiads, and have achieved top 10 results in the country.[11]
Culture
Music is regularly featured in the school's curriculum. This includes daily chapel services and an annual Eisteddfod, which are designed to stimulate a musical interest in everyone.[12] The John Peake Music School underwent extensive renovations during 2002. It now houses two well-equipped teaching classrooms, five offices for the full-time staff, nine instrumental teaching rooms, a dedicated percussion studio, a staff room, two dedicated practice rooms, the Hyslop Concert Hall, a recording studio, a SoundHouse for music technology and two store rooms.[13]
In March 2000, five matric boarders were expelled having been found guilty of beating about twenty Grade 9 and Grade 10 students in a hazing 'raid'. Fourteen months prior two boys were also victims of hazing. The school has publicly committed to eradicating the culture of bullying at the school.[14]
In 2014, a teacher, Leonard Kaplan, who was accused of inappropriate conduct toward students. He was ultimately asked to resign from the school.[16][17] One report in the media stated "similar allegations had been made against Kaplan 19 years earlier but he had been allowed to stay on at the school".[18]
In 2019, history teacher and water polo coach Fiona Viotti immediately resigned after her alleged sexual relationship with a matric pupil was exposed.[19] Details later emerged that Viotti slept with 5 boys between 17 and 18 years old with the first incident dating back to 2015, but the investigation by the South African Council for Educators (SACE) was dropped in 2020 after the SACE spokesperson reported that none of the parents of these boys would allow them to speak to the SACE.[20]
Notable alumni
Stuart Abbott – former England rugby union international
↑ Melton, J. Gordon (2014). Faiths Across Time: 5,000 Years of Religious History [4 Volumes]: 5,000 Years of Religious History. ABC-CLIO. p.1475. ISBN978-1-610-69026-3.
↑ Kenny, Anthony (2001). The History of the Rhodes Trust, 1902-1999. Oxford University Press. p.257. ISBN978-0-199-20191-4.
↑ The Founder: Cecil Rhodes and the Pursuit of Power. Oxford University Press. 1988. p.668. ISBN978-0-199-87920-5.
↑ Buckner, Phillip; Francis, R. Douglas (2005). Rediscovering the British World. University of Calgary Press. p.293. ISBN978-1-552-38179-3.
Pietermaritzburg is the capital and second-largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa after Durban. It was named in 1838 and is currently governed by the Msunduzi Local Municipality. The town was named in Zulu after King Dingane's royal homestead uMgungundlovu. Pietermaritzburg is popularly called Maritzburg in Afrikaans and is often informally abbreviated to PMB. It is a regionally important industrial hub, producing aluminium, timber and dairy products, as well as the main economic hub of uMgungundlovu District Municipality. The public sector is a major employer in the city due to local, district and provincial government offices located here.
St. Andrew's College is an Anglican high school for boys located in Makhanda (Grahamstown), Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It was founded in 1855 by the Right Reverend John Armstrong, the first Bishop of Grahamstown. It is a semi-boarding school, with a number of day boys. St. Andrew's College caters to 480 pupils from around the globe. The school is also a member of the G30 Schools group and closely associated with its brother school, St. Andrew's Preparatory School, and its sister school the Diocesan School for Girls.
Hilton College, more commonly referred to as Hilton, is a South African private boarding school for boys located near the town of Hilton in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands and is situated on a 1,762 ha estate that includes a 550 ha wildlife reserve and the 150 ha school campus
Pretoria Boys High School is a public, tuition-charging, English-medium high school for boys situated in the suburb of Brooklyn in Pretoria in the Gauteng province of South Africa, founded in 1901 by Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner.
The South African College Schools is a public English medium primary and high education institution situated in Newlands – part of the Southern Suburbs region of Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Founded in 1829, it is the oldest continuously run school in South Africa.
St Stithians College is a private Methodist school situated in the suburb of Lyme Park in the border of Sandton and Randburg in the Gauteng province of South Africa. 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.
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 in 1897. Rondebosch is the only school in the Western Cape to have a Nobel Prize laureate, Allan M. Cormack in Physiology and Medicine.
Harold Geoffrey Owen Owen-Smith, known as Tuppy Smith, was a South African cricketer who played Test cricket for South Africa and a rugby player who played for and captained the England rugby union team. He was born in Rondebosch, Cape Town, and died at Rosebank, also in Cape Town.
Westerford High School is a public English medium co-educational high school situated in the suburbs of Rondebosch and Newlands in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa.
St Charles College, founded in 1875, is a Christian, independent boys college situated in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, catering for day boys from Grade 000 to Matric, with boarders from Grade 4 upwards.
Kingswood College is an independent, co-educational Methodist school in Makhanda,. Founded in 1894 by William C Muirhead, Clifford Witheridge Dold, William Burnett Stocks and Richard Restall Stocks, Kingswood caters for boys and girls from Grade 000 to Grade 13 from all over the world.
The Southern Suburbs are a group of Anglophone suburbs in Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa. This group includes, among others, Observatory, Mowbray, Pinelands, Rosebank, Rondebosch, Rondebosch East, Newlands, Claremont, Lansdowne, Kenilworth, Bishopscourt, Constantia, Wynberg, Ottery, Plumstead, Diep River, Bergvliet and Tokai. The area is also commonly referred to as the Cape Peninsula, often including the towns further South such as Fish Hoek.
Wynberg Boys' High School is a public English medium boys high school situated in the suburb of Wynberg of Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Founded in 1841, it is one of the best academic schools in Cape Town, it is believed by scholars and old boys to be the second oldest school in South Africa, however, there are several schools that were established at earlier dates as far back as 1738.
Paul Roos Gymnasium is a leading public dual medium high school for boys in the town of Stellenbosch in the Western Cape province of South Africa, which opened on 1 March 1866 as Stellenbosch Gymnasium. Described as South Africa’s Eton College by novelist Wilbur Smith, it is the 12th oldest school in the country, and its Old Boys have had an important, wide-ranging and notable impact on the history of South Africa.
Grey High School is a semi-private English-medium high school for boys situated in the suburb of Mill Park in Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is one of the top sporting schools in the country, with consistently strong academics and an extensive culture of musical performance, and is one of the oldest schools in South Africa.
St David's Marist is a private English medium Roman Catholic preparatory and high school for boys in Inanda, a suburb of Sandton, South Africa. The school was established in 1941 by the Marist Brothers.
Milnerton High School (MHS) is a public English medium co-educational high school for grades 8 to 12, situated in the Milnerton suburb of Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa.
Merchiston Preparatory School was founded in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa in 1892. It was founded by Miss Agnes Rowe and Miss Elizabeth Allan who were inspired by Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh, Scotland.
William Molteno Bisset was a South African international rugby union player.
Michaelhouse is a full boarding senior school for boys founded in 1896. It is located in the Balgowan valley in the Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
