Boarding houses: Rissik House Solomon House School house Dayboy houses: Abernethy House Arcadia House Armstrong House Hofmeyr House Matheson House Sunnyside House Town House
Rugby 1st XV - “Candies”, Hockey 1st XI - ”Red Socks”, Water Polo 1st VII - ”Chipmunks” , Soccer 1st XI - ”Stripes”, Cricket 1st XI - ”White Caps”, Basketball 1st V - “Timbers”
The school enrols over 1,500 pupils, including 300 boarders, from South Africa and beyond, managed by about 100 full-time staff.
Though the school itself was founded in 1901, its neoclassical red-brick style main school buildings date from 1909, maintaining provincial heritage site status. A new media centre, library and music centre was completed in 2016. The 40-hectare school grounds also include a second campus, 'Pollock Campus', as well as sporting and recreational facilities. Three boarding houses are located on the school grounds: Rissik House and Solomon House are part of the original school complex completed in 1909, while School House was built later in 1920.
The antecedent of the current school is the historic Staats Model School, built 1896-1897[1][2] by the government of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (later Transvaal) in central Pretoria. Alfred Fernández Harington was appointed English master on 1 October 1895. The school was not in operation for very long owing to the outbreak of the Second Boer War in 1899. At the time, the building served as a prison, where notably Winston Churchill was briefly imprisoned.[3]
With Pretoria under British control, it became apparent to Lord Milner, the Colonial Secretary at the time, that the educational facilities in the city needed attention as there was no secondary school for English-speaking pupils. The Staats Model School was duly refurbished. It was renamed Pretoria High School and became the first of the so-called Milner schools in the Transvaal, opening on 3 June 1901 with Charles Hope - who also founded Potchefstroom Boys High - as headmaster. Initial enrolment was 32 pupils, both boys and girls, which increased to 132 by August of that year. Hope left 15 months later, along with the girls, who were finally accommodated into the old building of the former Transvaal Republic's Staatsmeischjeskool (State Girls' School), which was renamed Pretoria High School for Girls.[citation needed]
Pretoria College (1903–1909)
Under the new headmaster, Harold Atkinson, enrolment increased to 100 boys by 1903. The name of the school was also changed to Pretoria College. Atkinson left at the end of 1905 and was succeeded by J F Acheson who stayed with the school until it moved from Skinner Street to its current site in 1909. Formal devolution between primary and high school pupils only occurred in 1905.[citation needed]
The new buildings and bilingualism (1910-1920)
Milner's intention was to create a stable educational infrastructure in the new colony's capital and duly set aside 200 hectares (490 acres) of ground to the south-east of central Pretoria for the construction of new academic institutions. The southernmost 60 hectares (150 acres), which included the Waterkloof Kop (English: Waterkloof Hill), was chosen as the new site for Pretoria Boys High School. The architect, Patrick Eagle, met the challenge by designing an edifice rivalling its larger contemporary, Sir Herbert Baker's Union Buildings. Eagle chose to site the main buildings on the ridge of the hill giving the school its well-known dramatic setting.[citation needed]
The new school buildings were officially opened in 1909 by Jan Smuts, then colonial secretary of the Transvaal. The main building of the school, sited on Waterkloof Hill, is at present close to University of Pretoria, sitting opposite to the distant Union Buildings on Meintjieskop.
One year later, the four colonies of the Transvaal, Orange River Colony, Natal and the Cape formed the Union of South Africa. Keen to forge unity between English and Dutch (Afrikaner) South Africans, Smuts' influence was evident when, on 6 April 1910, the school absorbed 100 boys and staff from the Dutch-medium Eendracht High School to form a dual-medium high school. The combined school was now named Pretoria High School for Boys - Pretoria Hogere school voor Jongens. Smuts would later send his own sons to the school.[citation needed]
Devolution and re-establishment (1920)
The dual-medium institution would last ten years. By 1920, the divide between English and Afrikaans speakers had become apparent nationwide; this was reflected in the need for a separate Afrikaans high school in Pretoria. Consequently, the Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool was formed immediately south of its parent, becoming the first Afrikaans-medium high school in the country, several years before Afrikaans attained official recognition as a language (and not a semi-creole of Dutch). The two schools enjoy close ties to this day, especially in rivalry in sporting events. PBHS would now be left in its present form, known as Pretoria Boys High School, an English-medium public school.[citation needed]
Headmasters since 1909
William Hofmeyr (1909–1935)
Daniel Matheson (1936–1949)
Noel Pollock (1950–1955)
Desmond Abernethy (1956–1973)
Malcolm Armstrong (1974–1989)
William E. Schroder (1990–2009)
Anthony Reeler (2010-June 2020)
Gregary Hassenkamp (July 2020-)
School
Coat of arms of the school, with motto: Latin: Virtute et Labore; English: "Through Courage and Labour".Main school building of Pretoria Boys High School, dating from 1909.
Heraldry
According to Illsley,[4] each component of the badge has a special meaning relating to the history and spirit of the school. The shield component of the badge is divided into four quadrants, with the book representing learning, the tools the wealth of the Transvaal through gold mining, the tree growth and the ox wagon the Transvaal. The background colours of the four quadrants were the colours of the first four houses when given permanent names, i.e. Town red, Solomon gold, Sunnyside black and Rissik green.
The school songs
The official school song, Tis Here We Learn To Live, was written in the 1930s by two Old Boys. The composer of the music, George Findlay, was a prominent Pretoria dermatologist. However, the school later adopted Forty Years On, originally the school song of Harrow School in London. It is this song that is sung at all school valedictions. The official school song was relegated to obscurity until it was revived as the school's rugby anthem.
The school's Music Centre is regarded as one of the best in the country.[by whom?] The following ensembles frequently perform at school functions and external events:
Sporting facilities include soccer, rugby union, cricket, Olympic standard athletics grounds, tennis, squash and basketball courts, a gymnasium, hockey fields, two swimming pools including one for waterpolo, an AstroTurf and a rock-climbing wall. There is also a man-made pine forest, an old shooting range which has been converted for the purpose of archery, an amphitheatre and an artificial lake, Loch Armstrong. The grounds form a protected bird sanctuary and are home to several different species of birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles.
Sports
The sports that are played at the school are:[citation needed]
The new school buildings were officially opened in 1909 by Jan Smuts, then colonial secretary of the Transvaal. The main building of the school, sited on Waterkloof Hill, is at present close to University of Pretoria, sitting opposite to the distant Union Buildings on Meintjieskop.
Houses
Pretoria Boys High School is made up of ten constituent houses, each with its own culture and identity. House assemblies are held weekly, and house prefects are appointed annually. Annual inter-house sports meetings take place in which every pupil is encouraged to participate. The inter-house swim meet (gala) is the most popular and well-attended of sport meetings.
Boarding houses
Solomon
Rissik
School
Day-boy houses
Abernethy
Arcadia
Armstrong
Hofmeyr
Matheson
Sunnyside
Town
The Old Boys Association
Pretoria Boys High School has a network of Old Boys, forming one of the largest alumni organisations in South Africa. Pretoria Boys High School Old Boys Association publishes an annual journal and review, The Phobian, which is distributed to Old Boys across the globe. Members of the association meet annually at the school for the annual dinner, and regular reunions of each matriculating group are organised 10, 20, 30 and 40 years on, echoing the refrain of the school song, Forty Years On.
Duduzane Zuma, son of former South African president, Jacob Zuma, and prominent acolyte of the Gupta family accused of corruption and the negligent death of a pedestrian.[19]
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.
The Transvaal Colony was the name used to refer to the Transvaal region during the period of direct British rule and military occupation between the end of the Second Boer War in 1902 when the South African Republic was dissolved, and the establishment of the Union of South Africa in 1910. The borders of the Transvaal Colony were larger than the defeated South African Republic. In 1910 the entire territory became the Transvaal Province of the Union of South Africa.
Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool, is a public Afrikaans medium high school for boys situated in the suburb of Elandspoort in Pretoria in the Gauteng province of South Africa. The school was founded in 1920 by Jan Joubert and reverend Chris Neethling.
Vereeniging is a city located in the south of Gauteng province, South Africa, situated where the Klip River empties into the northern loop of the Vaal River. It is also one of the constituent parts of the Vaal Triangle region and was formerly situated in the Transvaal province. Vereeniging is the third largest city in Gauteng. The name Vereeniging is the Dutch word meaning "association", although the spelling has since changed to vereniging, with a single e.
Pretorius is a common Afrikaans surname.
Pretoria High School for Girls, is a full-government, fee-charging, English-medium high school for girls located in Hatfield, Pretoria in the Gauteng province of South Africa. It is the sister school to Pretoria Boys High School.
King Edward VII School (KES) is a public English medium high school for boys situated within the city of Johannesburg in South Africa's Gauteng Province, one of the historically significant Milner Schools.
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 often mistakenly believed to be the oldest school in South Africa, but several schools within South Africa are older, and within the Cape Town area alone, the Durbanville and Simonstown schools are older.
Hoërskool Waterkloof is a public Afrikaans medium co-educational high school situated in the eastern suburbs of Pretoria in the Gauteng province of South Africa. It is one of the most expensive Afrikaans medium schools, the fee per child amounting to R 32,400 per annum. It has received the award for academic school of the year from the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) in 2004, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. In 2018, it received the award for best academic school in Gauteng province, the ninth time since 2009. It claims a 100% matric pass rate for 30 consecutive years.
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.
Potchefstroom High School for Boys is a public English medium high school for boys situated in Potchefstroom in the North West province of South Africa. It is one of the oldest schools in South Africa.
Pinetown Boys' High School is a public school for boys in Pinetown, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Parktown Boys' High School is a public English medium high school for boys situated in Parktown, a suburb of Johannesburg in the Gauteng province of South Africa. It is one of the oldest schools in Johannesburg. Parktown Boys' sister school is Parktown High School for Girls.
Helpmekaar Kollege is a private Afrikaans medium co-educational high school situated in Braamfontein, in the city of Johannesburg in the Gauteng province of South Africa.
Die Hoërskool Menlopark is a public Afrikaans medium co-educational high school situated in the suburb of Menlo Park in Pretoria in the Gauteng province of South Africa.
Die Hoërskool Wonderboom is a public Afrikaans medium co-educational high school situated in the suburb of Wonderboom South in Pretoria in the Gauteng province of South Africa, on the southern slopes of the Magaliesberg, The learners are known as the Wonnies
Hoërskool Voortrekker is a public Afrikaans medium co-educational high school situated in the municipality of Boksburg in the city of Ekurhuleni in the Gauteng province of South Africa. The academic school was established in 1920.
Hoërskool Monument is a parallel medium strictly Afrikaans as a first language high school situated in Krugersdorp, Gauteng, South Africa.
The cultural activities offered by the school include choir, debate, public speaking, Junior United Nations, Miss Monnas, orators, and revue. The school also offers sports facilities for the following sports: athletics, golf, hockey, cricket, boys and girls, cross country, netball, rugby, chess, swimming, tennis and jukskei.
Hoërskool Eldoraigne is a public Afrikaans medium co-educational high school situated in the suburb of Eldoraigne in Centurion in the Gauteng province of South Africa. It is one of the most academic schools in Gauteng and its learners are known as Eldo's.
Hoër Volkskool Potchefstroom, colloquially known as Potch Volkies, is a public high school located in Potchefstroom, North West, South Africa.
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