It’s a world out of the ordinary: from state-of-the-art sporting facilities to a jam-packed extra mural diary, the girls at Kingsmead College can count themselves amongst the luckiest in the land.
An independent school in Rosebank, Johannesburg, all the ingredients for an excellent education are on tap. Sporting facilities, for one example, include a gymnasium, a heated swimming pool, an Astroturf, squash courts and tennis courts.
Based on their motto, ‘Kingsmead girls become mature, confident young women, ready to succeed in a challenging world”, the school acknowledges that girls need the best possible education to better equip them to compete with their male counterparts in the competitive world of work.
Twelve matric subjects are on offer, with a wide range of languages available, including Spanish, German, Italian, Zulu and French. Information and communication technology is integrated into all subjects on offer.
According to educator and head of publicity Sandy Browne, an additional onus is also put on teaching learners entrepreneurial skills. ‘We teach them to not only think about getting a job, but creating jobs themselves,” says Browne.
Of course, there’s a price to pay, with yearly tuition fees starting from R17 400 for Grade 0 to R37 110 for Grade 12 (not including all the extras).
But the school ethos is not to encourage the ladies-in-the-making to take their privilege for granted: there are many programmes on the go designed to instil a sense of social responsibility.
The inreach projects are intended to provide opportunities for service staff working at the school. They include a literacy programme, a staff choir and staff computer course. The literacy programme is in line with accredited adult basic education and training levels and service staff learners are given one-on-one attention from the girls.
Paula Armstrong, the school’s head girl, says, ‘Probably the most important aspect of the literacy classes for me is that I realise how lucky and well off I am. It made me see the world through someone else’s eyes and gave me a whole new perspective on things. I’ve also made new friends with the staff and am much more aware of their presence around the school.”
Other programmes have helped service staff to acquire learner driving licences, participate in sewing and cooking lessons, attend gardening courses, obtain first aid certificates, learn computer basics and the choir has also participated in the school play.
Kingsmead’s outreach projects include computer lessons offered at the school to learners from Sekolo sa Borogo Bridging School. In conjunction with the South African Association of Women Graduates and Soroptomists International, they’re also involved in a project that ‘aims to give young women self-esteem and skills for their first entry into the world” through lectures and workshops covering a wide range of topics in schools around Soweto.
Another programme which serves to initiate these learners into the complex world beyond Kingsmead’s privileged walls is the ‘homeless shelter” programme in which they prepare meals at the Immaculata Centre in Rosebank for the homeless. They also run English reading projects in Soweto, which they believe gives them the opportunity to ‘enjoy firsthand contact” with township life.
Then there’s the little matter of getting to know the other half of the human equation: males. The school arranges social events where they invite neighbouring all-boys’ schools to ensure that members of the opposite sex don’t get mistaken for an alien species.
But Armstrong is one who appreciates the freedoms that go with being at a girls-only school: ‘It’s a lot easier because you don’t have to worry about what boys think of you – like when we talk about menstruation and other girl-things. You can speak freely in class because you know that everyone in the class knows and understands what you are talking about.” She agrees, though, that being in a girls-only school could have a negative side: ‘You see things from a feminist point of view; you don’t get to see the other side of things.”