St Martin’s School legacy to continue
St Martin’s announced today, Wednesday, July 20, that it has renewed itself with a leaner model, streamlined a bulging subject offering and will be providing its high school students with a modern, eco-friendly modular classroom environment, all housed on one campus. This new campus will be located at St Martin’s Preparatory School campus which then alleviates the issue of the high school’s location in an area of urban decay.
Earlier this year, the St Martin’s School’s Governing Council, while exploring options for sustainability, felt that it was necessary for the school to enter a Section 189a consultative process to allow and enable engagement with staff and parents in order to explore options that had not already been tabled. This consultative process has assisted in working towards ensuring the school remains sustainable for the foreseeable future. Those who have been through a Section 189 process will understand the anxiety, anger and frustration that it causes staff, the school leadership, students and parents.
These emotions notwithstanding, the community rallied together and developed a model that will see the school being remodeled into a more sustainable institution for years to come and continue its great South African legacy.
Thomas Hagspihl, Headmaster said “St Martin’s School is a school with a great legacy. Many prominent South Africans, such as Hugh Masekela, Oliver Tambo, Es’kia Mpahlele, Fikile Bam, to name a few, were schooled at St Martin’s, formerly St Peter’s School, in Rosettenville. The early years of St Martin’s school had its roots as far back as 1922, and these roots are closely linked to the history of Rosettenville in the south of Johannesburg and for many years has been the beacon of education in the area. The Anglican church established St Peter’s School for young black men and in these early years the school was known as the “Black Eton”.
St Peter’s closed in 1956, as the school leadership of the time would not subscribe to the apartheid government’s policies. The school was reopened as St Martin’s School in 1958.”
“These changes to St Martin’s will ensure that this great institution continues far into the future for generations of South African children to be educated in a modern space that still continues to uphold the legacy of those who once walked its original corridors”.
Thomas Hagspihl
St Martin’s School Headmaster
011 435 0735