| Pretoria Boys High School | |
|---|---|
 Badge of Pretoria Boys High School | |
| Location | |
 | |
251 Roper Street,Brooklyn , 0028 South Africa | |
| Coordinates | 25°45′38″S28°13′26″E / 25.76056°S 28.22389°E /-25.76056; 28.22389 |
| Information | |
| School type | All-boys public school |
| Motto | Latin:Virtute et Labore ("Virtute et Labore”) |
| Established | 3 June 1901; 124 years ago (1901-06-03) |
| Founder | Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner |
| Sister school | Pretoria High School for Girls |
| Headmaster | Greg Hassenkamp |
| Second master | Craig McBride |
| Staff | 100 full-time |
| Grades | Forms I-V (grades8–12) |
| Gender | Male |
| Age | 13 to 18 |
| Number of students | 1,500 |
| Language | English |
| Schedule | 07:40 - 14:15 |
| Hours in school day | 6 h 35 min |
| Campuses | 2 |
| Campus | Main Campus Pollock Campus |
| Campus type | Urban |
| Houses | Boarding houses: Rissik House Solomon House School house Dayboy houses: Abernethy House Arcadia House Armstrong House Hofmeyr House Matheson House Sunnyside House Town House |
| Colours | Red White Green |
| Slogan | The white and red live forever |
| Song | 'Tis Here We Learn To Live' |
| Nickname | Boys High |
| Accreditation | Gauteng Department of Education |
| Newspaper | The Phobian The Boys Highlights |
| Yearbook | The Pretorian |
| School fees | R91,800 (boarding) R76,900 (tuition) |
| Website | www |
 Main school building (1909) | |
Pretoria Boys High School (colloquially known as "Boys High") is a public,tuition-charging,English-mediumhigh school forboys situated in the suburb ofBrooklyn inPretoria in theGauteng province ofSouth Africa, founded in 1901 byAlfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner.
The school enrols over 1,500 pupils, including 300boarders, fromSouth Africa and beyond, managed by about 100 full-time staff.
Though the school itself was founded in 1901, itsneoclassical red-brick style main school buildings date from 1909, maintainingprovincial 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 andSolomon House are part of the original school complex completed in 1909, whileSchool House was built later in 1920.
Itssister school isPretoria High School for Girls, founded in 1902.
The antecedent of the current school is the historicStaats Model School, built 1896-1897[1][2] by the government of theZuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (laterTransvaal) 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 theSecond Boer War in 1899. At the time, the building served as a prison, where notablyWinston Churchill was briefly imprisoned.[3]
Theschool was part of thewhites-only education system, until the abolition ofapartheid.
With Pretoria under British control, it became apparent toLord Milner, theColonial Secretary at the time, that the educational facilities in the city needed attention as there was no secondary school for English-speaking pupils. TheStaats Model School was duly refurbished. It was renamedPretoria High School and became the first of the so-calledMilner schools in theTransvaal, opening on 3 June 1901 with Charles Hope - who also foundedPotchefstroom Boys High - asheadmaster. 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 formerTransvaal Republic'sStaatsmeischjeskool (State Girls' School), which was renamedPretoria High School for Girls.[citation needed]
Under the new headmaster, Harold Atkinson, enrolment increased to 100 boys by 1903. The name of the school was also changed toPretoria 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]
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 theWaterkloof 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, SirHerbert Baker'sUnion 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 byJan Smuts, then colonial secretary of theTransvaal. The main building of the school, sited on Waterkloof Hill, is at present close toUniversity of Pretoria, sitting opposite to the distantUnion Buildings onMeintjieskop.
One year later, the four colonies of theTransvaal,Orange River Colony,Natal and theCape formed theUnion 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 namedPretoria High School for Boys - Pretoria Hogere school voor Jongens. Smuts would later send his own sons to the school.[citation needed]
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, theAfrikaanse Hoër Seunskool was formed immediately south of its parent, becoming the first Afrikaans-medium high school in the country, several years beforeAfrikaans 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]
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 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 Pretoriadermatologist. However, the school later adoptedForty Years On, originally the school song ofHarrow School inLondon. It is this song that is sung at all schoolvaledictions. The official school song was relegated to obscurity until it was revived as the school's rugby anthem.
Cultural activities include a well-established musical tradition, as well as a plethora of clubs and societies. These includephotography,fantasy and historical war games,aeronautical,film,wildlife,drama,debating,chess,public speaking,creative writing andscience clubs. The schoolnewspaper "Boys Highlights" is published and distributed each term.[citation needed]
The school'sMusic 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 andbasketball courts, agymnasium,hockey fields, two swimming pools including one forwaterpolo, anAstroTurf and a rock-climbing wall. There is also a man-madepine forest, an oldshooting range which has been converted for the purpose of archery, anamphitheatre 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.
The school offers coaching and facilities for several sports on-campus, includingArchery,Athletics,Basketball,Chess,Cricket,Cross country,Cycling,Climbing,Fencing,Golf,Hockey,Mountain biking,Rowing,Rugby,Rugby sevens,Football (soccer),Squash,Swimming,Table tennis,Tennis, andWater polo.
The new school buildings were officially opened in 1909 byJan Smuts, then colonial secretary of theTransvaal. The main building of the school, sited on Waterkloof Hill, is at present close toUniversity of Pretoria, sitting opposite to the distantUnion Buildings onMeintjieskop.
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.
Pretoria Boys High School has a network ofOld 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 toOld 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.
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The school has produced twoNobel Prize laureates, eighteenRhodes scholars, eightSupreme Courtjudges, anarchbishop,[clarification needed] twoEnglish Premier League football players, seven nationalcricketers and fourSpringbok rugby players.[4]
