Diocesan College
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| Diocesan College (Bishops) |
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| Motto: Pro Fide Et Patria (For Faith and Fatherland) Bishops Inspires Individuals |
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| Established | 1849 |
| Type | All-Boys Private High School |
| Affiliation | Anglican, HMC, ISASA |
| Headmaster | Mr Grant Nupen |
| Founder | Bishop Robert Gray D.D. |
| Students | 750 |
| Grades | 8 - 12 (+ Post Matric) |
| Location | Camp Ground Road, Rondebosch, 7700 Cape Town, South Africa |
| Colours | Navy and light Blue |
| Dayboy Houses | Birt, Gray, Kidd, Mallett and Ogilvie |
| Boarding Houses | Founders, School, White |
| Fees | R 47 760 (tuition) R 35 640 (boarding) |
| Website | www.bishops.org.za |
Diocesan College, or Bishops as it is more commonly known, is a private, all-boys school situated in the leafy suburb of Rondebosch in Cape Town, South Africa.
The sprawling school grounds and unique architectural style make it one of the country's most beautiful places of study. Established in 1849, it is the fifth-oldest existing school on record in Africa. [1] Bishops has established a reputation that extends from some of the most famous sporting traditions in South Africa to producing matriculants with top marks in their final exams. It is also a member of the Elite Seven, a name given to a group of seven highly-affluent private schools in South Africa.
There is an affiliated preparatory school, the Diocesan College Preparatory School or DCPS, as well as a pre-preparatory school.
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[edit] History
The Diocesan College School was founded by Bishop Robert Gray, the first Anglican bishop of Cape Town , in 1849 at his house, Bishopscourt in Cape Town. [2] He founded two schools there, one of which was described as for the "Native children" and the other for "European children" (this being the current school). Living with schools was hard for the bishop and this led him to establish the schools elsewhere. The black children moved to accommodation near the city, where Zonnebloem College now is. This movement left the bishop short of money and so he bought an unproductive farm in Campground Road, Rondebosch, to which the school was moved and on which it remains.
The school did not prosper until Canon George Ogilvie arrived from prosperous St. George’s Grammar School, attached to St George’s Cathedral in the city. The canon brought some boys with him and the bishop’s school flourished. It then became the Diocesan College, but that too was a mouthful and it was generally referred to as the Bishop’s school – hence its nickname. Bishops is far more widely known by that name.
Originally, the school catered mainly for boarders, but since the 1970s it has had more day scholars than boarders. For some years it ran university classes, but in 1910 those classes left for the South African College, which was later to become the University of Cape Town.
The school had only three principals between 1919 and 1982 – Harold Birt, Hubert Kidd, the first layman to be the principal, and Anthony Mallett. Since then it has had three more. Mr Grant Nupen is the current headmaster.
The school runs in three sections – a pre-preparatory school, a preparatory school and the college. Since 1921, a post matric year has offered students the opportunity to write the University of Cambridge A-Level examinations. In recent times, girls have been admitted to this year. Boarding facilities are also available.
[edit] Academics
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Leavers write the Western Cape Education Department examinations; different from other comparable private schools whose pupils write the Independent Examinations Board (IEB) exams.
[edit] Scholarships
The pupil-teacher ratio is 1:15. [citation needed] Furthermore, the College offers scholarships to new students as well as an organ scholarship to a post matric student. These include:
- The Bishops Scholarship for all-rounders
- The Theron Scholarship for academic excellence
- Major and Minor Scholarships for academic excellence
- The Claude Brown Organ Scholarship is for boys or girls who are organists and who wish to enter the Post Matric year at the College. They are expected to contribute to the active musical life of the College chapels, and act as assistant organist to the Director of Music.
In addition to excellence scholarships, the school also awards bursaries. These include:
- Bursaries for the sons of Old Diocesans, so that needy students can attend the school
- Bursaries and remissions so that diversity targets can be met.
[edit] Rhodes Scholarship
Bishops is one of only four schools in the world to offer an annual Rhodes scholarship since 1901 to an ex-pupil to attend the University of Oxford. This is a result of the school having been part of the initial Rhodes Scholarship Experiment. When approached to help formulate the plan for the scholarship, Bishops was suggested by Mr Ernest Kilpin (later Sir Ernest, after he was knighted for services to the Union) as a suitable school for the experiment and Cecil Rhodes agreed. Like Bishops' founder Robert Gray, he mistrusted purely secular education.[3]
[edit] Uniform and Awards
There are two standard uniforms, being Number 1's and Khakis. Senior students are permitted to wear white shirts with their Khaki shorts. These can be worn with a choice of ties, jerseys, scarves and hats. These items are often awarded to a student, or may merely be a standard issue house or school tie.
[edit] Ties
The most common form of award is of a tie. A list of these (and other) ties follows:
- Bishops Tie (for all students)
- Bishops Society Tie (This tie is awarded to Old Boys, Diginitaries and all staff who are part of the Bishops Society
- Academic Tie (Awarded to a student that has achieved over 75% in 3 exam sessions)
- All Rounders Tie (A combination of Academic, Sport and Cultural points are used for the awarding of this tie)
- College Prefect Tie
- Distinction Tie (This tie is awarded very seldomly, only to those who have saved a life, represented their country or excelled greatly in their particular area)
- Ensemble Tie (This is awarded to boys who are in the School Ensemble)
- Exchange Ties (Like tour ties, boys who went on exchange are allowed to wear the tie of their exchange school on Fridays)
- Forum Tie (Members of the vote-in Forum Society are allowed to wear this light blue tie)
- House Ties (There are 8 of these ties (one for each house))
- Interact Tie (This Tie is awarded to boys who showed effort and dedication towards the Interact Committee)
- PR Tie (This tie is given to those boys who are part of Public Relations Group)
- Service Tie (This is awarded to a boy who has given many years of excellent service to a particular area of the school)
- SRF Tie (This tie can be worn by members of the Student Representative Forum)
- Ten Club Tie (This tie is awarded to the top 5 matrics academically-speaking and 5 matrics who are voted in)
- Tour Ties (Most school tours have a tie specially made for the tour, and members of this tour are allowed to wear their tie on Fridays)
- 150 Tie (this commemorative tie was produced in 1999 to mark the School's first century and a half)
- XIII Year Tie (This tie is given to those boys who have been at Bishops uninterrupted for 13 years, at the end of their matric year)
- OD Tie (Old Diocesans are allowed to wear this tie)
[edit] Colours
Excellence in sporting and cultural activities is recognised through the awarding of colours. From Chess and Drama to rugby union, Cricket, Squash, Sailing or any one of the other sports - there are many different awards that boys can get. Initially a boy is awarded half colours, which is a small embroiled badge to be sewn under the mitre on his blazer. This badge has on it the initials of the sporting or cultural activity the boy was awarded the colours for, e.g. S.C for Swimming Colours and Sq. C for Squash Colours.
If further excellence is achieved, the boy can then be awarded full colours. This is represented by another small badge sewn next to the previous badge, with the letters DC on it. Thus full colours for athletics would be DC AC. A boy awarded full colours is entitled to wear the Colours jersey in place of a normal school jersey. This jersey is white and has the dark and light blue of the cadet and academic jerseys in its collar.
[edit] Jerseys
The academic equivalent to full colours is the Academic jersey. This is a very prestigious award as you need to get over 85% in 3 exam sessions for students in Grade 10-12 and 90% for boys in Grade 8 & 9. At present there are only a handful of boys in the College who are entitled to wear this jersey. The jersey is a dark blue, with a white and light blue collar.
There was originally a light blue jersey, which had the colours of the Academic and Colours jerseys in its collar, to recognize excellence in Bishops' Cadet Corps. The Cadet Corps has since been disbanded, and thus with it the jersey. There is a possibility, currently under debate in the Students Representative Forum, that this jersey will be brought back to the school so as to allow the Colours jersey to be given only to boys with full sporting colours, and boys with full cultural colours to be potentially given the renamed Cultural jersey. This proposed plan raises questions about how important culture is for Bishops, and it has been argued that by doing the above there will then be three jerseys for each of the three tiers of school life at Bishops - this is supposed to show that all three areas are just as important, yet many arguing for equality emphasize that by keeping the white jersey for sport, the school is emphasizing a greater standing.
[edit] Sport
Sport is an integral part of any Bishops student's life, and is compulsory. Bishops was the first school in South Africa to start playing rugby. In the junior school, rugby union is compulsory - the school has been criticized for this. Sports offered include cricket, rowing, swimming, athletics, sailing, shooting, golf and tennis in the summer, and hockey, rugby, squash and cross country in the winter.
Over 20 sports matches are played on a weekly basis against schools in and around Cape Town. Many friendly rivalries have emerged, most notably against the nearby South African College School (SACS), and Rondebosch Boys' High School. The first rugby union, field hockey, rowing and cricket teams are the pride of the school, and when matches are played, the vast majority of the school turns out.
Started in 1892, the annual Bishops versus SACS rugby match is considered the oldest in Africa, if not in the world of school rugby, although the keenest rivalry is often considered to be against Rondebosch Boys' High School.
[edit] Culture
As a school to which considerable emphasis is given to culture and the arts, many events of this nature of regularly held - the most important of which is undoubtedly the annual Bishops Eisteddfod. This involves the eight houses competing against each other after the mid-year exams for the Eisteddfod Owls (a symbolic prize for winning a specific category of the Eisteddfod). There are prizes (owls) for the categories of Speech, Performance (i.e. drama and movement), Music, Visual Arts and Inter-House Singing. There is a a bigger owl for the overall winners, known as the Eisteddfod Owl.
Bishops also holds the Bishops Classic Pops every three years in the Cape Town City Hall. It has an active Music Department which is extremely well-equipped (including a computer sound laboratory and recording studio). The school is perhaps unique in South Africa by benefiting from two very fine organs (and a smaller chamber organ) in its chapels. In addition, the Music Department has launched three new CDs: Choral Vespers (a fine recording of the traditional evening service), Tour to Russia (a compilation of repertoire taken to Russia by the Choir and Brass earlier this year) and Composers of Bishops (a compilation of compositions by Bishops boys over the past four years).
The school has over twenty active societies which meet regularly during the year. The Debating Society, for example, has often won the Western Cape Provincial Debating tournament and has a history of producing national and international debaters. The World Individual Debating and Public Speaking Championships are to be held at Bishops in 2007.
[edit] Bishops Eisteddfod
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| Owls awarded: | Overall, Visual Arts, Music, Performance, Singing, Speech |
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| Website: | http://www.bishops.org.za/eisteddfod |
The Diocesan College Eisteddfod is probably the biggest inter-house event on the school calendar, it brings together all students in the school to compete in all cultural aspects of life at the school.
The Eisteddfod is characterized by the awarding of the small statues of Owls for each category of the Eisteddfod - the overall winning house is awarded the, larger, Eisteddfod Owl (pictured right).
[edit] Visual Arts
This category includes all drawing, painting, photography and digital works
[edit] Music
This category includes all musical items including solo and group singing - see Singing below for why these are not included in that category.
[edit] Performance (previously Drama)
The Performance is now named as 40% of the points come from the Movement (dance or mime) section, while the rest comes from the Plays.
[edit] Singing
There are three sections for the Singing Owl - Set Song, Chosen Song and Ensemble. For the set and chosen songs each house (as a whole) sings these songs. The Ensemble is sung by around 5 boys in each house and generally is not accompanied.
In the 2007 Eisteddfod, there will be a 5-man panel judging the singing (as opposed to 1).
[edit] Speech
This category includes the inter-house Debating as well as individual speech, reading, recitation and writing categories in English, Afrikaans, French and isiXhosa.
[edit] Previous Winners
- 2001: Kidd
- 2002: Birt
- 2003: Gray
- 2004: Ogilvie
- 2005: Gray
- 2006: Birt
[edit] Religion
Being an Anglican Christian school the school is centred around the Christian values with Chapel services held three times a week. Twice a term, College Evensong takes place. This represents a considerable adjustment in emphasis, since in the 1990s, services were held every day, with evensongs on Thursday and Sunday evenings.
[edit] Miscellaneous
The school slogan Inspires Individuals reflects the shool's commitment to this goal, which it seeks to achieve by providing, inter alia, up-to-date computer equipment, music and drama departments and a wide variety of subjects. Bishops participates in many outreach programs such as the LEAP program. These programs get the students involved in teaching other students from underprivileged schools skills such as computer-literacy and chess.
[edit] Memberships
- Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference
- Independent Schools Association of Southern Africa (ISASA)
- International Boys School Coalition
- Elite Seven
[edit] Old Diocesans
The Old Diocesans' (OD) Union is one of the most active alumni clubs in the country, with membership spanning the globe. Here is the OD Union Homepage. Details of reunions and how to receive the school magazine are available.
[edit] Notable alumni
- Stuart Abbott, Harlequin and England rugby footballer
- Raymond Ackerman (1948), founder of the Pick 'n Pay supermarket chain
- Selborne Boome, former Blue Bulls and Springbok rugby footballer
- Robbie Fleck, former Springbok rugby footballer
- Herschelle Gibbs (1992), South African cricketer
- John Hawks, bass guitarist for Freshlyground
- Adrian Kuiper, former South African cricketer
- Hal Luscombe, Harlequin and Welsh rugby footballer
- Vuyani Ngalwana, pension funds adjudicator
- Julian Ogilvie Thompson, former chairman of De Beers and Anglo American
- Gareth Penny, managing director of the De Beers group
- Gavin Relly, former chairman of Anglo American
- Mark Shuttleworth, entrepreneur, astronaut and Linux developer
- Vice Admiral Ronald Simpson-Anderson, chief of the South African Navy from 1994-2000
- P. K. van der Byl, Rhodesian politician
- Daniel Vickerman, Waratahs and former Australian rugby footballer
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ Africa Almanac: Africa's 50 Oldest Schools.
- ^ Robert Gray: First Bishop of Cape Town. Retrieved on 25 August 2006.
- ^ Donald McIntyre. A Century of Bishops. Cape Town and Johannesburg: Juta and co. Ltd.
