St. John's College (Harare, Zimbabwe)
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St John's College is a private high school in Harare, Zimbabwe. The College is dedicated to the pursuit of excellence, seeing this as the achievement of the ultimate level to which an individual is able to contribute, academically, in sport, in extra curricular activities, in social awareness and in personal development. The aim is summed up in St John's maxim: "to be the best that I can be." By the mid-seventies the need for a new boys’ secondary school in Harare became apparent and a committee of the St John’s Board was set up to investigate and develop this concept. This was done with great energy and enthusiasm by a dedicated group of governors and in 1986 St John’s College opened its doors to its first intake.
Numbers grew steadily and in 1990 the first Upper Sixth pupils completed A Levels at the College. Now over five hundred students are enrolled at the College, which has established itself as a leader in Zimbabwean education.
The founder Headmaster, Mr E J (Ted) Sharples, a well known educationalist, was succeeded in 1990 by Mr Alec Dry, who was the Acting Head until the arrival of Mr Peter Kolbe, who returned to Zimbabwe after a number of years of teaching in Australia. Under his leadership, the College continued to grow and establish a strong ethos, putting it on track as a strong competitor in all spheres of education in the region. After his retirement in 1998, Mr Tony Eysele, was appointed, at the end of 2004 Tony left for the United Kingdom and was replaced by Mr. Andrew Vincent. Mr. Andrew Vincent is no stranger to St. John's having served as Senior Master in previous years. The St. John's community welcomes his appointment and looks to further strengthen its position as one of the leading independent schools in Zimbabwe and Southern Africa.
In 2002 the College was registered as the first International Baccalaureate Centre in Zimbabwe and the first girls, enrolled in the IB programme, were welcomed to the St John’s community.
[edit] Sport
The college offers various sports to students in an effort to further develop it's students as a whole. These include rugby union, cricket, hockey, water polo, tennis, swimming, volleyball, squash, basketball, triathlon, cross country, and athletics.
The college's rugby team, the "Rams", is consistently one of the best in the country, having had two undefeated local seasons, one in 2002 and recently in 2007. The College's first Olympian, triathlete Chris Felgate will be competing in this years Beijing Olympics.
It also offers a wide range of co-curricular cultural activities and societies, including ones such as Debate, Chess, Various Choirs (the Shona and the English choirs), First Aid, Geography, Guitar, Interact, Marimba, Orchestra, Art, Bridge, Public Speaking, Drama, Photography, Pipe Band, The Ram (Newsletter), Science, Toastmasters and Scripture Union.
