St. Alban's College

St Alban's College

Custos Veritatis
meaning "Guardian Of The Truth"
Location
St Alban's College
Pretoria, Gauteng
South Africa
Coordinates 25°46′25″S 28°17′03″E / 25.77361°S 28.28417°E / -25.77361; 28.28417
Information
Type Private, Boarding/Day Boys
Patron saint(s) St. Alban
Established 1963
Locale Lynnwood Glen (Suburban)
Headmaster Thomas Hamilton
Exam board IEB
Grades Form I – V / Grade 8 – 12
Number of students 580 boys
School colour(s) Navy blue, Silver and Grey             
Fees R165,462 (boarding), R95,256 (day boy) p.a.
Website www.stalbanscollege.com

St Alban's College is a private boarding school/day school for boys situated in the suburb of Lynnwood Glen in Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa. It was founded in 1963 by Anton Murray.

About

St Alban's College is a young Anglican boys' school. It came into existence on 1 February 1963 with a total strength of 37 boys and 3 masters. It now has 580 boys and 43 teachers plus an array of support staff.

The founder-Headmaster, Anton Murray, was a South African cricketer who sought to maintain the best traditions of liberal education. So an emphasis on well-rounded development prevails, and games such as cricket, rugby and hockey have always figured prominently in its history.

St Alban's has pioneered the way in important areas: opening its doors to boys of colour before it was legal to do so, and providing educational upliftment programmes for disadvantaged members of the community.

Mr Murray devoted twenty years of his life to the school. Mr Paul Marsh was headmaster during a transitional phase lasting for four years. Mr Ronnie Todd introduced many radical changes during his ten years as headmaster, and following his position as headmaster went on to open St Peter's College. The fourth headmaster was Mr Grant Nupen, who was one of those 37 pioneering Foundation Scholars in 1963 and went on to become the first Head Boy, a distinction he held for three years.

Under the direction of the current headmaster, Tom Hamilton, the school has become well-established. The school celebrated its 50th Birthday in 2013.

School Hymn

The school hymn is Laud the grace of God victorious, the office hymn for the feast of St. Alban. Normally, the school only sings verses 1, 4 and 5. Verses 2 and 3 are only sung at certain events.

Headmasters

Started Finished Name
1963 1981 Anton Murray
1982 1986 Paul Marsh
1987 1997 Ronnie Todd
1997 2001 Grant Nupen
2001 current Todd Hamilton

Academics

St Alban's College ranks top ten students of each grade every term; in addition, House Positive is equal to an average of 65% or above and School Positive is from 75%. Since 2008 students at St Alban's College undertake examinations set by the Independent Examination Board of South Africa.

Sport

Sports offered include Rugby and Hockey (the main sports in the winter time), Cricket, Swimming, Rowing, Basketball and Water Polo (in summer). Other sports are soccer, tennis, squash, athletics and cross-country running (Also known as bounds).

Culture

Music

Front Gate of St Alban's College

St Albans College has a music department that is well known across South Africa. The St Alban's College chapel choir attended the World Choir Games for the first time in the school's history in 2008, and is highly regarded as one of the top school choirs in South Africa. In 2010, the choir completed a tour of the United States, where it toured the East Coast and performed at numerous places including the Washington National Cathedral in Washington D.C.. Furthermore, the school has an elite singing group, the Barbershop Boys, comprising top singers selected from the chapel choir. The Barbershop Boys is a small band of singers, usually around 15-20 boys, who sing a cappella and often arrange their own pieces.

The Barbershop Boys pioneered the schools "Music Tours" with their extremely successful tour to Argentina in 2004. Under the leadership of the then, Master-in-Charge of music, Mark Stenhouse. The touring group was treated as a professional music group and at times had to have police escorts between the different cities and towns of Argentina. Many of the boys that were part of that group have subsequently gone on post-school, to follow careers closely related to the music industry and the years of 2004 - 2006 are fondly remembered as the "Golden Years" of the Barbershop Boys by the boys who had been in that touring group of 2004.

The school also has a Big Band, and new, smaller groups are constantly being created by groups of musicians. The school has an auditorium on campus where it holds many annual concerts.

Notable Old Boys

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, February 14, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.