CLOSE CONNECTIONS
St Andrew's College has strong links to various educational institutions. Namely St Andrew's Preparatory School and the Diocesan School for Girls who form part of our family of three schools, Rhodes University, St Matthew's Mission, the Good Shepherd School and Western Province Preparatory School.
In 1874, the Diocesan School for Girls was founded adjacent to St Andrew’s and in 1885 St Andrew’s Preparatory School was established. St Andrew’s College, with the Diocesan School for Girls (DSG) and St Andrew’s Preparatory School form a unique family of schools catering for boys and girls from their pre-primary years to Post-Matric level, on neighbouring campuses.
The relationship between the schools gives boys and girls the best of both worlds, autonomy and separate emphases, and yet a largely co-educational environment for many academic, cultural and social activities. Adjoining campuses promote healthy and natural interaction between boys and girls. Pupils therefore can enjoy all the benefits of a co- educational environment and yet the special provisions of a single sex school. A highly significant change was the introduction in 1974 of academic collaboration with DSG from Grade 10 upwards.
Until 1904 St Andrew’s College fulfilled a dual function: that of school and a College in which young men were prepared for University examinations. In 1904 Rhodes University was born when five masters from St Andrew’s became founding professors of the university. A special bond still exists between St Andrew’s and Rhodes University.
In the same year that he established St Andrew's College, Bishop Armstrong founded St Matthew's Mission near Keiskammahoek in the Eastern Cape. From the earliest days, St Matthew's and St Andrew's were connected through individuals and families involved in both institutions. Since 2003 there has been rekindling of contacts and educational partnership between St Andrew's and St Matthew's. Teacher and pupil visits between the schools are regular and seeds are continuously been sown for future joint projects. Thanks to a generous benefaction by Tony Taberer, great-grandson of the missionary Charles Taberer, who worked at St Matthew's for 43 years, the Taberer Scholarships have been set up. These will fund a series of boys from the St Matthew's district to attend St Andrew's.
When Bishop Armstrong laid the foundation stone for College in 1855, another school linked to the Anglican Church existed in Grahamstown: the St George's Cathedral Grammar School in Huntley Street. For the first four years of St Andrew's existence, the boys walked to Huntley Street for classes. This early link was not sustained. Renamed the Good Shepherd School in 1916, and run for a long time by the sisters of the Community of the Resurrection, it eventually became a state school. In an historic turn of events a new educational partnership has been initiated between the two schools which promises to connect St Andrew's College to the town in new ways. New possibilities emerge for community engagement by College boys, for joint development in curricular and co-curricular activities, and for creating scholarships and bursaries to College for Good Shepherd pupils.
For almost a century Western Province Preparatory School based in Claremont, Cape Town has been affiliated to St Andrew's College.
The close relationship is maintained at all levels from the Council to the boys who regularly embark on tours to or receive touring groups from St Andrew's.
On 1st July 1959 St Andrew's College became the owners of Wetpups, as the school is affectionately known. One of the school's objectives is to act as a feeder school to St Andrew's and at the start of each year 'Old Wetpups' are welcomed to the St Andrew's College campus.
