Headmaster's Welcome
I feel very privileged to be the second Head of St Peter’s Girls Prep School. My association with the school started in 2006, as a parent, when my daughter joined the school as one of the founding pupils. My son also joined the St Peter’s family a few years later.
My teaching career started at St Stithians College in 1991. Nine years later, I moved to St David’s as Deputy Headmaster. In 2006, I was appointed Principal of Dainfern Prep School and enjoyed 10 happy years there, before moving to St Peter’s. I, therefore, have had the privileged experience of teaching all boys, co-ed and all girls!
St Peter’s Girls Prep has a very definite purpose. That is for our girls to believe in themselves and to show grit and determination at all times! We are not a prissy girls’ school!
Everything we do is based on the foundation of the Anglican Church and our explicit teaching of responsibility, resilience, collaboration, compassion, respect and honour. We strive to teach our girls the skills required not only to cope, but to thrive in high school as well as in life after school.
Lessons learnt in Chapel, weekly Life Orientation lessons, small mentor groups and a personalised learning approach, to everything we do at St Peter’s Girls Prep, affords us the opportunity to partner with parents to develop character traits that will enable our girls to contribute to society in a meaningful way.
Our Student-Led Academic meetings, involving the girls and their parents, place the responsibility on the girls to learn, set goals and make the most of their time at school. This initiative has empowered our girls to develop their own strategies to manage the areas of school life they have found challenging and put strategies, plans and approaches in place to make progress.
If passion, does indeed lead to greatness, our girls need the motivation and enthusiasm necessary to give 100% to everything they do, from Grade 0 through to Grade 7, be it on the sports field, cultural activities or in their numerous academic pursuits. Our girls need to learn to take responsible risks and to understand what it means to be resilient. Therefore, at St Peter’s Girls Prep, you will find girls climbing trees, swinging on swings, playing on jungle gyms and taking off their shoes. Girls run if they are late and they aren’t afraid to be children. Children need the freedom to be children!
At St Peter’s Girls Prep, we teach critical skills for life. We intentionally teach what it means to be a leader. We believe that, as a girls’ school, we need to prepare our girls to take up their rightful place in society, as equals to their male counterparts!
Music is a vital aspect of education at St Peter’s and we have a vibrant and successful department. A large number of our girls learn to play a musical instrument and this forms the basis of our various ensembles and orchestra. There are five St Peter’s Girls Prep choirs! A Grade 2 Choir, the Middle School Cadet Choir and, in the senior years, the Chapel and Chamber Choirs and The Legacy singing group.
The importance of physical fitness, which translates into the life lessons that sport embodies, is vital at St Peter’s. Knowing the importance of sport, we encourage all the girls to swim, play netball and hockey and compete on the athletics track. Only tennis and cross-country are regarded as optional sports.
Other critical life skills taught at St Peter’s include: Art, Drama, Chess, Robotics, Coding, IT integration, Entrepreneurial skills and Public Speaking.
The core skills, in the curriculum, of: Mathematics, English, isiZulu, Afrikaans, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and Exploration and Learning, an inquiry-based subject, are taught to prepare our girls to excel in high school. As one of the recognised international Thinking Schools, the approach at St Peter’s is grounded in questioning, reflection and the development of a growth mindset. Many Thinking Skills strategies are introduced and integrated into the curriculum at many levels: Responsive Classroom, Ron Ritchard’s Thinking Routines, David Hyerle’s Thinking Maps and Carol Dweck’s philosophy on a Growth Mindset. The Thinking Skills Drive Team ensures that relevant and up-to-date thinking approaches and philosophies are implemented. The future demands the ability to think creatively and critically in order to solve problems.
Martin Luther King, Jr. said: ‘The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.’
Yet, despite the fact that we have beautiful, modern educational facilities, with a view over the distant Magaliesberg mountain range, none of this would be possible without an exceptionally dedicated and passionate teaching staff, which we most certainly have at St Peter’s Girls Prep School!
However, if you don’t believe me, I have asked our current parents for a few comments about our school:
NICK VAN DER MERWE (OLD BOY AND CURRENT PARENT)
As a St Peter’s Old Boy, I reflect on my school days at St Peter’s as the happiest of my school life for many reasons. In order to convince my wife (Melissa) that St Peter’s would be the best school for our two girls literally took only one visit to the school where she could see, hear and feel all. I am so pleased that my girls are now experiencing the same nurturing environment filled with opportunities for them to grow and excel in all the critical skills required, not only to cope, but also to succeed in high school and beyond. Thank you, St Peter’s, and to all those who have and continue to make it what it is today.
DALENE PATON
St Peter’s has afforded my daughter every opportunity to discover her passion and interests. It is a nurturing environment and one which seeks to grow every child. We feel very privileged to be part of the St Peter’s family.
LINDSAY DE VILLIERS
We’ve entrusted the care and education of our daughter to the Girls School for going on eight years. With a full day on campus, 5 days a week, we’ve never had a doubt about her wellbeing, which speaks volumes about the culture, philosophy, parent body, fellow girls, teachers, support staff and leadership.
NAFFIE ISRANI
As a foreigner living in South Africa, I never truly felt that I had laid down roots during my first six years living here – I could have packed up and left at a moment’s notice! Things all started to change when we became part of the St Peter’s family, first with my son at the Boys Prep, then my daughter (and soon to be followed by my third child!). For the first time, I had a sense of belonging in Africa and to a community and it's grown stronger every day.
I often comment that if my husband asked me to move back home, I don’t think I could do it . . . I just can’t imagine being able to find another school like St Peter’s anywhere in the world!
ZODWA PAKADE
We joined St Peter’s Girls Prep 6 years ago and my daughter Yamani has flourished in all areas, be it academically, in sport or in music. She has choices, shared authority, control and responsibility, aligning with the values we teach at home. The learning at St Peter’s is hands-on and experiential, with the teachers deliberate about creating good learning experiences in the classrooms. Parent participation enables us to become an integral part of the school, contributing outside-life realities into the DNA of St Peter’s. What a happy, fulfilling journey this has been.
If you’d like your daughter to be a part of this St Peter’s family, please click on the ‘Book a Tour’ button on this website.
Nibe nempelasonto emnandi!