What's in the Name?

What's In a Name?

Naming a school facility is an important matter that deserves thoughtful attention. Personal prejudice or favouritism, political pressure, or temporary popularity should not influence choosing a name for a school, a portion of a school, or school grounds. Wherever possible, the wishes of the community, including parents and students, should be considered in naming school facilities, hence the recently disseminated survey around the proposal to change the name of the FW de Klerk Field. The St Peter's College Council is the school body that has the authority to approve the naming and renaming of buildings, structures, and facilities located on school property.

I believe that schools operate in a unique and special place, unlike many other organisations. There is a highly emotional connection between parents, students and schools - a school plays a crucial role in looking after their children, even playing a role in raising and shaping them into who they grow up to be. Not many corporate brands bear this huge responsibility like a school does. Parents and students generally have a very close and passionate connection with the school and genuinely care about what the name represents and how this is executed.

St Peter's College has always proudly been a leader in making tough and initially unpopular decisions, but all the decisions we have taken have always been in the best interests of our students and the sustainability of our College.

History of the College Names

I am now in my 20th year at St Peter's College; hence, I can only speak with conviction on my tenure as Deputy Headmaster and now in my 7th year as Headmaster. Nevertheless, when I started at St Peter's College in January 2003, the College was already established as a Co-Educational school, and certain areas had already been named. It is crucial to give historical context to why certain areas of the College have been named accordingly:

• When you enter the school, you enter via the Jimmy Hughes Gate. Jimmy Hughes was the project manager when the school was initially built.
• The Duncan Buchanan Entrance is named after the late Bishop of the Diocese of Johannesburg, who was instrumental in the Anglican Church's establishment of St Peter's College.
• The Laurie Dippenaar Hall was named after Lauritz "Laurie" Dippenaar, a South African businessman, investor, and banker who was the Chairman of FirstRand Financial Group. He is also well known for his philanthropic activities and runs a scholarship programme through his scholarship fund. Laurie Dippenaar made a considerable donation to the building of St Peter's College Hall at the time.
• The Hare Amphitheatre is named after the Hare family, who made a generous contribution towards the building of this facility. Both Rob and Martin Hare are St Peter's College alumni.
• The Tak Hiemstra Pavilion was named after a former Chairman of Council, a Director at Imperial Holdings. Tak was instrumental in ensuring that St Peter's College did not close its doors due to the precarious financial situation it found itself in during those early years and leading the school through the initial turbulent years.
• The College Houses: Bishop, Lourie and Oriole were named after the birds found in the vicinity of the College and was a suggestion made by a student of our Preparatory school, a College alumnus and current Life Sciences teacher, Mathew Kirkland.
• The St Peter's College sports fields: when I started at the College in January 2003, there were only two fields in existence, the current FW de Klerk and the Chief Albert Luthuli Fields. The English Block was then built, together with a soccer field now commonly known as the Bishop Desmond Tutu Astro. A decision was then taken and approved at the College.

Council to name the three sports fields after the College Houses, Bishop, Lourie and Oriole.

The English Block was then known as the Oriole Field (OF) Block.

When the College expanded its sports fields, a recommendation was made to the St Peter's College Council at the time to ensure that the names of our sports fields were more inclusive, diverse and reflective of the South African society at large. Hence after much deliberation and to also accommodate the name of the fourth field, the Council decided to dedicate the naming of our sports fields to South Africa's four Nobel Peace Prize Laureates: Albert Luthuli (Lourie), Desmond Tutu (Oriole), FW de Klerk (Bishop) and Nelson Mandela.

At our final Eucharist service on Wednesday, 02 December 2020, Bishop Steve Moreo presided over the naming, blessing and unveiling of three of the College facilities, which were named to honour the first dedicated service awards at St Peter's College by the following:

• The Nathaniel Ramuthaga Boardroom (17 Years)
• The Dario Doneda Drama Studio (20 Years)
• The Lovemore Ngobene Printing Room (20 Years)

Because names carry meaning and are an integral part of the College, St Peter's College seeks to understand as fully as possible the character of those whose names grace campus buildings.

In the 2020 Council Sub Committee "Report on Racism, Sexism, Prejudice, Bias and Discrimination" the naming of a sports field in honour of an apartheid leader, FW de Klerk, was seen as offensive and not in keeping with the ethos of the College.

The Sub Committee made the following recommendations

• The College Community should be consulted to assess:
• Whether the existing names of College facilities are representative of the College ethos;
• Whether the existing names of College facilities are representative of the College Community;
• And if either of these answers is negative, what alternatives should be considered to better achieve this?

Following these considerations, one of the proposals made by our student community was renaming the FW de Klerk Field, The Ubuntu Field, which is reflected in our student survey results thus far. Another proposal emanating from our School Council is to re-name all four fields as opposed to targeting only one. In this context, the recent survey was sent out to parents as we seek community input on the names of the other fields.