The top South African private school with great outdoor activities and excellent results

St Andrew’s College in Grahamstown is one of the top ten performing schools in the country, but the school does not only value academic achievement. 

For 2024, matrics from St Andrews received an average of 1.90 distinctions. The class had a 100% pass rate and a 98% bachelor’s pass rate. This makes the school the tenth-best boys’ school in the country. 

While its academic programme is successful, one of the school’s central focuses is outdoor education, taking the boys away from technology and into the countryside of the Eastern Cape. 

St Andrew’s was founded by the first Anglican Bishop of Grahamstown, the Right Reverend John Armstrong, in 1855, on 15 August.

The Reverend’s vision for the school was to create an environment where young men would be formed in character as much as in intellect. 

The original school building, now Upper House,  is said to have been designed by the Reverend’s wife, who had a great interest in architecture. Today, the building is a boarding house found nearest to the school’s chapel. 

The school was not immediately a success. The number of admissions at the college fluctuated with the instability of the frontier region.

In 1882, the school had dropped to only 17 students. This number gradually improved to 270 students 20 years later. 

St Andrew’s sister school, the Diocesan School for Girls, was founded in 1874, and the St Andrew’s preparatory school followed about a decade later, in 1885.

Since the 1970s, St Andrew’s and the Diocesan School for Girls have had a co-educational model, engaging in classes and activities together, while maintaining their own identities and traditions as single-sex schools.

The school has a learner-to-teacher ratio of 10:1, far below the national average of 30:1. Each boy is allocated a dedicated tutor to monitor their progress. 

The school offers both the Independent Examination Board (IEB) curriculum as well as the Cambridge A levels.

However, the school’s leadership hopes that when past pupils look back on their time at St Andrews, they will remember the school for its outdoor education programmes.

Big plans for the future

“Nestled near some of South Africa’s most breathtaking beaches, wildlife reserves, and country districts, outdoor education is a cornerstone of the St Andrew’s experience,” the school said. 

The 11th headmaster of the school, Spencer Chapman, was a decorated war hero and explorer. During his tenure from 1956 to 1962, he instituted a focus on the outdoors which continues in the college today. 

The outdoor programme began as a military-style, 5-day walk for grades 9 to 11. Today, the outdoor education programme is much more intricate. 

The school has its own “bush camp” at Table Farm, a 15 km drive from the town. All the outdoor activities forbid the use of cellphones, iPods, TVs or any technological gadgets. 

When the students reach Grade 10, the St Andrew’s boys and pupils at the Girls’ school embark on what the school calls “the greatest adventure of their lives,” the Fish River Journey. 

The 21-day journey is a rite of passage. Students follow the Fish River from its source to the mouth, hiking, running, cycling and canoeing through the Eastern Cape’s natural splendour.

Looking ahead, the school has released its “vision 2055” this year, a five-year plan leading up to its 175th anniversary in 2030, and its bicentenary in 2055.

Building on its long history and foundation based on its boarding school, unique co-educational approach and focus on outdoor education, the school is planning an upgrade. 

According to the plan, a “large-scale revisioning” of the campus will be taking place over the coming years, including upgrading boarding houses and the creation of a new arts centre. 

The school plans to expand its scholarship programme to include increased allowances for children of past pupils and the surrounding farming community. 

“Bishop John Armstrong’s vision in 1855 – to form young men of character and purpose – remains our guiding light,” the school said. 

“Vision 2055 is a long-range commitment to ensuring this mission continues to flourish as we journey towards our bicentenary.”

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More photos from St Andrew’s College:

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