The 171-year-old private school which produced 12 Springboks, including Nick Mallett

St Andrew’s College in Makhanda, formerly Grahamstown, was the fifth-best-performing all-boys school in South Africa, with matrics earning an average of 2.3 distinctions in 2025.

Founded in 1855, St Andrews is a full-time boarding school with Scottish and Anglican roots, regarded as one of the top institutions in the country for its academic and sporting excellence.

The school was founded by the first Anglican Bishop of Grahamstown, Reverend John Armstrong, in the province that would become the Eastern Cape.

Armstrong had a vision for the school to create an environment where young men could develop upstanding character alongside intellectual enrichment.

Prior to the laying of the foundation stone at St Andrews, the area already hosted a grammar school, Good Shepherd School, founded by Bishop Robert Gray.

The headmaster of the grammar school, Reverend F. Bankes, would also be appointed as the first principal of St Andrew’s College. Eventually, the two schools were merged.

Armstrong dedicated the school to St Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland and fishermen. A chapel dedicated to the saint remains in the heart of the school to this day.

Despite its modern connotations for excellence, the school struggled early on. In 1882, only 17 learners attended the school. This number gradually improved, and saw 270 students 20 years later.

In 1903, British mining magnate Cecil John Rhodes selected four schools in South Africa that would be granted the direct authority to select a Rhodes Scholar to Oxford University each year.

St Andrews was one of these schools, and to this day it enjoys scholarship opportunities with the prestigious UK university, alongside other schools in the district.

The school was also significant in the development of Rhodes University. Throughout the 19th century, St Andrews established a “college department” to prepare older boys for degree examinations.

These examinations would take place at the country’s first university, the University of the Cape of Good Hope, now known as the University of South Africa (Unisa).

Four prominent academic masters from St Andrews College, namely Arthur Matthews, George Cory, Stanley Kidd, and G. F. Dingemans, would be the founding professors of Rhodes University.

“At the beginning of 1905, Rhodes moved from cramped quarters at St Andrew’s College to the Drostdy building, which it bought from the British Government,” Rhodes University explained in a blog post.

The school that produced 12 Springbok rugby players

St Andrew’s College became one of the earliest independent schools in South Africa to admit students of colour when it launched a “Native Branch” around 1859.

The branch educated sons of black missionaries, local leaders, and chiefs, teaching skills such as journalism and classical studies.

Some of these early students of colour became influential intellectuals, including editors of Abantu-Batho, the original newspaper of the African National Congress (ANC).

In modern times, the school continues its tradition of academic preparation for university by offering both IEB exams and Cambridge International A-Levels.

This allowed learners to prepare for both South African and international universities simultaneously. It maintains a near-100% pass rate and a close-to-98% bachelor’s-degree entrance rate.

St Andrews is also renowned for its sports and outdoor achievements, including having produced 12 Springbok rugby players throughout its history, including celebrated player and coach Nick Mallett.

Ryan Kankowski was the most recent alumnus to represent South Africa in international rugby. However, he never had the opportunity to play in a rugby World Cup.

Other notable alumni include Jacko Maree, the long-serving former CEO of Standard Bank Group, Olympic Gold Medalist Bevil Rudd and Peter van der Merwe, former captain of the Proteas Cricket Team.

It was also the school of the South African composer Bongani Ndodana-Breen and renowned actor Ian Roberts.

In 2026, the school was listed as the fourth most expensive school in South Africa, with fees of up to R409,815 per annum for a single learner.

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St Andrew’s College Photos

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