The 165-year-old girl school with a 100% matric pass rate and 3.54 distinctions per student

The oldest school for girls in South Africa, Rhenish Girls’ School, has recently been nominated as one of the top-performing public schools in the country. 

The first Rhenish Girls’ School was established in Stellenbosch in 1860. The founder, Reverend P.D. Lückhoff, was head of the Rhenish Mission Church. 

Rhenish missionaries originated in Germany. The Protestant missionaries were sent to several countries around the world, and became particularly influential in Southern Africa. 

The missionaries began arriving in the Stellenbosch area in the 1830s. The school was built in 1860 to provide schooling for the daughters of the Rhenish missionaries.

Before the school opened, missionaries would have had to send their daughters to school in Germany to be educated.

The school began as a humble cottage in Alexander Street, with a small group of eight girls. The school grew quickly, though, and by 1866 it had 47 girls enrolled. 

From its opening, the school served the wider Stellenbosch community, not only the missionaries’ daughters. 

In 1901, the Rhenish Institute was taken over by the government and became a state school. The School’s badge was then designed in 1904. 

The school was split into a high school and a primary school in 1958. The high school moved to its present premises in Krigeville, and later, the primary school moved to its current position across the road from the high school.

The school’s old premises are now the PJ Olivier Art Centre and the regional offices of the Educational Department. 

The Art Centre now offers Rhenishers a place for their creativity, teaching a variety of art techniques. Learners can choose both Visual Art and Design as a subject. 

Rhenish was one of the first government schools to open its classrooms to all races in 1991.

Former Principal of the school, Helmien Slabber, said that the school has an indominable spirit that has seen it through South Africa’s most tumultuous eras. 

160 years of quality girls’ education

“Through the Anglo-Boer War, two World Wars and a global pandemic, we have been tested. But through adversity, on each occasion, a new, stronger and more resilient Rhenisher rises,” she said. 

The school survived the depression of the 1890s, when many other schools in the area were forced to shut down. Reverend Jacob Weber played a big role in this, keeping the school open and self-supporting through the difficult time. 

The school credits its progressive approach to e-learning to its efficient handling of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown of 2020, when many schools were left crippled when learning had to be moved to digital platforms.

Every 1 May, the school holds a huge birthday party to celebrate its anniversary. In 2026, the school will celebrate its 166th birthday. 

Rhenish teaches the CAPS curriculum. In 2024, the school reported excellent matric results, with a 100% pass rate and a 99.3% Bachelor’s Pass rate. 

The 2024 class achieved 520 distinctions. This is equal to 3.54 distinctions per student. 

Rhenish Girls’ High School offers an array of extracurricular activities. Sports available include swimming, water polo, athletics, tennis, hockey, netball, soccer and cross country. 

For cultural activities, Rhenish Girls can join the school’s orchestra, choir, marimba band, drumline, Christian society, Islamic society, pride society, debating club, chess club, drama club, media club, first aid club, environmental club, or tech team. 

At South Africa’s National Teaching Awards in September 2025, Rhenish Girls’ High School won second prize for the Top Performing Public Ordinary School in Quintile 5.

This is the second consecutive year that the school has been featured in the top three schools for this prize. 

Rhenish’s current Principal Tracey Megom, attributed the school’s win to the incredible and consistent hard work of its teachers and learners. “I am incredibly proud of our team”, she said. 

---

More photos from Rhenish Girls’ high School:

---