Pietermaritzburg - Matrics at Pietermaritzburg Girls’ High School (GHS), the lone pupils present because of the Covid-19 lockdown, this week joined staff to form a 100 to mark the institution’s centenary.
Celebrations scheduled to mark this anniversary have been postponed to next year. However, an enthusiastic performance of the social media-driven “Jerusalema Dancing Challenge” on the field, in the school grounds and on video went out on the GHS Facebook page.
It would have been in stark contrast to performances during the time when the school was culturally linked to Britain and closed for a holiday on events such as royal visits.
Now one of the province’s largest girls’ high schools, with more than 1100 pupils, GHS began with 71 girls - 17 of them boarders - after much lobbying from mayor PH Taylor for a government school that offered boarding for girls, according to retired history teacher and author of the centenary book, Gareth Thomson.
In tandem with the country’s history, it was a school for whites only until 1991.
The Education Department bought Morningside, the residence of the former owners of the Natal Witness, Peter and Mary Davis, and the school started on August 4, 1920.
Hockey at the school made its debut on day two, and the school’s success at the sport has left lasting legacies. There is the Shelagh Bowness astro turf, named after a deputy principal, national hockey player and captain, umpire and selector, and hockey coach at GHS for many years, and the Audrey Laidlaw Pavilion named after an old girl who was national captain.
GHS is now one of 10 sport- focus schools in the province, a status given to institutions that help develop sporting talents for select previously disadvantaged pupils.
Another day-two event was the delivery of a piano, with founding headmistress Norma Burns taking delivery of it.
Today, a wind band and three choirs are part of the music department to which that piano gave birth.
Popular Durban classical singer Haylea Heyns is a product of that music department.
“I came to GHS from tiny Mtunzini where my primary school had only 200 kids, into this huge school with all these facilities. I did things I’d never heard of, like playing badminton and basketball. And then there was this huge music department where Helen Vermaak taught me piano and, as the choir mistress, also developed my voice.
“She realised that classical singing was right where my voice sat but it wasn’t cool back then. I was also very shy and I remember sneaking off to the music department from the boarding establishment.”
Heyns, who was Haylea Hounsom as a schoolgirl, was third generation at GHS.
Her mother, who schooled as Carol Conning, remembered the feared headmistress nicknamed McDuff, “who was jolly nice but had a stern exterior”, and whose dog, Cindy, that went everywhere with her, had long nails that sounded a warning of her approach.
“When we heard it, we’d all say ‘chips, chips, here comes McDuff’.”
Thomson, in his historical account, wrote of “McDuff”: “Miss Dorrice McDowall was daunted by very little and once arranged for the whole school to go on an excursion to Durban by train.
“Nothing escaped her attention and she regularly walked the corridors of the school with her dog, Cindy, to keep an eye on things. Her interests were broad and included music, drama, and sport.
“She introduced `frolics’ to GHS and she loved the Inter-Schools’ Gala where she could be seen sitting among the girls shouting and cheering as enthusiastically as any of them. Her wrath or disapproval could send shivers down anyone’s spine, but her compassion for those experiencing personal problems was just as great.”
Her mother - Heyns’ grandmother - Valerie Hall, caught a horse cart and a train to GHS from Cedara where her father worked in animal husbandry at the agricultural college.
GHS survived the Great Depression and World War II, coming out of the latter with two old girls being awarded the Order of the British Empire for cracking secret codes in Europe.
Another old girl, food gardening author and film-maker Jane Griffiths said GHS gave her a solid grounding.
“I received a good education from excellent teachers - despite my determination to be the constant joker and disruptor of the class. I also learned to believe in myself and my abilities,” she said.
“At GHS, as in the real world, competition was fierce and if you wanted to get anywhere you had to do and be your best. I learned about loyalty and lasting friendships, about working hard and about also having loads of fun, even if it did result in being kicked out of class at times. But most of all I learned to treat everyone as an equal and with respect.”
The boarding establishment had its traditions, some old, some new.
“Since 1986 the highlight on the social calendar of the boarding establishment has been the Spring Ball for the Grade 11s,” wrote Thomson.
“On the day each Grade 11 girl will have one or two ‘runners’ to assist her prepare and dress for the occasion and that evening all the girls, dressed in their ball-gowns, will gather at the top of the Red Stairs, while their partners, friends and family wait at the bottom. One by one the girls walk down the stairs to be met at the bottom by their partners. The couple then proceed through the applauding crowd of well-wishers and, accompanied by their parents make their way to an off-site venue.”
Then there’s witnessing the Victoria Cross ritual performed by boys from the brother school, Maritzburg College, down the road, who would run naked to the GHS boarding establishment, wake the girls up shouting their war cries and swim across the swimming pool in front before fleeing back to their hostels.
The Independent on Saturday