St Stithians College

St Stithians College is _a Methodist Church school situated in Randburg, to the north of Johannesburg, South Africa. It owes its existence to the dreams and foresight of three men - Gilbert Tucker, a Johannesburg lawyer, and two of his clients, William Mountstephens and Albert Collins. two Cornish builders who met when they started their apprenticeships in Penyn.

They became firm friends, and decided to leave England and go to America. However, as there was no ship sailing the Atlantic for a week they came to South Africa. Tucker dreamed of creating a school modelled on his own alma mater, Kingswood College in Grahamstown. Mountstephens and Collins decided to leave the unassigned residue of their estates to fund a trust for the building of such a Methodist school.

The trust formally opened in April 1941 and at Mountstephens' suggestion it was named after Collins' birthplace, Stithian, a Cornish village. The name derives from the Irish Saint Etaine who fled to Cornwall in the 9th century to escape an outbreak of the plague in Ireland, and set up a Christian community there.

The trust purchased a piece of land in 1943, but nothing further was achieved until after the war. The decision to build was made in 1951. St Stithians opened at the start of 1953 and foundation scholars were enrolled at both Grade 8 and Grade 1 Ievels. The school thrived under Wally Mears, its first Headmaster, and has gone from strength to strength ever since.

Its fortunate position, in the path of major expansion for Johannesburg, has ensured a growing population and today the school caters for boys from Grade O to Post Matric.

In the early 90's the concept of a second foundation for St Stithians College was mooted. This was catalysed by the 40th Anniversay of the school in 1993. After investigating numerous options, the College Council in 1994 decided to go ahead with the concept of St Stithians Collegiate for Girls. The Girls' College opened in January 1995 at their site on the north side of the rugby fields, looking across the College and Preparatoy School towards Sandton in the distance. All grades were filled at the beginning of 1997.

During 2003 many activities are planned to celebrate the school's Jubilee year.

The 21O acres of grounds offer an environmental sanctuary, sports fields and housing for staff in a village atmosphere, as well as the school buildings themselves. It is a growing, vibrant and thriving community which offers a wide range of sporting activities, an academic curriculum and a cultural diversity which all contribute to ensuring that the pupils do receive the liberal education in a Christian tradition that the founders had dreamed of. No boy or girl can come to "Saints" and not know that he or she is a part of something special, that, in the words of the school song, "Here their ship once anchored and here its course was set".