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The coming of age celebrations in 1923 were tinged with sadness, as it was the year Miss Aitken chose to retire. One girl wrote that “it is impossible
group of girls at one of the best girls’
that she arrived in South Africa to find
to imagine the school which
schools in the country are holding
“school buildings, one or two members
[she] has made without its
daffodil-like flowers and singing the school
of staff, but no pupils or equipment”.
inspiring spirit”. Miss Aitken’s
hymn. Their motto is “We work in hope”
Undaunted, she prepared the school for
final address to the school
and they are celebrating their pioneering
its official opening on 10th October 1902,
included a brief history of
female founder. But it is not that well-
and it opened with 106 pupils. Inez du
Miss Buss’s foundation of
known favourite “To be a pilgrim” – it
Saar reminisced that “there was such a
NLCS. She encouraged the
is an English translation of the Dutch
shortage of equipment, of everything that
girls to remember the “years
Eendracht school song. The “daffodils”
was necessary to run a school properly!
of struggle and hard work”
are in fact irises and the motto has been
But the whole proceeding became an
suffered by women such
translated into Latin – Prosit spes labori.
adventure to both staff and pupils ... we
Miss Buss and Miss Beale
The school’s pioneering female founder is
grabbed our opportunities with both hands
that enabled girls to have an
not Frances Mary Buss, but Edith Aitken.
and determined to make good.”
education as good as boys’.
And the country whose league tables this
Her challenge to the girls is
school is topping? It’s sunny South Africa,
Despite initial difficulties, PHSG
as relevant to us today: “The
not rainy England...
flourished under the leadership of its
seed [of women’s education]
much-loved headmistress. Its first
was sown and watered, even
Welcome to Pretoria High School for
head girl, Daisy Antill Place, wrote
with tears; it has come up
Girls! Its similarities to NLCS are no
that she would “like to pay tribute to
and there is a harvest. The
coincidence – Edith Aitken, the school’s
Miss Aitken for the manner in which
question remains, are you fit
first headmistress, was an ONL and former
she overcame almost insuperable
to gather it in? ... All these
member of NLCS staff who modelled
obstacles ... it was not very long before
opportunities – what are you
PHSG on her former school. She wanted
she had got the whole establishment
going to do with them? ...
her school to be “conducted with the
organised and in working order”. Within
What are you going to make
earnest hope that here girls of different
two years, it received glowing reports
of it all? Are you going to use
races and different denominations might
from inspectors, who complimented
these wonderful lives of yours
meet in the commonwealth of letters
the high academic standards, excellent
or let them run to waste?”
which gave Erasmus and Shakespeare to
organisation and “the general tone and
the world; to acquire there, in accordance
orderly bearing of the pupils”.
with the ideals of Christian duty, the
If Edith Aitken could see Pretoria High School for Girls
healthy physique, the trained mind and the
The girls strove for academic success,
today, no doubt she would
disciplined character which should fit each
theatrical and musical performances were
be very proud indeed. The
to live worthily in that state of life unto
regularly held, a literary and debating
school continues to
which it should please God to call her.”
society was established early on and
flourish academically
there was a library and a museum.
and has just been
The ideal of inclusivity was, and is, strongly
Emphasis was placed on the girls’ physical
named third-best
upheld at NLCS – as one of the first ONLs
education: Miss Aitken “always encouraged
public school in the
said: “at North London ... no one cared
the girls to be as active as possible”
Gauteng Province,
where you lived or ... what your father was
and sports included tennis, swimming,
based on its final
– he might be a bishop or a rat-catcher”.
basketball and hockey. Some fifty years
school year results.
However, despite fundamental ideological
earlier, Miss Buss had been considered
Meanwhile, Miss Aitken’s
similarities, PHSG could be no identikit
radical in her attitude towards physical
ideals of integrity, inclusivity
Pretoria
copy of NLCS: the challenges faced by
education for girls, as even forward-thinking
and excellence continue to
PHSG in Boer War-ravaged Africa would be
friends such as Dorothea Beale, head of
be upheld.
very different to those of Victorian north
Cheltenham Ladies’ College, mocked the
London. Her obituary in The Times relates
spectacle of girls playing hockey.
Feature: Flying the NLCS flag abroad
In our second article about the influence of NLCS on schools abroad, Joelaine Fitch (2006) explores the impact of Edith Aitken (c.1879) and Frances Mary Buss on Pretoria School in South Africa.
High Sc hool 19 28
By Joelaine Fitch (2006)
ONLine magazine |
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