St Cyprian’s Day

Over the past few years, we have delighted in welcoming back alum as our special guest speakers to mark St Cyprian’s Day. The joy is often mutual as for many of our speakers, it has been several years since they’ve visited their alma mater, and as a school, we marvel at the vocations they’ve chosen, the contributions they’ve made and continue to make, and the wisdom they share with current community.

This year, we welcomed Nadine Moodie, Class of 2004 and currently Chief of Staff to the Deputy CEO of Vitality Global. Nadine sits on the board of both her alma maters, Stellenbosch University, and St Cyprian’s School. We’re so pleased to share some reflections and insights from Nadine’s address at St George’s Cathedral this year.

“… I was at St Cyprian’s for the duration of my high school education during the years 2000-2004. At the time, President Thabo Mbeki was leading South Africa, and our country was waking up to the African Renaissance off the back of his famous ‘I am an African speech’ which some of you may know. Our school was led by the legendary visionary and pioneer of holistic education, Tessa JP Fairbairn, and supported by the ever sophisticated, gracious and tough-as-nails, Jeanne Erasmus, and the caring, wise and loving Reverend Vivian Harber whom we affectionately called Mam’fundisi. Our school population was global in nature and resembled what I would describe as a mini United Nations as we had girls from all around the world. At the entrance of Katherine Buller Boarding House was a world map with pins celebrating the countries from where our school population hailed. I remember that there were several girls whose families had gone into exile and who chose to send their daughters to St Cyprian’s for a South African education, even while they continued living abroad, alongside the daughters of diplomats posted to South Africa. We had representation from the People’s Republic of China, South Korea, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and a strong contingent from across Africa. The DRC, Zambia, Tanzania, Namibia, and Angola were just some of the countries that our peers called home. Throw in our rich Round Square exchange progamme and we had Germany, America, the UK, India and Australia in our mix of a united nations space for girls! We were the true epitome of an African school on the knee of Table Mountain, making a world of difference. We were the very reflection of our school song’s lyrics, ‘From farm and village, mine and town, a rolling host comes trooping down.’

Our school had a rich history of community service programmes, everything from environmental agendas to assisting children’s homes and feeding babies. The importance of these service-oriented outreaches was that we had to account for them in either Chapel or the school hall and describe what we had learned. It was also during this period in our country when decisions around access to antiretroviral medications were being made, involving countless organisations like the Anglican Diocese, the Treatment Action Campaign, government, trade unions, healthcare professionals and pharmaceutical companies.