Day 20 - St Cyprian's Grammar School

Today's matches:

Holland 2 v. Brazil 1
Uruguay 1 (4) v. Ghana 1 (2)

St. Cyprian's Grammar School in Kimberley, is a co-educational English-medium private school for Grades 1-12, attached to the Cathedral. In its present form it opened its doors to 83 students on 21 January 2009.

The Parish of St Cyprian on the Diamond Fields played a crucial role in establishing Kimberley’s first schools from the early 1870s. A Mission School (later called Perseverence), a St Cyprian’s Grammar School, and a Girls’ School (later St Michael’s) were established. The Grammar School and St Michael's went into decline in the 1890s after government schools were opened. In the early twentieth century Perseverance became a training school for teachers and from it, at a later stage, would arise the Gore Browne Training School (named after first Diocesan Bishop Wilfred Gore Brown). Under apartheid education and the Group Areas Act they were taken over, and eventually closed.

In 2007 Archbishop Emeritus Njongonkulu Ndungane was making it a special project to bring historic church schools back to life as centres of educational excellence. St Cyprian's Cathedral in Kimberley, then celebrating the centenary of its cathedral building, was inspired by this vision and its own legacy to revive a role in education, and by June 2008 was taking active steps to bring St Cyprian's Grammar School to new birth.

Opening on 21 January 2009, in buildings within the cathedral precinct, the music and arts focus finds expression in weekly performing arts hours on Fridays and a monthly concert.
The school was dedicated on the 101st anniversary of the cathedral's dedication on 13 May 2009, when the Head of the School, a Head Student and Chaplain were licensed. The school produces a weekly news sheet called St Cyprian's Scroll.

The mission of the school is to prepare young people for life and leadership in a place which strives for quality in academic and musical and arts programmes, in a trusting and supportive, learner-centred, Christian environment that promotes self-discipline, social enrichment, motivation, and excellence in learning. The following values inform the vision

St Cyprian’s Grammar School strives to be:
- grounded in Christian values that affirm our faith in a creating and redeeming God.
- founded upon a commitment to learning, to justice, to individual achievement and to wholeness.
- a centre of excellence with a teaching/learning ethic reflected in hard work, intellectual rigour and an openness to ideas and debate.
- a school that values tolerance as a positive good, promoting a care ethic implicit in respect for others.
- a school that promotes programmes in social enrichment and leadership to equip students for fulfilling lives and service within and beyond the school.
- a school that engages the needs of our society, seeking to serve where it can in complementing public education, to build skills, social capital and reduce inequality wherever this is possible.
- defined by a richness of symbol, story and ceremony to promote these values.

A number of bursaries, to enable poorer families, from outlying parishes to send their children to the school have been funded through the diocesan link, particularly by Christ Church Cathedral, in Oxford. It is hoped that in the future some children from the school will visit the diocese to perform a series of concerts. These bursaries have been extremely gratefully received by the families of extremely talented children and young people.

During a recent visit to Kimberley, a group of us were treated to a fantastic performance by the children.

Please pray:

• For Head Teacher Anne Solomon who oversees the work of the school
• For the Governing Body as the school continues to develop and grow.
• For wisdom about admissions and the outworking of the school's values and ideaology
• For additional premises to enable more classrooms and 'space'
• For the provision of additional bursaries from money raised within the Oxford diocese to enable talented children from poorer backgrounds to be given the opportunity to attend the school
• For the relationship between Cathedral and School
• For all the teaching and administrative staff