The 124-year-old school that started as a cigar factory
King Edward VIII School (KES) in Johannesburg began in temporary classrooms in an old cigar factory before becoming one of South Africa’s premier schools.
KES was founded in 1902 following the Second Anglo-Boer War, when the Transvaal area was in dire need of schools.
The school was initially named “The Government School for Boys” and was also known as the “Johannesburg High School for Boys”.
Many of Gauteng’s acclaimed schools were founded around this time, as the area began to expand rapidly, including Pretoria Boys High School and St. John’s.
In 1904, the school had outgrown its home in the cigar factory, prompting a move to a new location in Barnato Park, and it changed its name to Johannesburg College.
This new school building was originally a mansion designed for mining magnate Barney Barnato, but the premises did not last long.
The school would move for a third time in 1911 to Houghton Ridge, where the school remains today, after it outgrew its Barnato Park premises.
This move came shortly after the death of King Edward VII, and the school was given permission to change its name in honour of the royal.
Today, KES is a high school, teaching grades eight to twelve, with King Edward VII Primary School (KEPS) being closely attached.
Interestingly, the primary school was founded before KES as St. Augustine’s, which opened on the site of a Swiss Mission Church in Doornfontein.
While the school is known to have been operating in 1902, it is believed to have been founded earlier, but nobody knows when or by whom.
St. Augustine’s was founded separately from the high school, but became its official feeder school in 1906.
In 1909, St. Augustine moved to its current location alongside KES, after an agreement was reached for the primary school to be allocated part of the new grounds.
The primary school was also given permission to use the King Edward VII name at the time, placing KES in loco parentis of KEPS.
KES today
Since its humble beginnings in a Johannesburg cigar factory, KES has grown into a major name in South African education.
The school has over 1,000 pupils from grades eight to twelve, and boasts high levels of achievement across several sports.
SA school sports placed KES 16th in the country in its combined rugby rankings and 9th in its combined hockey rankings.
The school’s first teams are also ranked in the top five in the country for cricket and basketball, and in the top 20 for soccer and water polo.
Academically, the school also performs at a high level, with its most recent matric cohort achieving 309 distinctions among 231 candidates.
KES also had four matriculants achieve eight distinctions, with an overall pass rate of 98.27% and a bachelor’s pass rate of 83.12%.
The school offers boarding for all grades, although it was originally introduced in the 1920s for learners whose parents had been killed in the First World War.
The original boarding house, Buxton, was used from the 1920s until 1963, when it was demolished and rebuilt on the same site.
The new building, which kept the original name, is now used as the main boarding house for the school’s higher grades, accommodating 175 learners.
KES also has two other boarding houses, the School House for grade eights and the Donald Gordon House for grade nine learners.
The grade eight School House is the oldest of the three boarding establishments at KES, having been opened in 1937.
“Since 1937, School House has always prepared boarders for the most important developing years in their high school careers and has done this with pride,” KES said on its website.
Photos of King Edward VII School
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