{"id":818804,"date":"2025-04-01T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=818804"},"modified":"2025-04-01T15:33:15","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T13:33:15","slug":"south-africas-top-boys-school-with-over-three-distinctions-per-matriculant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/818804\/south-africas-top-boys-school-with-over-three-distinctions-per-matriculant\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa’s top boys’ school with over three distinctions per matriculant"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

St John\u2019s College in Johannesburg is the top-performing boys’ school in South Africa, outperforming St David\u2019s Marist, Michaelhouse, and Hilton College.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St John\u2019s College is a Christian African school that accepts boys from Grade 0 to Grade 12 into the pre-preparatory, preparatory and college.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was established in 1898 as a parish school of St Mary\u2019s Anglican Church in Eloff Street in downtown Johannesburg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The founding members were the Rev John Darragh, the rector of St Mary\u2019s Church, and the Rev Joseph Hodgson, the first headmaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The school opened its doors on 1 August 1898 in a villa in Plein Street. On that day, only six boys enrolled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It grew rapidly, and by the end of the first term of 1899, more than a hundred boys were enrolled at St John\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In January 1906, a new headmaster, Father James Okey Nash CR, assumed office. He envisaged a school like the great English public schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He relocated St John\u2019s to Houghton Ridge, which the school could purchase through a 5,000-pound donation from diamond magnate Sir Thomas Cullinan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The St John’s school buildings, as they stand today, are a tribute to the architect Sir Herbert Baker, who designed the earlier buildings which set the theme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He drew up the master plan, followed by his partner, Frank Fleming, and to the man who started it all, Reverend James Nash, headmaster from 1907 to 1917.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baker and Fleming designed all the buildings in the school complex created before 1946, and most of those up to the present are per Baker’s master plan of 1907.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deane Yates, the first headmaster of the College who was not an ordained priest, transformed St John\u2019s in the fifties and sixties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He significantly expanded the school\u2019s buildings to enable it to remain a leading educational institution in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also initiated the endowment of Foundation Scholarships, which made St John\u2019s accessible to boys who could not afford it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, St John\u2019s is one of South Africa\u2019s pre-eminent schools, with a reputation for excellence in sports, academics, and cultural activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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St Johns in the early years<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

St John\u2019s one of the top schools in South Africa<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 2003, Africa Almanac ranked St John’s College eleventh among the top 100 best high schools in Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This ranking was based on the quality of education, student engagement, strength and activities of alumni, the school profile, and news visibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St John\u2019s College backed up this reputation through excellent results in the 2024 IEB matric examinations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 2024 academic year, St John\u2019s College achieved 3.2 distinctions per matriculant, higher than St David\u2019s Marist\u2019s 3.0 and Michaelhouse\u2019s 2.6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith a 100% tertiary pass rate, 124 achieved Bachelor\u2019s Degree passes, and the class earned 401 distinctions, averaging 3.2 distinctions per student,\u201d St John\u2019s said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three students earned spots on the IEB Outstanding Achievement list, and one on the Commendable Achievement list. 16 subject results placed in the top 1% nationally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The school’s exceptional academics produced numerous notable alumni, including former Anglo American CEO Tony Trahar, academic Tshilidzi Marwala, and historian Eric Rosenthal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The school also has a rich sporting history. It has been an integral part of the St John\u2019s education from the very inception of the college in 1898.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early days, when the school was still located in downtown Johannesburg, the focus was principally on cricket, football, gymnastics and cross-country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the school relocated to Houghton in 1907, it began developing sports facilities to accommodate other disciplines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St John\u2019s College has many notable alumni who excelled in sports, including cricketer Clive Rice, cyclist Chris Froome, and rower David Hunt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Inside St John\u2019s College<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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St John\u2019s College in Johannesburg is the top-performing boys’ school in South Africa, outperforming St David\u2019s Marist, Michaelhouse, and Hilton College.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":818805,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[22164],"class_list":["post-818804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-st-johns-college"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=818804"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":819152,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818804\/revisions\/819152"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/818805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=818804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=818804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=818804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}