Paul Roos Gymnasium is a public, dual medium (Afrikaans & English) high school for boys in the town of

Stellenbosch Stellenbosch (; )A Universal Pronounc ...

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, and opened on the 1st of March 1866 as Stellenbosch Gymnasium. It is the 12th oldest school in the country.

History

In 1910, the school was renamed Stellenbosch Boys' High School and old boy Paul Roos became the sixth rector of the school where he served for thirty years. In 1946 the school moved to the new buildings in Krigeville and was renamed Paul Roos Gymnasium after Paul Roos, old boy and captain of the first Springbok team, was himself a teacher at the school, and was the school's rector from 1910 to 1940, after which the school was renamed in his honour. A notable characteristic of the school is its ''gees'' (Afrikaans for ''spirit'') and their famous fight song "Old boys of Paul Roos" which is the melody of ''Flower of Scotland'' in remembrance of the first three Scottish rectors, which they sing with their old boys. Paul Roos Gymnasium has produced more Springbok rugby players than any other school (54). It is also the school with the most players in the 2019 Rugby World Cup including five Springboks namely

Schalk Brits Schalk Burger Brits (born 16 May 1981) is a South African former professional rugby union player who last played for the South Africa national team and the in Super Rugby. He primarily played as a hooker. He was part of the 2019 Rugby World ...

Willie le Roux Willem Jacobus le Roux (born 18 August 1989) is a South African rugby union player. He is a versatile back-line player who generally plays as a fullback or wing, though earlier in his career he played mostly as a fly-half. He plays for the Sou ...

Steven Kitshoff Steven Kitshoff (born 10 February 1992) is a South African rugby union rugby player. His playing position is loosehead prop. He represents the South Africa national team and the in the United Rugby Championship and previously Super Rugby, and ...

, Herschel Jantjies,

Damian Willemse Damian Willemse (born 7 May 1998) is a South African rugby union player for the South Africa national team and the in the United Rugby Championship and in the Currie Cup. His regular position is fullback, but he can also play as a fly-half, ...

and

Braam Steyn Abraham Jurgen Steyn (born 2 May 1992) is a South African-born rugby union player who plays for the Italy national rugby union team. His usual position is as a flanker, and he currently plays for Benetton. For 2014–15 Pro12 season, he named a ...

who played for Italy.

Associations and facilities

Though Paul Roos Gymnasium is a school for boys from grade 8 to 12, the curriculum includes some subjects presented in conjunction with the two sister schools, Hoër Meisieskool Bloemhof and

Rhenish The Rhineland (german: Rheinland; french: Rhénanie; nl, Rijnland; ksh, Rhingland; Latinised name: ''Rhenania'') is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly its middle section. Term Historically, the Rhinelands ...

. The school is dual medium; Afrikaans- and English-speaking pupils study under one roof, but classes are largely separated according to mother tongue. The school shares sport and internet facilities with

Stellenbosch University Stellenbosch University ( af, Universiteit Stellenbosch) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant ...

. School facilities include a library and computer labs. Sports facilities include hockey fields, the Markötter rugby fields, a swimming pool, an Olympic Waterpolo Aquatic Centre, tennis courts, and a gymnasium. The main residential facilities are the two school hostels (dormitories) called Prima and Prima Nova. They accommodate 245 boarders, mainly from

and

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

Sport

Paul Roos Gymnasium has been performing very well on sports during the year. *

Archery Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In m ...

Athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competi ...

Chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

Cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

* Cross country *

Equestrian The word equestrian is a reference to equestrianism, or horseback riding, derived from Latin ' and ', "horse". Horseback riding (or Riding in British English) Examples of this are: * Equestrian sports *Equestrian order, one of the upper classes i ...

Golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

Hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

Mountain biking Mountain biking is a sport of riding bicycles off-road, often over rough terrain, usually using specially designed mountain bikes. Mountain bikes share similarities with other bikes but incorporate features designed to enhance durability and pe ...

Rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

* Rugby sevens *

Soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

Squash Squash may refer to: Sports * Squash (sport), the high-speed racquet sport also known as squash racquets * Squash (professional wrestling), an extremely one-sided match in professional wrestling * Squash tennis, a game similar to squash but pla ...

Swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

Table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

Tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

Water polo Water polo is a competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the ball into the opposing team's goal. The team with the ...

Notable attainments

Paul Roos was classified as a 'prestige' school, being among the best-performing schools.''Marking Matric: Colloquium Proceedings,''
Vijay Reddy, 2006. HSRC Press. In 2018 the University of Stellenbosch, which evolved out of this school, celebrated its centenary. In the first 100 years of its existence, 26 old boys received honorary doctorates from this university more than any other school in the country. Also, since the inception of the Chancellor's Medal in 1961, thirteen old boys were awarded this medal for the best final year student by

Notable alumni

Andries Bekker Andries Bekker (born 5 December 1983 in Cape Town, South Africa) is a South African rugby union player for the Springbok rugby team as well as Kobelco Steelers in the Japanese Top League. Playing career Bekker made his South African debut in 2 ...

, rugby player *

, rugby player * Stefan de Bod, cyclist *

Boy de Villiers Hendrik Alexander de Villiers was born in Paarl, Cape Colony on 1 May 1884. He was a Springbok rugby player. He played in the position of centre. In his rugby playing days he was called "Boy" or "Boy Bekkies". He died on 9 November 1940, in Ca ...

, rugby player * Daniël de Waal, Judge President of the

Transvaal Provincial Division The Gauteng Division of the High Court of South Africa is a superior court of law which has general jurisdiction over the South African province of Gauteng and the eastern part of North West province. The main seat of the division is at Pretoria, ...

Nicolaas Jacobus de Wet Nicolaas Jacobus de Wet, PC, QC (11 September 1873 – 16 March 1960) was a South African politician, lawyer, and judge who was Chief Justice of South Africa and acting Governor-General from 1943 to 1945. Early life De Wet was born and went t ...

, judge and

Chief Justice of South Africa The Chief Justice of South Africa is the most senior judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, Constitutional Court and head of the judiciary of South Africa, who exercises final authority over the functioning and management of all the c ...

Tom Dreyer Tom Dreyer (born 17 November 1972) is a South African novelist and poet writing in both English and Afrikaans. He went to school in Johannesburg and Stellenbosch, and studied at the University of Stellenbosch and the University of Cape Town. He ...

, novelist, poet and column writer * Dieter Eiselen, NFL player *

Justin Harding Justin Adam Harding (born 9 February 1986) is a South African professional golfer. Amateur career Harding attended Paul Roos Gymnasium in Stellenbosch, South Africa, and played college golf at Lamar University in Texas and represented his countr ...

, golfer *

Etienne van Heerden Etienne van Heerden, born 3 December 1954, is a South African author. Biography Van Heerden was born in 1954, six years after the official advent of apartheid. His mother was an English speaking mathematics teacher. His father, an Afrikaans speak ...

, twice Hertzog Prize winner *

J.B.M. Hertzog General James Barry Munnik Hertzog (3 April 1866 – 21 November 1942), better known as Barry Hertzog or J. B. M. Hertzog, was a South African politician and soldier. He was a Boer general during the Second Boer War who served ...

, prime minister of the

Union of South Africa The Union of South Africa ( nl, Unie van Zuid-Afrika; af, Unie van Suid-Afrika; ) was the historical predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa. It came into existence on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the Cape, Natal, Trans ...

. *

Garrick Higgo Garrick Higgo (born 12 May 1999) is a South African professional golfer who currently plays on the PGA Tour, European Tour and the Sunshine Tour. He has won three times on the European Tour, winning the 2020 Open de Portugal and the Gran Cana ...

, Professional golfer *

T.O. Honiball Thomas Ochse Honiball (1905–1990) was a well known South African cartoon artist. T.O. Honiball (as he was commonly referred to) was born on 7 December 1905 in Cradock, Eastern Cape, Cradock, Cape Colony. Honiball attended the well known high sc ...

artist and cartoonist *

Francois Hougaard Francois Hougaard (born 6 April 1988) is a South African professional rugby union rugby player. His primary position is scrum-half, but also can play on the wing. Club career Hougaard played for Western Province in 2007 before joining the Blu ...

, rugby player * Herschel Jantjies, rugby player *

Gideon Joubert Gideon Joubert (4 September 1923 – 27 October 2010) was a South African writer and journalist (at ''Die Burger'') who was known for his intelligent design-opinions, especially present in his book, '' Die Groot Gedagte'', which was his bigges ...

, writer and journalist *

, rugby player * Koos Kombuis, South African short-story writer, poet, novelist and cult musician *

Uys Krige Mattheus Uys Krige (4 February 1910 – 10 August 1987) was a South African writer of novels, short stories, poems and plays in Afrikaans and English. In Afrikaans literature, Krige is counted among the '' Dertigers'' ("Writers of the Thirties"). ...

, Hertzog Prize winner, writer, poet, playwright and

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

footballer * Juandré Kruger, rugby player * Tjol Lategan, rugby player *

, Wasps and current Springbok rugby union player *

Robbie Louw Robbie Louw (born Robert Mathew Mark Louw on ) is a South African rugby union player that played first class rugby for the in 2016. He made one appearance in the Currie Cup qualifiers and three appearances in the Currie Cup Premier Division. H ...

, rugby union player *

Anton Lubowski Anton Theodor Eberhard August Lubowski (3 February 1952 – 12 September 1989) was a Namibian anti-apartheid activist and advocate. He was a member of the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO). In 1989 he was assassinated by opera ...

, Namibian anti-apartheid activist and advocate. *

D.F. Malan Daniël François Malan (; 22 May 1874 – 7 February 1959) was a South African politician who served as the fourth prime minister of South Africa from 1948 to 1954. The National Party implemented the system of apartheid, which enforc ...

, South African prime minister. *

Jannie Marais Johannes Henoch Marais (8 September 1851 – 30 May 1915) was a South African mining magnate, politician and philanthropist who co-founded the multibillion-dollar media conglomerate Naspers and the University of Stellenbosch. He was affectionatel ...

, benefactor of the Het Jan Marais Fonds *

Gerhardus Jacobus Maritz Gerhardus Jacobus Maritz KC (7 December 1889 – 16 July 1964) was a South African judge who served as Judge President of the Transvaal Provincial Division of the Supreme Court of South Africa from 1947 until 1959. Early life and education Ma ...

, Judge President of the Transvaal Provincial Division *

Jim McKendrick James McKendrick may refer to: * James McKendrick (rugby union, born 1864) (1864–1938), Scotland international rugby union player * Jim McKendrick (rugby union, born 1870) (1870–1895), Cape Colony international rugby union player * Jamie McK ...

, rugby Player * John Murray, judge and Chief Justice of

Southern Rhodesia Southern Rhodesia was a landlocked self-governing British Crown colony in southern Africa, established in 1923 and consisting of British South Africa Company (BSAC) territories lying south of the Zambezi River. The region was informally kn ...

Pieter-Louis Myburgh Pieter-Louis Myburgh is a South African investigative journalist. Myburgh attended Paul Roos Gymnasium before obtaining his BPhil in Journalism at honours level from Stellenbosch University. On 18 March 2016 he was honoured with the 2016 Taco K ...

, investigative journalist * Paul Roos,

Springbok The springbok (''Antidorcas marsupialis'') is a medium-sized antelope found mainly in south and southwest Africa. The sole member of the genus ''Antidorcas'', this bovid was first described by the German zoologist Eberhard August Wilhelm v ...

captain *

Johann Rupert Johann Peter Rupert (born 1 June 1950) is a South African billionaire businessman, who is the eldest son of business tycoon Anton Rupert and his wife Huberte. He is the chairman of the Swiss-based luxury-goods company Richemont and the South Af ...

, business executive *

Jan Smuts Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts, (24 May 1870 11 September 1950) was a South African statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various military and cabinet posts, he served as prime minister of the Union of South Af ...

, South African prime minister and Field Marshal in the British Army, as well as one of the founders of the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

and

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

. *

Josh Strauss Josh Strauss (born 23 October 1986) is a South African-born Scotland international rugby union player who currently plays for Israeli side Tel Aviv Heat. He previously played for Glasgow Warriors and the Bulls. His regular playing position is ...

, Scottish international rugby player * Benjamin Tindall, judge * Peter van der Merwe, cricketer. * Marcel van Heerden, actor * Anton van Niekerk, professor of Philosophy *

Arnold van Wyk Arnoldus Christiaan Vlok van Wyk (26 April 1916 – 27 March 1983) was a South African art music composer, one of the first notable generation of such composers along with Hubert du Plessis and Stefans Grové. Despite the strict laws impose ...

, composer, musicologist * Hendrik Stephanus van Zyl, Judge President of the Cape Provincial Division * Wilhelm Verwoerd, philosopher, peace-maker and writer *

Cobus Visagie Cobus Visagie (born 31 October 1973) is a South African former rugby union footballer who played at tighthead prop. Early life Visagie attended the Paul Roos Gymnasium in Stellenbosch and then studied Auditing and Accounting at Stellenbosch Un ...

, accountant and former Springbok rugby player *

Ernest Frederick Watermeyer Ernest Frederick Watermeyer, PC, QC (12 October 1880 – 18 January 1958), was the Chief Justice of South Africa from 1943 to 1950. Watermeyer was born in Graaff-Reinet in 1880. He was educated at Stellenbosch Gymnasium, Bath College and Gonv ...

, rugby player * Heinz Winckler, musician

Rhodes Scholarship

The

Rhodes Scholarship The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...

was instituted in 1903, and Paul Roos is one of four schools in South Africa entitled to award a

annually to an ex-pupil to study at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

References

External links

Paul Roos official siteWestern Cape Education Department profile
{{Cape Winelands School Boarding schools in South Africa Educational institutions established in 1866 Schools in the Western Cape Bilingual schools in South Africa Stellenbosch Gymnasiums in South Africa 1866 establishments in the Cape Colony