Hoërskool Jan van Riebieck is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

co-educational high school situated in

Gardens A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

in the

Western Cape The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the List of South African provinces by area, fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , an ...

province of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. With

Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...

as its medium of instruction, it was founded by Mr J.J. Jordaan (the first principal) in 1926.

Overview

The school is situated at the foot of Table Mountain right next to the historical Welgemeend in Cape Town. It has an enrollment of approximately 500 pupils, who are divided into three houses: Reijger, Dromedaris and De Goede Hoop, named after the three ships that

Jan van Riebeeck Johan Anthoniszoon "Jan" van Riebeeck (21 April 1619 – 18 January 1677) was a Dutch navigator, ambassador and colonial administrator of the Dutch East India Company. Life Early life Jan van Riebeeck was born in Culemborg on 21 April ...

landed in Cape Town in 1652. The school uses Afrikaans as a medium of learning and teaching. Famous alumni includes the singer

Laurika Rauch Laurika Rauch, (born 1 November 1950 in Cape Town) is a South African singer who performs in both Afrikaans and English. She had a hit single in 1979 with ''Kinders van die Wind'' (''Children of the Wind''), written by Koos du Plessis. The song ...

, struggle hero and minister,

Derek Hanekom Derek Andre Hanekom (born 13 January 1953) is a South African retired politician, activist and former cabinet minister currently serving as the interim Chairman of South African Airways. He is currently serving as a presidential envoy for Sout ...

, venture capitalist Roelof Botha, and judge and struggle hero, Jan Steyn.

Boarding

The tradition of boarding at Jan van Riebeeck High dates back to 1953 with the construction of the Huis Jordaan, the girls hostel, on the school campus, and Huis van der Merwe near the sports grounds, after the Cape Town Administrator and its executive committee decided to make funds available for the construction of residences for the school in 1950. The tradition of boarding continues to this day and has become an integral part of life at the school, with a large number of pupils coming from afar.

Huis Jordaan

In 1952, the school committee and staff decided that the girls hostel would be called Huis Jordaan, after J.J. Jordaan, the first head of Jan van Riebeeck High School (1926 – 1936). On 9 December 1952, the cornerstone of Huis Jordaan was laid by W. de Vos Malan, Superintendent General of Education, and on 12 January 1953, Huis Jordaan was captured. The Huis Jordaan facility caters for girls from grade 8 to 12, and accommodates termly and weekly boarders, with students returning home for the school holidays. Being a resident on campus means boarders have easy access to the school facilities. The facility is located next to the historic Welgemeend on the school premises in Kloof Street.

References

Hoërskool Jan van Riebieck
* * * Afrikaner culture in Cape Town Schools in Cape Town 1926 establishments in South Africa Afrikaans-language schools {{SouthAfrica-school-stub