REDHILL HIGH SCHOOL
School in Sandton

Browse online, search and order all your schoolwear, sportswear and related accessories for both Preparatory and High schools. Redhill School strives to maximise the potential of young people. Our Future Focus Centre is a zone of self-directed student learning. Here, our students are encouraged to take control of the learning process as they select, manage and assess their learning. This creative use of technology has enabled our students and teachers to move beyond traditional classrooms, transforming education through innovative, unique ways of learning. Even during these early stages and during turbulent times, innovation and modernisation were at the core of the school’s ethos. The headmistress at the time, Mrs Burton-Hall, placed great emphasis on a well-rounded education for young ladies that included subjects such as music, drama, art, domestic science, elocution, botany, biology and travel in the curriculum. In 1930, the school consisted of 130 pupils with only four teachers on the permanent staff. The warm and caring attitude that has been one of the most enduring elements of Redhill School’s ethos were thus firmly established under the new Headmistress. As a result of financial difficulties, Catherine Hill sought out more affordable premises for the school, finally settling on a group of rondavels in Morningside. Amidst crippling financial troubles, Catherine Hill (who had remarried to become Catherine Rodda) handed over the reins of leadership to Deputy Principal, Dorothy Thompson. Despite these difficulties, this was also a time of optimism for the school as pupil numbers continued to increase and educational standards improved vastly. As financial difficulties continued, the governors approached Dr Isaac Kriel, the principal and majority shareholder of the Damelin Group, to take over the ownership and management of the school, and in 1968, Redhill School officially came under the guidance of the Damelin Group in a widely publicised deal worth R300 From a girls’ school of 150 pupils, the numbers would increase over the next ten years to 630, including boys. Major progress would be made towards achieving academic excellence through a more traditional and rigorous approach to education. Throughout the dramatic changes of the 1970s, however, one constant remained in the lives of the pupils: the caring and dedicated teachers that helped to build the Redhill Family. During this time, continuity in leadership created problems for the school until Jeremy Barnes was appointed as Headmaster in 1984 and the school came under the control of a truly dedicated and forward-thinking educationist. Roger Briggs was appointed in 1983 as the Principal of the Preparatory School and Jenny Stead took on the leadership of the nursery school. This core of dedicated leaders was well placed to take Redhill through the next decade of change. After the departure of Roger Briggs and Jeremy Barnes, Ben Brooks was appointed as the new Headmaster, with Brian Mitchell taking over as the Principal of the Preparatory school, inheriting Redhill at a time when the country was about to enter the most significant period of change in its history. Despite the difficult task of finding high quality and experienced teaching staff, Redhill’s ability to produce an innovative and excellent academic programme continued to be a feature of the 1990s. It has overcome times of economic and financial hardship to grow from modest beginnings to a financially stable, innovative and progressive school. Yet, during both difficult and prosperous times, it has always attracted dedicated teachers and educational leaders who were prepared to take risks and challenge the ordinary. The promise of new growth and development and the willingness of the school’s new leadership to embrace change suggest that the next century of Redhill School will be even better than the first.