After a week of contending with flooding, mudslides, burst river banks and uprooted trees, Southern Suburb residents were certainly in need of good news and Rustenburg Girls’ High School (RGHS) provided.
As the rain poured down on Thursday morning (15 June), RGHS was named in the Top 10 shortlist for World’s Best School Prize for Supporting Healthy Lives.
READ: School in Pinelands stoic in quest in overcoming adversity, one after the other
The World’s Best School Prizes, founded last year by T4 Education – in collaboration with Accenture, American Express, Yayasan Hasanah, and the Lemann Foundation – are among the world’s most prestigious education prizes.
According to T4 Education, the “Supporting Healthy Lives” category recognises schools that “provide access, relevance, and opportunities for students, staff, and the community to develop healthy habits, behaviours, knowledge, and skills”.
Other categories include “Community Collaboration”, “Environmental Action”, “Innovation”, and “Overcoming Adversity”.
Battling the foul weather and traffic congestion, the Western Cape Minister of Education David Maynier visited the school at 08:00 to share the exciting news.
Quoting from a T4 media statement, Maynier said that the school had been shortlisted for embracing “the vital role that physical and mental fitness play in a well-rounded education and has taken proactive steps to ensure its (learners’) holistic growth and success”.
“I am extremely proud of Rustenburg Girls’ High School’s achievement. It is no secret that they are one of our province’s top performing high schools academically and perhaps one of their secrets to their success is their successful holistic approach to education, balancing academics with sport and other activities,” said Maynier.
In sharp contrast to the gloomy weather, the mood among RGHS learners and staff was positively sunny after finding out that they were in the running for the shared $250 000 (about R4 564 537,50) cash prize.
School principal Michael Gates said it was an honour to be named one of the Top 10 Schools in the world supporting healthy lifestyles.
“This competition is open to all applicants, and we eagerly participated.”
Founded in 1894, RGHS has a strong reputation for academic excellence with their matric graduates often appearing on the Western Cape Department of Education’s Top Learners lists. With the aim of balancing their academically driven focus, the school implemented a sports policy which made sports compulsory for Grade 8 and 9 learners.
The policy allows learners to choose from a wide range of sports, including both competitive and social options. The athletic instruction provides one structured and one unstructured sports lesson every 10 days, meaning learners have both organised and creative opportunities within the programme.
Gates said being active and engaging in physical activity were crucial for academic, social and mental success.
“We believe in the transformative power of an active lifestyle. Every one of our learners is encouraged to embrace a healthy way of life where exercise becomes an integral part of their daily routines.”
He said the school took immense pride in their high-achieving competitive teams who shine on the sports fields and courts at a competitive level.
“Today, we celebrate our success, but tomorrow, we will continue inspiring generations to promote healthy lifestyles,” he said.
T4 Education, a global organisation committed to providing engaging tools, initiatives, and events for teachers to improve education, launched the contest to showcase excellence in schools through a prize competition format.
As part of the contest, all 50 shortlisted schools will be invited to share their best practices through events on the T4 Communities app or School Transformation Toolkits that showcase their “secret sauce” to innovative approaches and step-by-step instructions on how others can replicate their methods to help improve education everywhere.
Last year, two Western Cape schools reached the Top 10 – Pinelands-North Primary School and West End Primary School, both for the category “Overcoming Adversity”.
Pinelands North went on to achieve a Top 3 position.
“Our schools in the Western Cape have so much to offer in terms of ‘best practice’ around the world, and we know that Rustenburg Girls’ High is no exception. They will certainly fly the South African flag high,” said Maynier.
A second South African school, SPARK Soweto in Johannesburg, was also named as a Top Ten contender, in the category “Community Collaboration”.
The Top 3 finalists for each of the five World’s Best School Prizes will be announced in September followed by the winners in October.
The winning school in each of the five categories will receive an award of US$50 000 (about R912 785).
The School Transformation Toolkits from last year’s winning and shortlisted schools are now available online: https://t4.education/prizes/worlds-best-school-prizes/2022-school-transformation-toolkits.
