Waterstone College becomes a Curro branded school

WATERSTONE COLLEGE KIBLER PARK –  “Despite some growing pains and sharp learning curves, we are extremely proud of what we have achieved in the last seven years, and grateful to God for his provision, protection and wisdom,” said Michael Darby, executive head of the school.

He went on to say, “The Directors of the College have had numerous approaches by various groups over the years concerning the purchase of the school, and have always turned these down out of hand. However, we believe with confidence that becoming a part of the Curro Group is going to benefit our staff, learners and parents considerably, and take the school to a new level.”

Curro Holdings CEO, Dr Chris van der Merwe said the group’s latest acquisition, Waterstone College with 1 210 learners, will be part of Curro’s top quality branded Select Schools, following the acquisition of Woodhill College in Pretoria East in November 2011 and Grantleigh in KZN in December last year.

“I am very positive about the school as it is located in a strong growth area. Waterstone College’s ethos is well aligned with that of Curro’s and is situated on a campus of 39 hectares, of which 12 hectares can be used for educational purposes.

“Also of importance is that Waterstone is one of the leading sport schools in Johannesburg with top rankings in cricket, netball, tennis, and football. The school has a unique High Performance Programme which utilises its top class facilities towards the development of young sportsmen and women,” Van der Merwe said.

How will Waterstone College be affected by this?

“The Christian ethos of the school will not change. It is the express vision of the school to offer a superior education within a Christian environment. All of our policies and practices in this regard will remain the same. Curro Holdings have four values, and one of them is a Christian Ethos and Values. The others are, child friendliness, positive discipline and creative thinking.

“There will be no impact on school fees, which will continue to increase in line with the rate of inflation in the sector. We have always been able to keep our fee increases to under 10 per cent and are confident this will continue to be the case. Waterstone College has always had the immediate community as its major target market, and we are determined to continue to offer an excellent value education.

“Development bonds and levies will be phased out and class sizes will remain as currently the case: a planned maximum of 18 in Grade 00 and 0; 23 in Grades 1-2; 25 in Grade 3; and 26 from Grade 4-12 (some classes in the FET phases may, as is currently the case, be slightly larger for short periods as learners move subjects),” added Darby.

The staff will experience very little change in their daily lives. Being part of a broader group of schools will have many advantages, and all of their salaries, benefits and conditions will remain the same, or improve.

The biggest change that will be experienced by staff and learners is that Curro have requested a move back to the national syllabus which is examined and assessed by the IEB at the end of Gr 12.

“As you know, the major reason for the school’s move to CIE was our concern about the declining standards of the national syllabus, but the Curro Centre for Educational Excellence (CCEE) have a team who are continuously improving and developing the syllabus, doing benchmark testing, and ensuring that Curro schools are not blindly following the CAPS syllabus. We believe that this enriched syllabus, along with an unprecedented level of academic support, make the IEB once again a good option for our school. We have the advantage of having experienced some challenging new concepts and methodologies under CIE, and we will retain much of what we found beneficial.

There will be a minimal impact on parents or learners, and in general all subjects that have been selected will remain on offer. The return to the familiar selection of subjects at Grade 10 level will commence with the current grade 9 group. A letter will be issued in this regard to grade 9 and 10 parents within the next few days.

“While we are sad in many ways to be leaving the CIE programme, we do understand the rationale and appreciate that the additional support that we will receive from Curro in this regard is significant.

“We will still look to offer A Levels for those learners who would like to extend themselves in this way,” said Darby.

Due the financial muscle that Curro have as a listed company, Waterstone College will be able to improve their facilities even more, at an accelerated rate. They already have some of the finest facilities that any school can offer, but will be adding the following over the coming months and years:

A hockey astro field will be built on the site of the current west field in time for the 2015 season. There will be an increase in the number of classes to five in the prep school and six in the high school, with the intention to begin building the additional classrooms which will be required in the next six months.

The new Junior Hall will hopefully be completed during the course of the year.

The land between Main Road (the R554) and Main Service Road will be paved and made into additional parking, with a target of the end of 2014.

“We are looking to purchase additional land for future developments. We hope to include in this the development of further hostels, as well as additional classrooms and parking/drop-off areas.

“The College will also look to add further fields and squash courts, and hopefully a Curro Castle nursery and pre-school will be built for those aged three months to Grade 00. The Curro Castle is an incredible concept that offers young children great value educational care from 07:00 to 19:00. These will also hopefully be developed over the next 18 months.

“In addition, some of the founders of the school have agreed to donate the funds to build a Pavilion on the main (FIFA) Field, with change rooms for the teams playing on the field and with a viewing area and dining area for spectators and players. We are extremely grateful for this generosity,” concluded Darby.