Farrarmere’s first headmaster reminisces
Gerald Ebertson had two reasons to celebrate on October 15 1976, one was his birthday, and the other was the official birth (opening) of Farrarmere Primary School.
“We opened in January 1976, but the Transvaal Department of Education (DOE) deemed it official in October that year,” said Ebertson, the first principal of the school.
Farrarmere Primary School will celebrate their 40th birthday on October 15 this year.
The 86-year-old reminisced on his time at the school from before it opened, until he retired in 1989.
“When the inspector from the DOE contacted me to open Farrarmere Primary School, the school was not even completed,” Ebertson said.
“I wrote down what we needed and sent the list to the DOE in 1975.
“Once we received all of the stationeary and desks and books, we opened the school in 1976.
“I was the acting principal from 1976 to 1977, when the DOE made me permanent.”
According to Ebertson, Farrarmere Primary School was intended to be primarily an Afrikaans school; however, due to parents from Laerskool Brentwood Park disagreeing, the DOE decided the school should be an English Medium Primary School.
“When I started, I had two women who helped me at the school – Lorraine Reynolds and Doreen Perrins,” he said.
“We had over 500 pupils and we built two soccer fields, a tennis court and cricket field.
“I asked the contractors, the Londoni Brothers, to build two more floors for classrooms and six more bathrooms, so construction continued until 1977.”
Ebertson was so passionate about the school, his children, Jean Leighton and Jonathan Ebertson, also attended the school during his time there.
He explained the names of the sports houses.
“There were three houses, Farrar, Howard and Bedford,” said Ebertson.
“Farrar is the surname of Sir George Farrar, Howard is the maiden name of his mother, Helen, and Bedford is where they came from in England.”
The retired headmaster also designed the school badge.
“I incorporated the castle in Bedford with blue spots surrounding the castle which represents the five dams in Benoni,” Ebertson said.
Lastly, he explained how he found the famous Paganini statue situated outside of Farramere Primary School.
“It was an abandoned statue which was found in Yeoville,” Ebertson said.
“The Benoni Town Council brought it to Benoni and placed it by one of the dams near Lakeside Mall.
“It was, however, constantly vandalised, so it was placed in storage and I was not happy about that, so I wrote to the municipality to ask for the statue and in 1979 we unveiled it at the school.”
Current principal Fiona Stansfeld is excited about the school turning 40.
“Education has the power to change the world,” Stansfeld quoted former President Nelson Mandela.
“I would like to encourage everyone to be mindful of using education to build a nation, as Mandela said further: ‘Sport has the ability to unite the country, so too does education have the ability to unite hearts within our country.’
”I stand amazed that, 40 years ago, Ebertson gave the school a motto that is so pertinent for South Africa today.”
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