Summerhill School’s 30th year anniversary was highlighted by many exciting events

Summerhill School celebrated its 30th anniversary last year – and it was a wonderful year to celebrate and appreciate the vision realised by the school’s founder, Sonya Morshead.

Morshead envisioned and created ‘an educational environment which respects all religious beliefs, fosters integrity, decency, and courage, and allows each learner to flourish, prosper and ultimately realises their full potential and ability as leaders’. The preparatory school worked with the intention of honouring this vision and enhancing the intention laid out by Morshead.

To mark the 30-year celebration, the school hosted a special assembly on March 4, 2022, inviting the Trustee Award winners of previous years and the founders of the school as special guests. The day was a huge success and ended in a whole school picnic for the extremely excited learners.

The principal of the prep school, Jessica Fritz, said with the return to a ‘normal school year’, 2022 was packed with exciting opportunities, events, outings, and experiences for the learners. “The 2022 school magazine is a testament to the fantastic collaboration, dedication, passion, and hard work of our incredible team, and the support and partnership of our parents in creating a magical and enriching year for our students,” said Fritz.

“This year we attempted our first international benchmark test in grades 3 and 6 and we look forward to establishing the level of our academic standards on an international basis.”

The school’s historical ‘Fun Day’ is another tradition Summerhill has been reputed for over the years. “After missing this annual event for two years due to Covid, it was wonderful to be able to return to hosting a Summerhill community celebration again.”

A family fun colour festival was proposed by the school’s vice principal, Janessa Rajeev, and it was implemented by the school sports department, under Reece Prinsloo, on June 3, 2022, and it turned out to be a wonderful afternoon of sunshine, exercise, fun, and community on a beautiful winter morning.

In September, Summerhill hosted its first-ever cycling workshop – The Raffa Cycle Workshop in collaboration with Rodney Fowler. More than 70 learners joined this novel experience and the passion for this sport was evident throughout the day.

Another highlight was the development of the new outdoor area for its learners that includes a lateral climbing wall, fun under-tree seating areas and an outdoor classroom.

Summerhill has also built a dedicated training pool for its younger learners in partnership with the My School Card initiative, upgraded its existing swimming facilities, added landscaping and sports department storage.

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