The Official Tour of Pearson Hoerskool

Hello, all! It’s almost been a week here at Pearson High School, so I figured I would give you a tour, led by my best friends!

Here’s a little bit about the school:

The school goes from Grade 8 all the way through Matric (12^th grade).  They have 3 houses (yes, just like Harry Potter): du Plessis (pronounced: Doo-pee) Deary and Ffolliott (pronounced: Fall-ee-at).  There are Prefects and Head Boys/Girls that lead the students, monitor the hallways, etc.  Again, just like Harry Potter…

All the students are fluent in at least two languages (English and Afrikaans, which is derived from Dutch), but some don’t speak either at home so they are fluent in at least three!  Lots of students speak Xhosa (pronounced: Ko-za) which is one of the clicking languages! So neat!  Their classes switch back and forth between speaking English and Afrikaans so it’s difficult to keep up in everything except the English Literature classes- lucky me!

They are EXTREMELY polite.  The students must begin and end every class by standing and addressing the teacher by saying, “Good morning, ma’am”.  Students must look at the instructor or principal at all times or else they are called out in public and embarrassed.  They place a lot of emphasis on athletics here so when I am linked up with a specific sport, I’ll give you more details.  I do know, though, that we are getting out of school to go to the local university for an entire day of athletics! 

The schedule is CRAZY confusing, but you will see that in the pictures below.  The campus is massive and it’s so easy to get lost, so I’ll just give you the basic rooms...

This is the staff room... we have staff meetings
each morning before school and our breaks are
spent here.

Here is the front entrance! The grounds are gigantic...

We have two 20 minute tea breaks every day where we
are served by the staff! It's so relaxing, everyone in America
should adopt this.

This is my schedule just for the first week! The students don't
attend the same classes at the same times every day, so instead
of planning 10 lessons like most people, I will plan 40 for
Grades 8-11 and then for our LO (Life Orientation) classes.
Crazy.

The students must wear uniforms.
This is the winter uniform...

... and here's the summer uniform!
This is what the students are wearing right now.

This is the hall... Assemblies, grade meetings and presentations
obviously happen in this room.  In the far left of the picture on
the wall is one of the coats for the three houses.

Students can spend their breaks out here or
wait for their athletics to begin after school.
The grounds are so lush and beautiful, it's like this
all around campus!

Here is one of the quads where students may
spend their breaks.  There are three main ones: regular,
staff and Matric (seniors).

This is our Olympic-size water polo pool!  How cool!

Whew! That's it for now, but it doesn't even cover the smallest portion of the grounds!  Thanks to the Secondary Education folks from UA who helped out...

Katharine / Miss Martin