Alumni of all ages from Stirling High School will gather to reminisce about their time at the school and reflect on the journey it has taken since its inception.
The school will be celebrating its 39th anniversary on its founder’s day this weekend.
The event will serve as a trip down memory lane for former pupils, teachers and staff.
Stirling High draws its lineage from the founding of the East London Technical College in 1927, but the school became a mainstream co-educational high school in January 1985, taking on the name of its feeder primary school.
The headmaster, Doug Prior, said the two-day event would begin on Friday and end on Saturday.
“There will be a ceremony on the morning of Friday, with guest speaker Dr Nathina Pakade, head girl of 2014, who has just returned from completing a master’s in public health at Johns Hopkins University in Boston on a Fulbright Scholarship,” he said.
Lorraine Underwood, head girl in 1974, will also be a guest speaker.
The prestigious Founders’ Day Award will be presented to past pupil Sinalo Jafta, who has been a member of the Proteas Women’s Cricket team since 2016.
Prior said Jafta continued to show a great deal of interest in the school and regularly visited to motivate the pupils.
The weekend of celebrations will include sport against Ooskus Gimnasium, Merrifield and Lilyfontein, a music evening, and sport and gatherings for past pupils.
He said one of their proudest moments was seeing the increasing numbers of pupils and the reputation they had built over the years.
“We are fundamentally an academic institution, so the successes of our matrics have been very pleasing, but even more how well our past pupils have so often done at the universities they have attended.
“In the first two decades, we produced drummie [drum majorette] squads that won the World Championships and now our sports compete across the board at high levels, with past pupils featuring in the South African Olympics team each year and selected for national rugby and cricket teams.
“Our cultural renown has been long established, with our music, drama, debating, chess and dance all recognised at national level.
“A total of 752 Stirling pupils have achieved national achievement in 49 fields of academics, sport and culture,” Prior said.
He said what made the school special was its drive to develop pupils holistically.
“Stirling takes the educational philosophy of holistic education very seriously, and we give full emphasis to the development of each learner’s interests in academics, sport, culture and pastoral pursuits.
“We hope that each learner who spends time here feels valued as an individual and grows in confidence as a result,” he said.
Prior said the school was proud of the success of its pupils.
“It is wonderful to hear of the progress of our past pupils and the varied lives they are living, and we are amazed at how successful so many are in their communities.
“We hope that our past pupils are proud to have been part of this community and that they have the confidence to leave us to create their own exciting trajectories.
“Stirling has produced a good proportion of East London’s accountants, but also most of the town’s performing artists, so we feel we are catering for a broad array of talents,” he said.
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