Fish Hoek High celebrates founder’s day
Fish Hoek High School celebrated its founder’s day on Friday September 1 with with staff, pupils, and past pupils.
The school opened in January 1954 with three Grade 8 classes in temporary accommodation on Third Avenue.
The school later moved to a building on Recreation Road that now houses the Fish Hoek Primary School
The school will celebrate its 70th anniversary next year.
Fish Hoek High School principal Steven Joubert said founder’s day was a chance to reflect on the past 69 years.
He shared some extracts from the 1973 school magazine featuring the newly appointed principal at the time, Terry Hepworth.
“We still hold onto Mr Hepworth’s charge to this day. We live and breathe a culture of involvement at our school.”
He said Fish Hoek High School pupils were involved in service, culture, and sport to make friends for life and took ownership of the school.
“The school looks forward to celebrating its 70th anniversary next year,” he said.
The class of 1973 and others joined a founder’s day assembly, and the dance-studies pupils and 2019 The Voice SA finalist Amy Tjasink, a past pupil, provided entertainment.
Past pupils also competed against the school’s badminton, basketball, hockey, netball, and soccer teams.
In an address, 1973 head boy John Blacklaws said he had “very fond memories” of his school days.
“Excellent teachers, rugby, girlfriends, and my time as a prefect. I’ll never forget my first day as head boy: the whole school decided to go on strike. They walked out towards the sand dunes and said they wouldn’t come back until their demands had been met. Our headmaster called me and gave me my first job as head boy: ‘Go and get them back to school.’”
Another satisfying prefect job, he recalled, was catching his brother smoking in the bushes at the bottom of the rugby field.
“He has never forgiven me.”
Success, he said, did not mean getting to the top. “It means becoming the best you that you can be.”
He encouraged pupils to build self-awareness, develop self-control, learn to motivate themselves, care for others, and grow their social skills.
According to the school’s website, an increase in pupils resulted in the splitting of the Fish Hoek High School into the Fish Hoek Middle School and Fish Hoek Senior High School in 1985. The two schools each had three grades. However, the split lasted until 2007 when the Fish Hoek Primary School was given the Grade 7s back again. The financial loss incurred as a result of this change led to the decision to merge the senior high and middle schools again in 2009.
