History
Introduction
The first International School of Cape Town was established in 1998 Rondebosch with 86 students under the leadership of Wilf Stout, a former Secretary for Biological Sciences at the University of Cambridge. The school was established in response to request from parents who had a common dream for a school that would offer their children a high-quality international education within an affirming, caring Christian environment.
The original International School of Cape Town developed into the International School Foundation which consisted of a number of separate co-educational schools that provides an internationally recognised UK curriculum which incorporates and complies with the South African curriculum.
By January 1999 numbers in the primary school had increase so much that the high school had to seek premises elsewhere. Thirty three students and a handful of staff moved into a small premises in Rosebank. Classes were very small and everyone got to know each other very well! (Fm4&5 and Fm 2&3 were combined). In the same year a satellite campus was started in Hout Bay with 8 students in the high school (Fm 1&2). Some teachers commuted between Rosebank and Hout Bay to teach the classes there.
By January numbers in the high school had grown to 44. The school acquired the use of the adjacent property in Rosebank. We could now stretch ourselves into the neighbouring courtyard and additional classrooms. The primary schools in Rondebosch (Oak Court) and Hout Bay (Swan Cottage) continued to flourish and it became apparent that larger premises needed to be found.
By mid year Key Stage two moved into new premises Woodland Heights, Wynberg. In the same year two new satellite campuses were established in Somerset West and Durbanville.
January saw the high school move into Woodland Heights with approximately 80 students in the high school.
In January ? the Hout Bay high school was split as a result of the lease. Key Stage 4 relocated to Woodland Heights and Key Stage 3 moved into offices in a shopping complex off Victoria Road. During the course of the year plans were put in place to make each of the campuses autonomous. The separate campuses had grown steadily but each had their individual needs that would be better handled with local Governance.
So, in effect there were 4 separate international schools. The decision to separate the schools was not well received by all parents and caused the numbers in the school to decline significantly. The school managed to survive this rough period through the dedication of the staff and the faith of the remaining parents. An interim head, Nigel Green, was brought in to manage the school whilst a new head was sought.
In October 2003 David Hunter joined the school as Head. His leadership has seen the International School of Cape Town grown from humble beginnings to one of Cape Town’s best, offering a unique curriculum and exceptional educational opportunities to students from the global community.
In 2004 ISCT joined CfBT Education Trust, a leading education consultancy and service organisation who provides education for public benefit both in the UK and internationally.
Reflections: The early days
I started teaching at ISCT a lifetime ago, at the beginning of 1999. The high school was tiny then – just over 40 students, I think – and we were crammed in one small building on the Main Road in Rosebank. I had applied for the post of Maths and Geography teacher from a small town in the jungles of Indonesia where I was travelling: I guess my CV must have been pretty impressive (or the school was pretty desperate!) because I obtained the job with only a 10 minute telephonic interview!
One week after I was offered (and accepted) the position I had a life-changing accident on a mountain in the Kakadu National Park, near Darwin, Australia, which resulted in me losing my right leg above the knee. To the credit of the principal of the time, Wilf Stout, the fact that the school was now getting a very different person to the one they had hired did not affect them at all, and all I ever got from him and Carole McLaren whilst I was in hospital was love and concern.
Three months later I left hospital and returned to Cape Town, and three weeks afterwards, still stuck full-time in a wheelchair (which had to be carried up and down the stairs into the property each day by kind souls such as Rick Greener and Neal Somerville), I was back in the classroom. Amazingly, and wonderfully, the students took it all in their stride and didn’t seem to notice my disability! Perhaps the fact that almost all my classes had fewer than 10 students helped!! In fact, Form 3 and 4 were so small that they were combined into one class. This provided some stiff challenges in Maths, as I would have to teach the one year group for half the lesson and then the other for the other half – not ideal at all though all of us survived…just.
Being such a small school had the benefit of ensuring that the school felt like one big (mostly) happy family. This has sadly faded somewhat, perhaps inevitably, as the school has grown. Discipline was seldom an issue – there was not even a detention system, if I recall correctly – as staff and students almost always lived by the maxim of ‘respect for others’. Assemblies were held outside in the open air courtyard and thus, of course, had to be cancelled if it rained. We sang Christian choruses at many assemblies, thanks to the efforts of Barbara Stout and Wendy Gibbs, and managed to make quite a joyous noise!
What was most definitely not enjoyed by staff and student alike was break time litter duty, when we went out onto the side street that ran past the school – where most of the students were dropped off – and picked up all the litter that had been dropped there by passers-by. It was quite incredible to see the huge amount of litter that had to be picked up every day! The side street was also the occasional haunt of a bergie couple, who on a number of occasions had an almighty screaming match right outside my classroom window. I must say that I am happy most of the students did not understand Afrikaans as some rather choice phrases were tossed about… Another frequent disruption to lessons was the hooting of the minibus taxis as they drove past on the Main Road, and the loud call of the drivers ‘MOWWW-bray’ or WAAAIN – berg’.
Those really were good old days, where you lived and taught by the seat of your pants and wrote up school policies from scratch as and when required. ISCT is now a well-established school on a beautiful property, with a (deservedly) excellent and growing reputation based on a succession of outstanding academic results over a number of years and our caring atmosphere – and there is much to be said for this – but sometimes I do miss my disorganised, vibrant, muddled, exhilarating ISCT family of 1999/2000.
Garth Spencer-Smith
July 2008