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This article is about the school. See here for the Bishop in the clergy.

Diocesan College, or Bishops as it is more commonly known, is a private, all-boys school. The school is situated in the leafy suburb of Rondebosch in Cape Town, South Africa.

The sprawling school grounds and unique architectural style make it one of the country's most beautiful places of study. Established in 1849, it is the fifth oldest school in Africa. Bishops has established a prestigious reputation that extends from some of the most famous sporting traditions in South Africa to producing matriculants with top marks in their final exams. It is also a member of the Elite Seven, a name given to a group of seven highly affluent private all-boys schools in South Africa.

There is an affliated preparatory school, the Diocesan College Preparatory School or DCPS, as well as a pre-preparatory school.

History

The Diocesan Collegiate School was founded by Bishop Gray, the first Anglican bishop of Cape Town in 1849 at his house, Bishopscourt in Cape Town. He founded two schools there, one of which was described as for the "Native children" and the other for "European children" (this being the current school). Living with schools was hard for the bishop and this led him to establish the schools elsewhere. The black children moved to accommodation near the city, where Zonnebloem College now is. This movement left the bishop short of money and so he bought an unproductive farm in Camp Ground Road, Rondebosch, and there the boys of Diocesan College have prospered ever since.

The school did not prosper until Canon George Ogilvie arrived from prosperous St. George’s Grammar School, attached to St George’s Cathedral in the city. The canon brought some boys with him and the bishop’s school flourished. It became the Diocesan College, but that too was a mouthful and its was generally referred to as the Bishop’s school – hence its nickname. Bishops is far more widely known by that name.

The school was originally mainly a boarding school, but since the 1970s it has had more day scholars than boarders. For some years it ran university classes, but in 1910 those classes left for the South African College, which was later to become the University of Cape Town.

The school had only three principals between 1919 and 1982 – Harold Birt, Hubert Kidd, the first layman to be principal, and Anthony Mallett. Since then it has had three more. Mr Grant Nupen is the current headmaster.

The school runs in three sections – a pre-preparatory school, a preparatory school and the college. Since 1921 a post matric year has offered students the opportunity to write the University of Cambridge A-Level exams. In recent times, girls have been admitted to this year, and boarding facilities are also available.

Academics

WCED Results 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
Number of candidates 124 123 102 113 123 133 128 140
Number of failures 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
University endorsement (%) 98.4 99.1 98 100 96 96.2 99.2 99.3
A aggregates (%) 21.8 32.5 35.2 41.6 39 43.6 49 46.4
Subject distinctions 135 179 148 211 225 267 290 279
Leavers write the Western Cape Education Department examinations; a differentiation from other comparable private schools whose pupils write the Independent Examinations Board (IEB) exams.

The pupil-teacher ratio is 1:15. The College offers scholarships to new students as well as an organ scholarship for a post-matric student.

Rhodes Scholarship

Bishops is one of only four schools in the world to annually offer a Rhodes scholarship to the University of Oxford to an ex-pupil--mainly due to the fact that the school was part of the "Rhodes Scholarship Experiment". When approached to help formulate the plan for the scholarship, Bishops was suggested by Mr Ernest Kilpin (later Sir Ernest, after he was knighted for services to the Union) as a suitable school for the experiment and Cecil Rhodes agreed. Like Bishops' founder Robert Gray, he "mistrusted purely secular education."Donald McIntyre. A Century of Bishops. Cape Town and Johannesburg: Juta and co. Ltd.

The yearly selection of a candidate began in 1901, and continues to be helped by the vote of the school as a whole.

Uniform and Awards

There is a vast array of different possible uniforms a Bishops boy can wear.

There are two standard uniforms, being Number 1's and Khakis. Senior students are permitted to wear white shirts with their Khaki uniforms. These can be worn with a choice of ties, jerseys, scarves and hats. These items are often awarded to a student, or may merely be a standard issue house or school tie.

Ties

The most common form of award is of a tie. A list of these (and other) ties follows:

  • Bishops Tie (for all students)
  • Academic Tie (Awarded after a student has met set criteria)
  • All Rounders Tie (a system of points is used as criteria for the awarding of this tie)
  • House Ties (There are 8 of these ties (one for each house))
  • SRF Tie (This tie can be worn by members of the Student Representative Forum)
  • Ten Club Tie (This tie is awarded to the ten matric boys who are elected to the Ten Club)
  • Forum Tie (Members of the vote-in Forum Society are allowed to wear this light blue tie)
  • College Prefect Tie
  • Service Tie (This is awarded to a boy who has given many years of excellent service to a particular area of the school)
  • PR Tie (This tie is given to those boys who are part of Public Relations)
  • Distinction Tie (This tie is awarded very seldom, only to those who have saved a life, represented their country or excelled greatly in their particular area)
  • XIII Year Tie (This tie is given to those boys who have been at Bishops uninterrupted for 13 years, at the end of their matric year)
  • OD Tie (Old Diocesans are allowed to wear this tie)
  • Tour Ties (Most school tours have a tie specially made for the tour, and members of this tour are allowed to wear their tie on Fridays)
  • Exchange Ties (Like tour ties, boys who went on exchange are allowed to wear the tie of their exchange school on Fridays)
  • 150 Tie (this commemorative tie was produced in 1999 to mark the School's first century and a half)

Colours

Excellence in sporting and cultural activities is recognised through the awarding of colours. From Chess and Drama to rugby union, Cricket, Squash, Sailing or any one of the other sports - there are many different awards that boys can get. Initially a boy is awarded half colours, which is a small embroided badge to be sewn under the mitre on his blazer. This badge has on it the initials of the sporting or cultural activity the boy was awarded the colours for, e.g. SC for Swimming Colours and SqC for Squash Colours.

If further excellence is achieved, the boy can then be awarded full colours. This is represented by another small badge sewn next to the previous badge, with the letters DC on it. Thus full colours for athletics would be DC AC. A boy awarded full colours is entitled to wear the Colours jersey in place of a normal school jersey. This jersey is white and has the dark and light blue of the cadet and academic jerseys in its collar.

The academic equivalent to full colours is the Academic jersey. This is a very prestigious award, and at present there are only a handful of boys in the College who are entitled to wear this jersey. The jersey is a dark blue, with a white and light blue collar.

There was originally a light blue jersey, which had the colours of the Academic and Colours jerseys in its collar, to recognize excellence in Bishops' Cadet Corps. The Cadet Corps has since been disbanded, and thus with it the jersey. There is a possibility, currently under debate in the Students Representative Forum, that this jersey will be brought back to the school so as to allow the Colours jersey to be given only to boys with full sporting colours, and boys with full cultural colours to be potentially given the renamed Cultural jersey. This proposed plan raises questions about how important culture is for Bishops, and it has been argued that by doing the above there will then be three jerseys for each of the three tiers of school life at Bishops - this is supposed to show that all three areas are just as important, yet many arguing for equality emphasize that by keeping the white jersey for sport, the school is emphasizing a greater standing.

Sport

Sport is an integral part of any Bishops student's life, and is compulsory. In the junior school, rugby union is compulsory - the school has been critised for this. Boys can choose between cricket and tennis in the summer, and hockey and rugby in the winter. Additional sports can also be chosen instead of these, which include swimming, athletics, rowing, and others such as surfing and golf.

Over 20 sports matches are played on a weekly basis against schools in and around Cape Town. Many friendly rivalries have emerged, most notably against the nearby South African College School (SACS), and Rondebosch Boys' High School. The first rugby union, field hockey and cricket teams are the pride of the school, and when matches are played, the vast majority of the school turns out.

Started in 1892, the annual Bishops versus SACS rugby match is considered the oldest in Africa, if not in the world of school rugby, although the keenest rivalry is often considered to be against Rondebosch Boys' High School.

Culture

As a school which promotes the arts and culture the school holds events of this nature – the most important of which is the Bishops Eisteddfod whereby the eight houses compete against each other around June each year for the Eisteddfod Owls (a prize for winning a specific category, e.g. Speech). Bishops also hosts the Pops every three years in the Cape Town City Hall. It also has an active debating society, which has often won the Western Cape Provincial Debating tournament and has a history of producing South African debaters.

Religion

Being an Anglican Christian school the school is centred around the Christian values with Chapel services held three times a week. Twice a term, compulsory evensong takes place.

Miscellaneous

The school aims to, according to the school slogan, Inspires Individuals, by providing up-to-date computer equipment, music and drama departments and a wide variety of subjects. Bishops participates in many outreach programs such as the LEAP program. These programs get the students involved in teaching other students from surrounding underprivileged schools skills such as computer-literacy and chess.

Memberships

Old Diocesans

The Old Diocesans' (OD) Union is one of the most active alumni clubs in the country, with membership spanning the globe. Here is the homepage:*. Details of reunions and how to receive the school magazine are available.

Notable alumni

External links

References

Cape Town | Diocesan College | Anglican schools | Boarding schools | Private schools in the Western Cape | Educational institutions established in 1849 | Members of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Diocesan College".

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