Kingswood College

Kingswood College is a leading independent, co-educational Methodist boarding and day school in Makhanda (Grahamstown), in the heart of the Eastern Cape. Founded in March 1894 as the Wesleyan Collegiate School for Boys, it takes its name and ideals from John Wesley’s Kingswood School in Bristol, England (1748), and is one of the oldest Methodist educational institutions in South Africa. Today it welcomes boys and girls from Grade 000 in pre-primary through to Grade 12 – and a post-matric Bridging Year – as both boarders and day pupils, drawing children from across South Africa and around the world, though most hail from the Eastern Cape, giving the school a rich local heritage.

A proudly Methodist school that warmly welcomes pupils of all denominations and faiths, Kingswood has a strong sense of family captured in its motto Studia Hilaritate Proveniunt (“In cheerfulness is the success of our studies”) and its guiding philosophy of “Educating for Life.” Pupils write the IEB National Senior Certificate, supported by small classes, attentive staff and a multidisciplinary learning-support team, with the junior school weaving in design and technology, coding, robotics and entrepreneurship from an early age.

Set on a beautiful, intimate campus, Kingswood offers some of the country’s finest academic, music, boarding and sporting facilities, alongside a rich programme of co-curricular clubs, lifetime sports, cultural events and an enriching spiritual and outreach programme. Notable alumni include the anti-apartheid activist Dr Neil Aggett, honoured each year in a memorial lecture. Recent Grade 12 fees are around R184,000 a year; full fee and admissions details are available directly from the school.