Sacred Heart College

Sacred Heart College is a private Catholic Marist co-educational school in Observatory, in the heart of Johannesburg, with a history stretching back to 1889 – when three Marist Brothers arrived from Cape Town by ox-wagon and founded what was then the first Catholic boys’ school in the city. Today it educates boys and girls from creche and pre-primary through primary school to Grade 12, on beautiful grounds of characterful old buildings, and writes the IEB National Senior Certificate.

As part of the worldwide Marist family, the College is shaped by the values of its founder, St Marcellin Champagnat – love of work, family spirit, presence, simplicity and doing things “in the way of Mary” – and by the belief that “to teach children, you must first love them, and love them all equally.” It is distinguished among South African schools for its pioneering role in inclusion: under Brother Neil McGurk it defied apartheid-era policy to open its doors to children of all races from 1976, and it remains proudly diverse and welcoming of all faiths. The school also runs the renowned Three2Six Project, providing education to refugee and asylum-seeker children.

Academically Sacred Heart is consistently strong, with a 100% IEB matric pass rate over the past 20 years and around 98% Bachelor-degree passes, supported by a skills-based, STEAM-focused approach with coding, robotics and an established iPad programme. Co-curricular life spans a competitive house system (Benedict, Geddes, O’Leary and Valerian), sport such as basketball, cricket, chess and debating, plus culture and community outreach.

Recent high-school fees run roughly R100,000 to R130,000 a year; full fee and admissions details are available from the school.