St John's College

St John’s College is one of South Africa’s pre-eminent independent schools – a private Anglican day and boarding school set among the sandstone cloisters and leafy avenues of Houghton Estate, Johannesburg. Founded in 1898 by the Reverend John Darragh and celebrating its 125th anniversary in 2023, it comprises five schools: The Bridge Nursery (co-ed), a Pre-Preparatory, a Preparatory, the College, and a co-educational Sixth Form. It is principally a boys’ school from Grade 0 to Grade 12, “book-ended by girls” who join at the nursery and again in Sixth Form.

Anglican traditions and values underpin school life – boys attend chapel and the school prayer speaks of sending forth young people “rightly trained in body, mind and character” – within an inclusive, diverse community. Its motto is Lux, Vita, Caritas (Light, Life, Love).

Academically St John’s ranks among the very best in the country, writing the IEB National Senior Certificate (regularly 100% passes with one of the highest distinction averages nationally) and offering Cambridge A-Levels in its Sixth Form, the oldest post-matric Cambridge centre in South Africa. The school is equally celebrated for sport and culture, with a sporting tradition compared to the best English schools and standout programmes in cricket, rugby, hockey, water polo, basketball, rowing, squash, tennis and athletics, alongside strong music, debating and drama.

Facilities are exceptional: multiple cricket and rugby fields, an indoor cricket centre, synthetic and grass hockey fields, an indoor aquatics centre, a high-performance gym, and tennis, squash and basketball courts, plus boarding houses for around 200 boys from Grade 8. Through the St John’s College Academy and its Centenary Scholarship Programme, the school invests heavily in community outreach and access. Recent day fees run to around R182,000 to R233,000 a year, with boarding charged in addition; full details are available from the school.