All-round excellence has earned Victoria Girls' High School a prestigious national award. VG scooped the CGF Proudly South African School Governance Award at a ceremony in Johannesburg recently.
The school was chosen because of their excellence across the board, according to Dalene Du Preez, Executive Manager of Marketing and Communications for ProudlySA. "They scored highly on every single item on our checklist," she said.
All-round excellence has earned Victoria Girls' High School a prestigious national award. VG scooped the CGF Proudly South African School Governance Award at a ceremony in Johannesburg recently.
The school was chosen because of their excellence across the board, according to Dalene Du Preez, Executive Manager of Marketing and Communications for ProudlySA. "They scored highly on every single item on our checklist," she said.
The official criteria to win the award are leadership, individual accountability, collective responsibility, group performance, and quality. Schools registering for the award must complete an extensive questionnaire and submit verifying documentation on everything from pass rates to parental satisfaction to financial management; from collective school projects to safeguards against teacher-pupil abuse, to student leadership opportunities.
Entries for all categories at the awards, including school governance, were judged by a seven-person panel that included government officials, business, and community leaders, including Dr Biki Minyuku, the former CEO of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
ProudlySA conducted site tours of the four finalist schools before making a decision.
VG publicity head Nadia Czeredrecki-Schmidt, who also teaches Life Sciences and Social Sciences, accepted the award in Johannesburg. She immediately phoned acting principal Warren Schmidt, who was attending a matric dinner at the school.
When he announced that the school had won, the girls went wild in celebration.
One of the strengths the judges commented on in VG's profile was the wealth of leadership opportunities given to senior students. VG has phased out prefects in recent years, instead opting for a system of committees on which girls serve, beginning at the end of Grade 11.
For example, girls on the Publicity Committee document school events with text and photographs, while the Academic Support Committee arranges peer-tutoring and after-school study clubs.
Members of the Co-Curricular and Spirit Committee can be found leading the supporters at sporting events.
The pupils were helping to run the school, said Czeredrecki-Schmidt, and were learning valuable skills in the process.
"We educate with the idea of good citizenship," she said. Gender equality was also at the core of VG's teaching philosophy.
"If you work hard, there's no career you can't go into."
The School Governance Award was initiated last year by Terry Booysen, CEO of CGF, the Corporate Governance Framework Research Institute, to support South Africa's troubled school system through the encouragement of good governance principles.
In their description of the prize, ProudlySA writes, "By providing the recognition and financial prizes to eligible schools, we believe that there awards will become widely recognised as the catalyst to cause the necessary change for good."
VGHS previously received a HomeGrown award in 2007, as Education Institution of the Year.
ProudlySA began in 2001 as a "buy local" campaign that supports and recognises South African businesses, with the aim of encouraging economic growth and increased employment opportunities. Membership for businesses is contingent on at least 50% local production in addition to quality, environmental, and labour standards.
These four pillars apply to schools as well, although more loosely. In their case, "local production" is construed to mean whether supplies and provisions are sourced locally. VG has been a member of ProudlySA since 2004.
The awards are open to all schools that are registered ProudlySA member institutions – some 100 in total – most of which like VG are government schools. Membership costs R500 a year and, among other benefits, grants schools the right to display the ProudlySA logo on brochures and other materials. All told, there are some 28 000 government schools in South Africa, plus a great number of private schools. While ProudlySA runs outreach campaigns targeting between 500 and 1 000 schools per year, Du Preez acknowledged, "there's a long way to go."
