Try and remember your first day at school: waking up before dawn, having to wear a uniform that consisted of an oversized blazer and scratchy knee-high socks, and the uncomfortable feeling of being in an unfamiliar place.
Try and remember your first day at school: waking up before dawn, having to wear a uniform that consisted of an oversized blazer and scratchy knee-high socks, and the uncomfortable feeling of being in an unfamiliar place.
When you think back now, tennis courts may have become overgrown, teachers may have changed and new rules may have become old – but the memories of one’s school days remain irreplaceable.
When the Assumption Convent School opened its doors in 1850, it became the first Catholic school to be established on the African continent. Founded by Belgian Sr Gertrude de Henningsen and French, Irish and English missionary nuns, it also became the first Catholic day and boarding school in South Africa, with a first intake of 36 pupils.
Though its grounds and buildings have since been taken over by Victoria Primary School, plans for a reunion next year are in place to commemorate one of Grahamstown’s many historical landmarks.
“We were a Catholic school but all children were welcome,” said Sister Rosaire Belford, who had been a principal of the school. Belford started teaching in 1957 and had come from the Assumption Convent in Johannesburg to teach in Grahamstown. She now lives at the Assumption Sisters Convent in Hill Street, having retired in 1997.
“I never thought I’d retire. You’re still energetic at 60,” she laughs, “but it was a government school so I had to.”
Like many schools during apartheid, the Assumption Convent was a single-race school, predominantly for white English-speaking students. Regular government inspections kept it strictly that way until the end of apartheid.
Sr Mary McAteer, who taught at the school when its name was Assumption Convent Maryvale, experienced the difficulty of teaching under apartheid and the many disruptions and poor attendance. There were instances, she said, in which some schools had refused to teach, by way of protest in support of the liberation struggle.
“I didn’t know what to do,” she said. “Because I had come from Northern Ireland, liberation before education [a slogan of some political activists from 1976]made sense.”
Life beyond the classroom walls for many students in the country was not always secure, and Sr Mary recalls having had to go to the police station to bail out one of her students. She had been arrested during a police patrol, suspected of participating in an illegal protest. “It was a terrible time,” she said.
Lyn Berriman attended the Assumption Convent from 1965 and was there for nearly seven years.
“I was young, but it was lovely,” Lyn said, “going to the chapel, praying, and I think that’s why I started this [reunion].”
Lyn is coordinating the school’s first reunion since its closing in 1983, and plans are in place to either unveil a plaque on the Victoria Primary grounds, or dedicate a scholarship in commemoration of the school.
Six years after the Assumption Convent closed its doors, Ntaba Maria, an English-medium school, was built for township children. Sister Rosaire was instrumental in establishing of the school, which is still active today.
Though the Assumption Convent no longer exists, the sisters in the powder-blue convent on the corner are still involved in helping the Grahamstown community.
“I thought, if we could open a primary English-medium school, and teach Xhosa parallel, when they get to Standard 5 [Grade 7] they can go to any school of their choosing,” said Sr Rosaire.
Today, tiny buds of Assumption Convent memories continue to bloom on the Victoria Primary grounds, from the swimming pool near the courts to the old church pews in the school’s chapel, which has now been turned into a dining hall.
The Assumption Convent reunion is set for 4-6 January 2013, and past pupils from all over the world are set to return to Grahamstown and relive some of the most important years of their youth.
