Here are five
trajectories in the development of The King's School West Rand over the last
five years:
1.
Increase
in enrolment. In 2009, there were
615 students in The King's School West Rand. A steady increase in enrolment
over the next five years took place and there are currently 831 students in the
school. An increasing number of students in a school doesn't always mean that the
school becomes better, and the Board of Directors had to prayerfully seek God's
wisdom before making the decision to introduce additional classes into the
school. The fact is that a bigger enrolment carries with it the risk of losing
the family atmosphere of a smaller school while introducing additional
challenges in terms of discipline and logistics. However, the school was
originally founded to serve as many Christian families in the area as possible
and this goal was instrumental in the decision to expand the school.
2.
Improvement
in academic results. Over the last five
years, each year the school has attained improved Matric results. In 2009, the
school obtained 84,8% Bachelors Degree passes and 29 distinctions. Most
recently, the school boasted 89,5% Bachelors Degree passes and 46 distinctions.
The school is well-known for the hard work and devotion of its team of
Matric teachers but one also has to acknowledge the important foundational work
of teachers in the lower grades and even in the Primary School.
3.
Extension
of facilities. As a non-profit
organisation, The King's School has always relied on careful financial
management and fiscal integrity to be able to undertake large building
operations. Expansion of facilities has always also only been possible in
incremental phases and with favourable consideration from the bank for a
mortgage loan. In the last five years, the school has undertaken two building
projects to add classrooms, laboratories, a visual arts studio and
tennis/netball courts to its facilities.
4.
Enhancing
the Christian distinctive in The King's School. As a Christian school grows in numbers, it
is often said that it loses something of its nature as a Christ-centred
learning institution, while other worldly aspirations tend to become more
valued. Christian distinctive is not as clearly measurable as many of the other
aspects by which schools are commonly judged, and sometimes much of what is
reported is purely anecdotal. However, The King's School West Rand has strived
to progressively enhance its Christian distinctive and the last five years have
been characterised by the introduction of a number of programmes and practices
to ensure that it maintains and promotes the essence of the school as a
Christ-centred, Bible-based, service-oriented and Kingdom-directed institution.
This includes a school-wide Scripture Programme, Biblical Worldview Integration
in all academic lessons, Philosophy of Christian education training for all
teaching and admin staff and introduction of ACSI Learning Support
Materials.
Promoting the advancement of Christian Education
beyond our school. The King's School has
consistently promoted its conviction that Christian Education is fundamentally
different from secular education. It strives to teach students to evaluate all
learning material against the absolute truth of God's Holy Word, while
integrating an all-pervasive, vibrant Christian faith to all curricular
material. To this end, the school has desired to not only be part of training
authentic and devoted Christian educators, but also to place such educators as
'missionaries' in other schools. In 2009, the school launched an internal
teacher training programme, employing 2 interns that would be exposed to the
Philosophy of Christian Education in a professional pre-service teaching
environment. Today that number of trainee Christian teachers is up to 15
employees who are placed in The King's School West Rand as well as 8 other
schools and community centres in our region.
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