Page 73 - KBHA BULLETIN 2

70

Although the evacuation of farms and villages in the interior during the South African War

boosted enrolment, these numbers soon melted away. That access to funds was limited is
evident from the inability of the governors to complete the fifth and sixth classrooms of the

planned buildings, a factor that was to result in a variety of combinations of classes dependent

upon the allocation of staff and covering nine grades form Sub A to Standard VII at times. It
was not until 1929 that a third teacher, inclusive of the principal, was appointed.

Further evidence of difficulty in these early years was the intervention of Kalk Bay
Municipality, at the instigation of Canon Brooke in 1903, when they assumed managerial and

financial responsibility for the school until such time as a School Board could be appointed in

1906, and after which schools were to enjoy a share of municipal rates collected. Such
intervention was most unusual at the time, in spite of frequent appeals for aid by the

Education Department.

The future of the school appears to have been assured by about 1935, facilitated no doubt by

the increasingly residential, as opposed to seasonal, occupation of property in the area. Old

photographs of 1904, 1920 and 1935 capture the family names of enrolled pupils. (Figs. 3.15
– 3.17.)

It was not until the last decade, however, that major developments were to take place in the
provision of fine facilities as we know them today, and the founding fathers would no doubt

be proud that the school-going population is, once more, drawn from the breadth of local

society.

References

Goodwin, R. Unpublished research for M.A. thesis