KEPS HOUSE SYSTEM

“The spirit and camaraderie that King Edward VII School has engendered sets us apart from most other schools.”

how our house systems work.

As soon as your son becomes a pupil at the school he will be assigned a House to which he will belong while in the Prep School. Siblings will automatically go into the same house as their brothers, as will sons of fathers who were at the Prep. Up until the time of Mr Evans, there were only three houses in the Prep School – Anderson, Grimmer and Hofmeyr. Mr Foote, who was in charge of sports at the time, decided that it would be far easier to organise house tournaments if there were an even number of houses, and so it was decided to form a fourth house, Robinson.

Mr A.J. Anderson was a member of the Governing Body of the school from 1914 to the year of his death in 1935. He was the buyer and director of the Johannesburg Consolidated Investment Company to whom the Old Edwardian Society will always be grateful, the reason for this being that the ground on which the Old Edwardian Society stands was originally owned by the Johannesburg Consolidated Investment Company (JCI).

Mr W.P. Grimmer succeeded Mr H.J Hofmeyr as the chairman of the governing body from 1936 – 1941.

Councillor Harry J. Hofmeyr was the chairman of the school’s governing body from 1912 to 1936. After being critical of the Transvaal education system and the Johannesburg College in 1905, Mr Hofmeyr actually tabled the motion in the Town Council that produced the unanimous vote in favour of allowing the College to buy the Houghton site. He was later to become one of the warmest friends of the school and was invited to serve as a member of the governing body as well as being an honoured guest at all school functions.

Mr Harry Hofmeyr served 25 successful years as chairman of the governing body. Hofmeyr Square in the centre of Johannesburg is named to commemorate Harry J. Hofmeyr.

Robinson was the fourth house assigned to the school in the early 1980’s. It was named after the previous headmaster, Mr Arthur Noel Robinson who retired early, towards the end of 1979, due to ill health.

The colour green was chosen in memory of Mr Bob Green who died in office before Mr Robinson came to the school. Mr Bob Green had first entered the Prep School as a small boy in 1916. By the time Mr Robinson came to the school, there were never less than 150 sons of Old Edwardians in the school. The third generation had begun queuing for admission as far back as 1953.