page_title: Jeppe High School for Girls
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Jeppe High School for Girls / History
caption_attribution_description: English: The first headmistress of Jeppe Girls
context_page_description: Jeppe High School for Girls is a public English medium high school for girls situated in the suburb of Kensington in Johannesburg in the Gauteng province of South Africa, The school's address is 160 Roberts Ave, Kensington, Johannesburg, 2094, South Africa. The school boasted a 100% matric pass rate in 2014. It was once part of the oldest public school in Johannesburg, Jeppe High School for Boys until 1919, when a separate premises for the girls was built.
  The current headmistress of the school is Ms. Dina Gonçalves who has been working at Jeppe for 21 years, The brother school is Jeppe High School for Boys.
context_section_description: The predecessor of the Jeppe Schools, was St. Michael's College. This was an Anglican private school on the corner of Commissioner and Crowns Street in Fairview. The initial number of learners when the school opened was 25. The headmaster of the school was Rev. H B Sidwell. His successor was Rev. George Perry, in 1891.
  The buildings of the college and the site on which its grounds lay were bought by the Witwatersrand Council for education, in 1896, as the school was struggling to function. The school was re-opened, in April 1897, by the council as Jeppestown Grammar School. 15 boys enrolled into the school and the first headmaster of the school was Mr. H Hardwick. However, financial issues of the school forced the council to reduce its disbursement. As a result, Mr. Hardwick and the rest of the schools staff were given notice. On 1 October 1898, a group of Jeppestown parents bought the school from the council for £2,500. The staff had been replaced, but Mr. Hardwick remained the headmaster of the school.
  In 1899, the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War forced the school to close down as the number of students slowly decreased. Mr. Harwick left in 1899, in September.
  The school re-opened, after the war, as Jeppestown High School for Girls and Boys. It was opened in the same building of the Grammar School, and was one of the first co-educational schools, opened by the Transvaal Education Department (T.E.D). The precise date of the re-opening is unknown. it is believed to be during the first quarter of the year 1902, as a letter sent to the Department of education by the school about the teachers being unwilling to teach under the conditions of the unfinished building as well as there not being enough space for the number of children, was sent on 9 April of that year.
  The Parents' Committee experienced financial hardships at the same time of the school's construction. In September 1902, the Education Department was presented with an ultimatum, which stated that either they purchase the premises or vacate it, by October that year. The Public Works Department advised for. Purchase to be made, until a new school building could be constructed.
  The new headmaster of the school, in 1902, was Mr. C D Hope. He remained headmaster until he left in 1904. He was succeeded by Mr. J H Payne, who became a staff member in 1902 and remained headmaster until his death, in 1917, during his service in the First World War. Mr. Payne acquired the building that the Jeppe Boys students currently occupy.
  By 1912 the new school's grounds were not sufficient enough for the accumulating number of pupils at the school. Due to the boys out-numbering the girls, and pressure from the Governing Body of the school, who were against the co-educational system of the school, it was decided that the girls would be moved to other premises.
  Miss E L Cummins, the first headmistress of a Jeppe High School for Girls, joined the schools staff in 1904. She and Mr. Payne worked together on the planning of the new building. Mr. Payne did not live to see the construction of the building nor the separation of the boys from the girls.
  file after being housed by Fairview Primary school for the first six months of 1919, the Jeppe Girls moved into their new school building.
  It was intended that the girls of the school would be boarders. Three plans of the school buildings included hostels, but these plans were never used.
  In 1957, a new building was built on the east block which provided laboratories, geography and art rooms. In 1984-1986 new buildings were constructed south of the main buildings. These buildings provided additional laboratories and classrooms. The main building of the school was also renovated to provide a bigger library, six music classrooms and an audio-visual room. The authorities were prevented from giving the school all the financial aid that was promised, due to financial stringency. Therefore, the school used R180 000 from its own account to add to the new school block, and change a section of the new block into secretarial offices.
  In 1991, a vote was ta
caption: Ms E L Cummins
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "1840", "Image ImageLength": "3264", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image Make": "HUAWEI", "Image Model": "HUAWEI P6-U06", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "P6-U06V100R001C00B512", "Image DateTime": "2015:06:29 14:08:03", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "268", "Image DeviceSettingDescription": "[105, 112, 112, 0]", "Thumbnail ImageWidth": "200", "Thumbnail ImageLength": "200", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1086", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "32694", "EXIF DocumentName": "[]", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/8", "EXIF FNumber": "2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "710", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0210", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2015:06:29 14:08:03", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2015:06:29 14:08:03", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "3", "EXIF ApertureValue": "2", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "0", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Average", "EXIF LightSource": "Daylight", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "74/25", "EXIF SubSecTime": "121196", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "121196", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "121196", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1840", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3264", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "938", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Custom", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "27", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}