Category: College History

In April 2024, our Day girls were invited to take residence of the Mackenzie Lounge. This refurbished space is a beautiful building generously donated initially as a library by Ms Effie Mackenzie in 1950 in memory of her parents. The lounge now offers a warm and inviting dedicated space for our day scholars to enjoy.

2024 marked the opening of our Maths Centre which consists of four spacious and airy classrooms as well as a larger venue, aptly named The Sky Room, as it offers stunning panoramic views over the treetops. This top story venue will be used for team-teaching and workshops, amongst other things.At the opening ceremony, Mrs Martin closed her speech with a quote attributed to Archimedes, the father of Mathematics and Science, which reads: “Give me a place to stand and a lever long enough, and I will move the world”. She encouraged our Ladies in Blue, brimming with promise, to grow their curiosity for learning and to use their education to touch and move the world.

The unveiling of Mandisa is symbolic of a powerful journey of transformation for our beloved school. Our community has worked together to ensure that we are more intentional and effective in creating a St Anne’s which is embracing, nurturing and relevant by focusing on building an authentic sense of belonging for staff, pupils and parents. The Mandisa Statue, which was made possible by a generous donation, honours the first Black African girl who began her journey in Grade 8 in 1981 and who went on to matriculate in 1985. The Mandisa Bursary Fund has been established to financially assist girls from the local Midlands community, who fulfil the criteria for enrolment and would ordinarily not be able to take up the opportunity, due to financial constraints. It will allow deserving students to benefit from the holistic education that St Anne’s has to offer and ultimately change many lives.

In a moving chapel service held on Friday, 12 March, Bishop Rubin licensed Mrs Debbie Martin to a small gathering of invited guests, as a Lay Minister and installed her as the new College Head.
“I am so aware of the significance of this role and I will certainly endeavour to serve my alma mater with integrity, wisdom, foresight, fairness and energy”, says Mrs Martin.
The matrics formed an archway on Front Lawn from the chapel veranda to the theatre area where every matric gave.
Mrs Martin a white rose. Mrs Martin is an avid gardener, so this small heartfelt gesture made her beam with pride for all her girls. These 95 roses are currently sitting on her desk for her to enjoy.
Mrs Martin commented, “A special moment indeed. One that I’ll remember when I am very old.”
All the best Mrs Martin.

On 8 August 2017 St Anne’s celebrated Foundation Day, marking 140 years since the school was founded.
Foundation Day was a wonderful and joyous occasion made possible by the caring and dedicated staff and girls who made up our community. Everyone enjoyed numerous inter-house activities and a celebration day in the beautiful sunshine.

In January 2016, each Grade 8 girl received a school-issued laptop. This was a carefully considered initiative to enhance the incorporation of electronic devices in support of the academic programme in an increasingly digital world. The St Anne’s student app was also launched the same year, and we formalised our Information Digital Literacy Programme.

There was much excitement at the opening and blessing of The Sports Centre on 13 November 2015. The Sports Centre is a state of the art building and was specially designed by Architect Nick Grice to allow for indoor hockey, basketball and netball matches to be played. It also houses the Gym which is open to girls and staff for training.

As the number of students at St Anne’s continued to grow, it became necessary to further extended the Chapel which was originally built in 1911. This latest extension included the addition of the Rose Window created by Ruth and Hunter Nisbet.

St Anne’s celebrated 125 years of educating girls in 2002. The gift of the Old Girls to the College was a life-size bronze statue of a girl, ‘Annie’. She stands at the crossing of the paths on the front lawn and holds a ‘St Anne’s Lily’, an arum.

In 1982 St Anne’s bought its first and only computer and by 1983, all girls in Forms IV, V and VI had done a brief computer orientation course. It was, however, only in 1985 that the school established its first computer centre boasting eight Apple IIc machines. Each girl received half an hour of practice per week as the whole school was introduced to the computer literacy programme. The computer centre was remodeled in 1990 with the class room adjoining the old, small centre being incorporated to form a more spacious facility. Twelve new Archimedes Acorn machines were linked to a network and BBC software that offered excellent educational programs was used.