Springvale School

Springvale School

Marandellas

 

Springvale School was founded in 1952 by Rev. Canon Robert Grinham and Maurice Carver, the founders of Ruzawi School. It was opened as a second Anglican junior boys’ school in Marondera. The school was born of the desire to cater for the large number of children on Ruzawi’s waiting list which grew to ‘epic proportions’ in 1945. In 1949, the Ruzawi Board bought 1000 acres of land for £2 an acre from Jim Blake, the owner of Springvale Farm.

In 1950, Canon Grinham left the headship of Ruzawi School to undertake the new project. His first task was to raise funds for building the school and to assemble a Board of Governors. At the first meeting, the Board was advised that the Registrar of Companies had formally registered “Springvale Ltd” on 2 March 1952. The company was set up under the Anglican Foundation.

The first boys arrived in May, 1952, under the headship of Robert Grinham. The boys were temporarily transferred to Ruzawi then returned to Springvale in August. Canon Grinham retired in 1956. In 1957, John Paterson, the headmaster of St. Andrew’s Preparatory School (Grahamstown, South Africa), became the second headmaster of Springvale. He oversaw the building of the music block in December 1959 and the establishment of Junior House (a boarding house with classrooms, a dining room and kitchen/laundry facilities, dormitories and a housemaster’s residence).

The 1960’s saw major infrastructural developments with new tennis courts, a games room, playing fields, staff flats and a reference library being added, as well as the conversion of the old Form I classroom into a science laboratory. Rugby was introduced in 1961.

In January 1973, owing to the increasingly unstable political and security situation in Rhodesia, the border was closed and Express Motorways, a coach company, was forbidden to operate in Zambia thus making it difficult to transport Zambian pupils to the school. The number of Zambian pupils began to drop sharply.

By 1976 student numbers dwindled still further. Boys from Zambia and Malawi were being withdrawn as a result of the security situation and by 1979, economic sanctions meant that parents were not permitted to transfer money to pay the school fees. Others were finding places in schools closer to Salisbury.

The school became desperate in its need of financial assistance, and all the fundraising and appeals were simply not enough to keep it viable. By 1979 there were just 37 pupils and the school was owed nearly R$20,000 in fees. Many business concerns stepped in to support the school in its most difficult times but the board was forced to close the school at the end of 1979.

The school would eventually re-open in 1985 as Springvale House.

 

Reference

Contributors
  • James Gavin