Heathfield Primary School, in Chadwin Road, officially opened their new, fully refurbished school on April 16.
Branmal Swartz said when he started as principal in 2018, he presented Vision 2023 to the staff and School Governing Body (SGB), which was adopted as their five-year plan to turn the school around.
“One of the areas that was adopted was the improvement of the infrastructure or a replacement school,” said Mr Swartz.
He said it was heartbreaking to see the conditions that pupils worked in.
The aim was for a building that matched the quality of teaching and learning that happened inside the classroom.
“The dream was to have a building that the community could be proud of and even start sending children to again. At our 50th in 2021, we proclaimed that it is time for a new beginning in 2022 (“Heathfield Primary celebrates 50th anniversary,” November 2021). Brent Carelse, the WCED architect broke the news, and the rest is history,” said Mr Swartz.
At the 50th anniversary of the school, Mr Swartz said that Heathfield Primary School was a product of Apartheid’s Group Areas Act.
“In January 1971, 420 non-white children and teachers were moved from Central Primary, two kilometres away in the former ‘white Diep River’ to the current site,” he said.
Councillor Kevin Southgate, who was also a former pupil at the school, said his “association with this building once called Central Primary School goes back some five decades”.
“It was the school where I started my educational journey. It was at this school where the foundation blocks for my life were laid. I started here in Sub A, what is today called Grade 1.
“Our lives were disrupted when we were told that the school had to move because it was located in a white area (during Apartheid). The Group Areas Act was where certain areas were allocated for white people only and because Diep River was declared a white area our school had to move to what was then called a coloured area. We moved from brick and mortar school to an asbestos building that became our place of learning.
“Today marks a point in history when we symbolically bid farewell to the old and the new and usher in a completely new era as we take ownership of a new school once again built with brick and mortar,” said Mr Southgate.
At the opening ceremony, representing the Head of Education and Metro South Education District (MSED) was District Director Cherie Meyer-Williams, as well as various Metro South officials, and Mr Southgate.
Also present were close partners of the school, officers of Steenberg SAPS, representatives of Polyoak Family Foundation, district social workers, administrators and school psychologists, southern suburbs principals, head office curriculum advisers, community neighbourhood watch and Peninsula Feeding Scheme Association members.
