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Springvale House, Zimbabwe INTRODUCTION
Springvale House is the Preparatory School for Peterhouse. It is a Weekly Boarding School catering for Boys and Girls. The school shares the same grounds and facilities as Peterhouse Girls' School, on an estate of some 1200 acres, north of the main Harare-Mutare road, about 11 kilometers east of Marondera.
Rekindled in 1985 as a result of Springvale Boys closing down in 1979, Springvale House opened with 93 children in what was originally the Junior Block. The founder Headmaster was Mr Jon Calderwood, now Rector of Peterhouse.
MISSION STATEMENT
Our Mission Statement is centred around the pupil and their good all round education :-
Every child, the whole child,
developed to the best they can be,
in a safe, caring and happy environment
STAFFING AND CHILDREN
Academic Staff are made up of 9 experienced class teachers and a handful of well qualified specialist teachers. Equal numbers of male and female teachers create a balanced Staff who all share sports coaching in the afternoons and hostel duties in the early mornings and evenings.
Springvale House caters for approximately 215 children from Grade 1-7 of which approximately 66% are Weekly Boarders and the rest Day Scholars.
TERMS AND TIMETABLE
The terms at Springvale House follow those laid down by the Government. School begins at 0800 and ends at 1645. Grades 1 and 2 finish at 1500 on a Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and 1230 on the other days. School lunches are available for day scholars. All children depart at 1500 on Fridays after a session of clubs in the afternoon.
ACADEMIC ORGANISATION
Each grade at Springvale House has a class teacher, though as a child moves up the school more specialised teaching is done. Grades 1 to 5 are single steam with 26 children in each class. Double-streaming begins in Grade 6 with a new intake of children. A full range of academic subjects is taught; including music, art and crafts, religious education, physical education, conservation and computers.
We have a well stocked library which is supported by other reading schemes such as Letterland, Kaleidoscope and Reading Laboratories.
In our Computer department we have 28 BBC and 24 IBM computers with the two systems being housed separately. Children have access to email and the Internet.
EDUCATIONAL TRIPS
A strong Conservation theme runs through the school resulting in each of the classes having an opportunity to spend a night to a week away from school, sometime during the course of the year. The Grade 1's start by taking advantage of the Peterhouse Group's Nature Reserve "Gosho Park" and end up in their Grade 7 year at Rifa. This is a bush camp on the mighty Zambesi where the children experience game/tree and bird walks, canoing, target shooting, initiative tasks, game drives, visit to a crocodile farm, boiling an egg in the sulphur pools, fishing and much, much more.
At the end of it all, Displays and Projects are housed in our Natural History Museum, the heart of the School Conservation Theme.
Children are prepared for the entrance examinations for the Independent Schools for boys and girls.
It is assumed that children at Springvale House will move onto Peterhouse, but they must be registered there and will be required to write an entrance examination.
The pupils are introduced to a wide variety of games. The school shares with Peterhouse Girls, tennis courts, basketball courts, two heated swimming pools, a squash court, an Indoor Sports Centre and playing fields which cater for soccer, hockey, rugby, cricket and netball. All children are taught to swim. Every effort is made to introduce pupils to hobbies and activities.
Horse riding, ballet, karate, piano tuition, gymnastics, tennis, squash and various other activities are optional extras.
The pupils have full use of Gosho Park, the Peterhouse Groups Nature Reserve which is on the estate.
Each child is also involved in a school club - wide ranging from Chess to Natural History.
CHAPEL
The Peterhouse Chaplain acts as Chaplain to the school. Children attend a weekly service in the Chapel of St. Francis which stands in the school grounds. Springvale House, like Peterhouse is a Christian foundation in the Anglican tradition.
WEEKLY BOARDERS
There is limited boarding accommodation and only for children whose parents live close enough to enable them to be taken home each weekend; there is no boarding facility at the weekends. Boarders are looked after by resident staff. We have our sanatorium and trained nurse; laundry is contracted out. Parents must collect their children at 1500 on Fridays and return them by 0730 on Monday mornings.
FEES
Peterhouse Accounts Department administer matters concerning payment of fees and accounts.
CONTACT SPRINGVALE HOUSE
Please click here to the contact page for the Peterhouse Group of Schools Please use the top page search bar to search for extra info from all three Peterhouse websites
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