VISION
St Mark's College endeavours to educate the whole mind, body and soul as thoroughly as possible. We aim to become one of the leading educational
institutions in South Africa, unlocking and developing leadership potential of learners.
MISSION
- We commit ourselves to providing learners with intellectually stimulating environment
- We accept our responsibility to parents, the department of education and the country at large, to provide quality education without compromise
- We accept the responsibility to facilitate the personal development of each learner into an ethical and socially responsible citizen
- We aim to equip our learners with skills that will enable them to become champions in life
- We promote excellence and success
VALUES
- Accountability
- Ethical
- Fairness
- Integrity
- Professionalism
- Responsible
- Transparent
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
St Mark's College is an exceptional boarding school in Limpopo situated in the heart of Sekhukhuneland in a small town of Jane Furse.
The school grew out of the strong desire of the community around the old mission station of Jane Furse to create a new, better non-racial
school for their children.
In the early 1980's former pupils of the old mission school, which closed down with the advent of Bantu Education in 1953, began
campaigning for a church school that would give the children in the area what they could not get from the surrounding state schools –
a quality education which met the needs of mind, body and spirit.
In January 1985, the first 65 Grade 7 pupils moved in. Mr Peter Anderson, then the newly appointed headmaster, joined the school the
following term. Under him and a small group of teachers, the pupils increased each year and the school grew steadily from charming tent
classrooms into its present form.
The first Grade 12 class in 1990 produced a pass rate of over 90 percent. The standard that was set back then went on to define the school.
The classes that followed kept the trend and some achieved even better results. The Class of 2007 achieved 98.8% pass rate. The school prides
itself of having produced the first black female to graduate from Wits University School of engineering, Mamongae Mahlare. Mokgome Mogoba is
also one of the shining ambassadors of
St Mark's College. He obtained his BComm (Accounting) degree (summa cum laude) at the University of
Kwazulu Natal in 2001, coming first in the Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies having achieved distinctions in 17 out of 18 subjects
including 100% in Mathematics and 99% in Statistics. The school is also proud to have Dr. Noko Phala, the youngest South African to qualify
as a chemical engineer to be one of its alumni.
In 2003 the school became a public school on private property, as it could no longer afford to operate as a private school. In its early days
the school attracted learners from many parts of the country since it was then one of the few non-racial schools offering quality education.
However, with the political changes in the country more and more learners started moving to the previously model-C schools in urban towns.
This affected the revenue of the school, as most of the local people could not afford the fees. The process is underway to return the institution to its origin, private school.
St Mark's College is situated in Jane Furse on some 17 hectares of land adjacent to the old Jane Furse Memorial
Hospital. The land was offered to the Church by Kgoši Sekwati Mampuru in 1921. The hospital and its farm occupied most of the land but adjacent to
it was space enough for the three schools that we are now talking about as
St Mark's College.
There were esteemed visitors to the school, Archbishop Selby Taylor, Archbishop Tutu, Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane, President Nelson Mandela
shortly after his release from prison, and eminent educationalists from around the world, all of them keen to see this centre of excellence in a
place as far off as Jane Furse.
