A Glance Into Danville Park Girls’ High School
Danville Park Girls’ High School, situated in Durban North and overlooking the Indian Ocean, first opened its doors in 1967 to just 74 girls and a staff complement of 10. The numbers grew over the years, but the friendliness and warmth that characterized the school in its early years endured and the girls – both past and present – talk of being part of the ‘Danville family’. The school’s excellent facilities, well-established infrastructure, and dedicated and caring staff combine to create an environment that enables Danville girls to achieve consistently in all areas of the academic, cultural and sporting curricula. Danville Park Girls’ High School boasts an excellent academic record with an unbroken 100% pass rate for the past twenty-eight years, an exciting range of sporting opportunities, a rich variety of cultural and heritage activities, a vibrant community service programme as well as life and leadership training.
Sport
Sport is an important part of life at Danville. Our vision is to enable each of our girls to participate in a sport at her chosen level – whether that is to keep physically active, to play for the love of the game or to compete at the highest level…Danville offers it all.
Our facilities range from a modern Indoor Sports Centre, a heated swimming pool, full-sized sports fields, a tennis court, and a gymnasium with a sprung floor as well as a brand new world-class Astroturf opened at the end of 2015. Local preparatory schools, Glenashley and Virginia have a share of this facility.
These excellent facilities are only part of the picture. They are staffed by passionate and enthusiastic staff, many of whom are active in their own sport competing at provincial and national levels.
Our sports teams compete in all the top leagues in Durban – with great success. In 2019 we had forty-three provincial representatives as well as national representatives in Basketball, Surf Lifesaving, Hockey, Artistic Swimming, Karate and Triathlon. Seven of our learners represented South Africa in international competitions.
Whether a girl chooses a fitness activity such as Crunch Fit or Aqua Aerobics, or ambitiously aims for a South African team, at Danville she is supported and encouraged to reach her personal best.
We at Danville are always looking at growing the sporting programme. In 2021 we introduced two of the most growing sports in the woman’s sporting world. We introduced cricket and touch rugby. This has been a great success and we looking forward to the future of sport here at Danville.
Culture
Culture is always immersed in the excitement and challenge of fresh performances. While the shows are aimed at entertaining the audiences, the real value lies in the process of putting the show “on the boards”. Turning creative dreams into practical realities is a challenge and we have been delighted to watch our actors and directors blossom as they reach their goals.
We have produced some top performers: Zola Myeza (2010), Gugu Gumede (2011) and Amanda Kunene (2013) each won the prestigious ACT/DALRO/Nedbank Performance Scholarship; Nandi Mngoma is a well-known media and television personality; Laura Elliott is a sought after DJ to the stars in Europe and America. But Drama is not only about becoming a star. It is about developing each learner’s personal confidence and communication skills as learning how to work effectively within groups to make real time deadlines.
Academic
For 27 years Danville has had an unbroken pass rate of 100%, and many of our learners have gone on to achieve highly in their chosen fields at tertiary level. We owe the consistency of these results to a number of factors. Our staff members are dedicated and motivated to provide a meaningful education both in and outside the classroom. Danville Park Girls’ High School believes in a holistic approach to education: that pupils need to balance academic, cultural and sporting activities, and strive for excellence in all that they do.
Our learners and educators work extremely hard in our challenge to pursue excellence. Various academic support, extension and enrichment programmes are ongoing and available to all our learners. Our 2021 matrics achieved a 100% pass rate and a 96.8 % Bachelor Pass rate. Amongst this group there were 310 subject A symbols (2.01 per learner). Thirty-six learners achieved an A aggregate (23.4%).
Furthermore:
- 8 achieved 7 A symbols
- 6 achieved 6 A symbols
- 9 achieved 5 A symbols and
- 12 achieved 4 A symbols
On top of outstanding academics, diverse offerings and beautiful facilities, Danville was recently awarded a Platinum Eco-School Award for its sustainable development profile.
Contact details:
Address: 21 Middlebrook, Avenue, Durban North, 4051
Tel: 031 560 0350
Website: www.danville.co.za
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DanvilleParkGirlsHigh/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danvilleparkghs/?hl=en
