Rylands High
Welcome to the website of Rylands High School. Rylands High School is a co-educational public school located in Athlone, Cape Town, South Africa. Rylands High School offers a strong academic curriculum, a diverse sporting programme and a rich cultural programme.
Historical Perspective
Rylands High school opened its doors during the trying year of 1976. Amid student uprising throughout the country, 36 learners from Standard 5 to 7 sat for their end of year examination. Learners’ enrolment during the following year was 309. Although there were only 36 learners in Standard 8, the school was mindful of the recently introduced four phase differentiated system of education, which offered 3 subject sets to these learners.
1979 saw the first group of 24 matriculants sit for their Senior Certificate Examination. To great jubilation a 100% pass rate was achieved in the final examination. Alternative examination subjects such as Art and Music, were introduced in 1984.
Ten years after Rylands High opened its doors, the number of learners increased to 564. The school curriculum was constantly reviewed, evaluated and expanded and learners in Standard 8 were given the opportunity of choosing from 20 different subject sets.
Do you have a positive attitude, a love of new and different experiences and the enthusiasm to get involved and take on all the opportunities that a busy, successful school can offer you? Rylands High is the place for you!
Principal's Perspective
Rylands High School prides itself with the most amazing learners and dedicated staff who contribute to the rich history of academic excellence. Our school is a Mathematics, Science and Technology Focus School. It follows that key strategies are aimed, inter alia, at strengthening results in Mathematics, Physical Sciences, Life Sciences, Information Technology and Accounting.
Central to our school’s success is the wonderful ethos and disciplined and happy environment our learners and staff maintain. Our prefects, representative council of learners and societies coordinate a number of exciting educational and cultural programmes in this busy and high-performance campus. Moreover, olympiads, career guidance programmes, Grade 8 competency testing, compulsory FET Mathematics and a lowered teacher learner ratio strengthen our academic goals.
The campus has well-resourced and functional science laboratories for both Physical Sciences and Life Sciences, a Mathematics Centre, IT laboratories and excellent sporting facilities for the multiple sporting disciplines that we offer.
Our alumni are innovators and leaders both locally and abroad and over the years we have recorded excellent results in the Mathematics, Sciences and Technology. Our National Senior Certificate pass rates are consistently above 95% while the vast majority of our students achieve NSC bachelor passes and a number of our students achieve A-aggregates. Furthermore, every year our Grade 12 learners are also placed in the top 40 provincial academic achiever list in the NSC examinations. It is to this end that we regularly feature among the top feeder schools to the universities in the Western Cape.
We look forward to welcoming learners with their unique strengths and interests to our school and helping them harness their full potential and develop the necessary skills for their futures.
Mr K Naidoo
Headmaster