Eighty-seven years ago the magnificent buildings of St Dominic's Convent and School rose from the African dust to stand as a tribute and monument to the achievements, dedication and resolve of its foundress, Mother Rose Niland.
Mother Rose was an extraordinary woman who - despite limited resources and opposition from various parties - saw a very real need to establish a Convent School in the mining town of Boksburg.
She received the Deed of Transfer encompassing 59 stands in the Township of Boksburg on the freehold farm Vogelfontein No. 5, dated 18 November 1919. East Rand Proprietary Mines (ERPM) donated the use of further stands for the use of sport and recreation. The original building, with its thirty acres of land cost one hundred thousand pounds.
The foundation stone of St. Dominic's Convent School was laid by Bishop Cox, O.M.I. Catholic Bishop of Johannesburg on 14 September 1921. In his speech he said:
'It is a proud and memorable day, not only for Mother Rose, (...), but also for the people of Boksburg. Such an Institution must play an important part in the education of the country.'
 The architect, Mr James Charles Cook, was responsible for the design of the landmark building with its own Chapel and distinctive bell tower, and Mr Francis (Frank) Isaac Allwright was contracted for the building operations.
On 31 July 1923 St Dominic's officially opened with an enrolment of twenty-eight boarders and thirty-two day students. To accommodate the growing number of students over the years many exciting and innovative building projects were undertaken.
Highlights:
- A School hall and new wing were built in 1965.
- Marian House, a retirement "village" for retired Sisters, was built on St Dominic's grounds in 1990.
- St Dominic's Pre-Grade School was opened in 1991. It started with 48 children in Grade 0.
- In 1999 the massive, state-of the art, all-purpose Jubilee Centre was officially opened.
- Expansion of the Pre-Grade School in 2000 and 2008. It now accommodates 150 children from Grade 000 to Grade 0.
 From being a Boarding School staffed mainly by Dominican Sisters, St Dominic's changed to a Day School in the early 1980s, with mainly lay teachers on the staff. The name was changed from St Dominic's Convent to St Dominic's Catholic School for Girls to reflect these changes. Currently the school accommodates over 1 000 learners from Pre-Grade (Grade 000) to Grade 12.
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When St Dominic's opened its doors to the first intake of pupils in 1923, ballpoint pens, vacuum flasks, Tupperware, microwave ovens, televisions and DVDs, fax machines and Photostats, computers, Internet, e-mail and cell-phones were all in the future. There was no penicillin, polio shots, plastic, frozen foods, radar, credit cards, split atoms, laser beams, dishwashers, electric blankets, or air-conditioners! We ask ourselves: "How did they cope?" |
St Dominic's has always excelled academically, culturally and on the sports field, but one event that will always stand out in Boksburg's collective memory is when, in 1980, St Dominic's Drum Majorettes put the school, and Boksburg, on the international map. They became World Champions, beating 258 teams from nine different countries in a competition held in Los Angeles: this was a first for South Africa!
In its 87 years of existence St Dominic's has always held its own, adapting to the challenges of an ever-changing educational, political, technological and social environment. Yet, the School has never compromised its Catholic ethos and core values. Religious and moral values are given special emphasis in the curriculum, and Christian Catholic values pervade the atmosphere and ethos of the school. The non-racial, multi-cultural education offered enables pupils to enrich, refine and broaden their education without losing their own roots.
So what will the next eighty-seven years bring? What new inventions? What new cures? What new diseases? At St Dominic's we cannot always know where the future will take us, but we do know the One who goes with us.
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