Welcome To Prinshof – Prinshof School

Welcome To Prinshof School

Welcome

OUR VISION AND MISSION

To provide excellent and relevant specialized training and education to visually impaired and blind learners.

To provide specialized education and training according to relevant laws, regulations, and policy indicators of the educational authorities.
To provide and coordinate hostel boarding facilities, learner-transport, medical and auxiliary services.
To train and educate learners optimally taking into consideration their abilities, talents, interests, and individual needs.
To strive, during the process of education, to maintain, teach and set an example regarding morally accountable norms and values and to lead learners to responsible decision-making and self-empowerment.

To lead and guide learners to an appreciation of respect for their own culture as well as that of others to cultivate respect for the human rights of all people.
To equip staff on all levels continuously, to qualify them for their task and incorporate them in the decision-making process to utilize their abilities, talents, and interests in the visually impaired learner.
To establish a partnership with all stakeholders in the education and training of learners, strengthened by a spirit of mutual and deliberate cooperation, to facilitate the process of learning and self-development.
To guide learners into adulthood within an environment of unconditional love and acceptance through excellent and efficient teaching.
To become a resource center supporting the process of inclusion.

OUR VALUES

Equality

Respect

Integrity

Responsibility

Honesty

BACKGROUND

1954

Parents requested the Department of Education, Arts and Sciences to establish a school for visually handicapped pupils in the North.

1957

A committee is nominated by the Minister of Education, Arts and Sciences to investigate the position regarding education facilities for the partially sighted in South Africa.

1958

The Van Schalkwyk Report serves as a basis for the establishment of a school for partially sighted pupils. The Transoranje Institute for Special Education instigates an investigation to obtain a suitable site.

1962

The Department approves the establishment of a school.

1963

Prinshof School for the Partially Sighted Pupils and Preparatory School for the Blind is established. It makes provision for partially sighted pupils up to grade 2. Mr. PJ van der Merwe was appointed as the first headmaster on 29 January and the first classes for the partially sighted pupils commenced in a rented house in Pretoria North. In June the first building on the present site of the school was occupied and on 23 November the first permanent school buildings were officially opened by Mrs. Betsie Verwoerd.

1967

Inauguration of the present main building and the boys’ hostel on 19 May.

1968

The first matriculation class sat for the National Senior Certificate Examination.

1976

Inauguration of the new Technical Section.

1979

Official inauguration of the building for the blind by Mr. TNH Janson, Minister of National Education and Training, on 24 August.

1981

A new wing of the main building is occupied. It contains the new language laboratory, several extra classrooms, and an enlarged library.

1989

A new building to house the section for the severely mentally handicapped is officially inaugurated on 22 September. Some extensions and alterations were also affected in the main building.

1996

The residential houses in the area between Lewis - and Prinshof Streets were acquired, and the premises were developed into a recreational area for the Section of Severe Intellectually Disabled.

SCHOOL TRANSPORT

School Transport

Transport is available to certain central points in Pretoria and surrounding areas
for a pre-determined fee.

Please contact the school if you would like to enquire about school transport.

FACILITIES

Printing shop

On-site printing facility to print educational material and convert written text
and graphs into Braille.
3D printer to convert concepts into a tactile learning experience.

Hostels

7 hostels housing learners living outside the school’s perimeters.
Placements are done according to age and gender.
Hostels are closed over weekends.
Meals are included in the hostel fees.
Rooms are fitted with a bed, mattress, and a lockable cupboard for each
learner.
Hostels are equipped with recreational materials such as televisions, chess
sets, table tennis, toys, reading books, fingerboard and soccer equipment.

Magnet Music Centre

Prinshof School Magnet Music Centre offers Braille Music to the learners of Prinshof School. Large print is also offered at the Centre.

Learners may choose from the following instruments: Piano, Recorder and Voice Training, Guitar and African Drums.

The Magnet Music Centre offers choral singing to the learners of Prinshof School. The school has two choirs namely the Junior Choir and the Chamber Choir.