St Vincent School for the Deaf

Our School was officially opened on Saturday, 4 August 1934 by the Minister of Education Jan Hendrik Hofmeyer.

The Dominican Sisters bought "The Haven", Mr Simpson's home in Oxford Avenue, Melrose, and ten acres of property in response to a request from the Government to establish a school for the deaf children in the Transvaal.  In fact, for a considerable period, the school received scholars from many places in Southern Africa.  The annals record the arrival in 1937 of two new pupils who had travelled for six days from Nyasaland.

The Cape had three schools so the Sisters moved their King William's Town School - lock, stock and barrel - to their gracious new Melrose home with its "lovely gardens and beautiful views on all sides".

School started on 24 January 1934 with 28 boarders, 10 day scholars and a staff complement of nine sisters and one lay teacher, Miss Jessie Davis, who had run a small junior school for deaf children under the aegis of the local deaf association.

The setting was new but the Dominican Sisters brought fifty years experience of deaf education with them.