St Andrew's School for Girls

One of Johannesburg's oldest girls' schools, founded 1902 in Bedfordview by two Scottish women and now a top-tier independent IEB school with day and boarding from Grade 8.

The campus in Senderwood includes the Sir Herbert Baker original building, plus a co-educational preschool from three months, a girls' junior school from Grade 0 to 7, and senior school to Grade 12. Boarding runs Grade 8 to 12. CIS-accredited and Christian in ethos. Curriculum is IEB. Roughly 1,100 students.

Parents praise the calibre of teaching, pastoral care, and the all-round preparation girls receive for university. Facilities are strong. Some senior girls describe the academic and social pressure as intense, and a few past students have raised concerns around inclusion and diversity, particularly for black and queer pupils. Families who want a hard-driving traditional girls' school in the eastern suburbs land here happily; those after a lower-pressure environment look elsewhere.

• Long-established Anglican girls' school in Senderwood, Bedfordview. Reviews and student accounts cluster around two themes: strong academics and pastoral structure on one side, real pressure on student wellbeing on the other.
• Former students describe excellent teachers, inclusive learning experiences and an environment they remember warmly years later, particularly through the junior school. The preschool is singled out as a standout.
• A 2022 student review puts it bluntly. Academics are excellent but the overall experience takes a toll on mental health, with stress and pressure that students sometimes do not recognise as harmful at the time.
• Other student feedback flags diversity and inclusion as an area where the school is still working, asking for a more welcoming space for all students alongside the otherwise strong teaching.
• Round Square membership and IEB curriculum come up as practical advantages: international exposure through exchanges, recognised university entrance pathway, and the mental-wellbeing support of an on-site therapy centre, though that has not eliminated the pressure students describe.