Cultural Activities
Stirling has a very strong cultural component: there is a large Music department; Drama is offered as a subject and many successful productions have taken place in the Guild Theatre or our fully-equipped school hall; the Dance Society has top dancers; Stirling students are regularly selected for Border Chess teams; and our debaters compete strongly in the Eastern Cape.
Cultural activities on offer include:
Chess – there are many chess players at Stirling and a large portion of the Border Chess team has often been made up of Stirling students.
Drama – Students can take Drama as a subject from Grades 8 to 12 and we have Drama teachers who also offer extra Drama lessons. We have a long tradition of excellent major productions such as Hairspray, Les Mis, Singin’ in the Rain, The Wizard of Oz, The Sound of Music, Fame, Pygmalion, Chicago, Godspell, West Side Story, Pirates of Penzance, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Footloose. The school alternates annually between major musical or demanding dramatic productions, in traditional or modern genres. There are also Senior and Junior One-Act Plays, produced, written and directed by students themselves, and space for experience in ancillary professional dramatic crafts such as lighting and production. Students enter external Drama exams and local Drama Eisteddfodau.
The Dance Society - and the variety of dance disciplines represented – is very popular. Dance Extravaganzas are held each year to showcase the work of our dancers and opportunities for dancing include assorted internal events as well as performances in local shows.
Music – The Stirling Music Department has nine music teachers, specialising in piano, vocals, woodwinds, brass and guitar/bass. There are over 100 students taking Music as a subject, and over 100 further students officially involved in Music in some way. Stirling has three bands and three choirs, with excellent facilities and significant support from the school. The emphasis in our Music Department is on classical music tuition and all students follow the Royal Schools’ or Trinity syllabi. The school also has a particularly strong jazz programme, with over 60 students playing in jazz bands and over 70 students selected for the National Schools’ Jazz Band since 1995. Our Vocal Group has consistently been one of the top a capella ensembles in the country and has twice attended the World Choir Games.
Oratory / Debating - We have an active team taking part in the debating league, speaking contests and forum discussions, and Stirling is regarded as one of the best Debating schools, not just in the Eastern Cape, but in South Africa.
Societies - The Societies period is an opportunity for students to do something quite different to the normal academic programme, and hopefully to discover a talent or learn a hobby. The Pyramid Council and Grade 11 Council meet during this period, as do the large societies of SCA, Ubuntu and Interact, with the Networking Society servicing the school’s computers. The rest of the school has the opportunity to choose a hobby-oriented society from a list that varies each year, but regularly includes options such as Business Game, Photographic Society, Decoupage, Arts & Crafts, Current Affairs, Caligraphy and Fabric Painting amongst many others.