Hoërskool Jan van Riebeeck
school in Cape Town
Hoërskool Jan van Riebeeck is a public co-educational high school situated in Gardens in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. With Afrikaans as its medium of instruction, it was founded by Mr J.J. Jordaan (the first principal) in 1926.
Overview
The school is situated at the foot of Table Mountain right next to the historical Welgemeend in Cape Town. It has an enrollment of approximately 500 pupils, who are divided into three houses: Reijger, Dromedaris and De Goede Hoop, named after the three ships that Jan van Riebeeck landed in Cape Town in 1652. The school uses Afrikaans as a medium of learning and teaching. Famous alumni includes the singer Laurika Rauch, struggle hero and minister, Derek Hanekom, venture capitalist Roelof Botha, and judge and struggle hero, Jan Steyn.
Boarding
The tradition of boarding at Jan van Riebeeck High dates back to 1953 with the construction of the Huis Jordaan, the girls hostel, on the school campus, and Huis van der Merwe near the sports grounds, after the Cape Town Administrator and its executive committee decided to make funds available for the construction of residences for the school in 1950. The tradition of boarding continues to this day and has become an integral part of life at the school, with a large number of pupils coming from afar.
Huis Jordaan
In 1952, the school committee and staff decided that the girls hostel would be called Huis Jordaan, after J.J. Jordaan, the first head of Jan van Riebeeck High School (1926 – 1936). On 9 December 1952, the cornerstone of Huis Jordaan was laid by W. de Vos Malan, Superintendent General of Education, and on 12 January 1953, Huis Jordaan was captured.
The public source identifies “Hoërskool Jan van Riebeeck” as school in Cape Town. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Hoërskool, Riebeeck and school.
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Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q10966631. Authority coordinates are -33.934, 18.408. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1926, 1652, 1953 and 1950.
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This entry incorporates text from “Hoërskool Jan van Riebeeck” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.