Sustainability
While the campus has a great deal to offer students, there is more still to come.
Short-to-medium term projects include the final phase of the Preparatory hall and library, a Creative Arts block in the Senior School, additional playing surfaces for cricket, rugby and hockey, improved parking and improved kitchen and dining facilities for boarders.
To this end, and in the spirit of furthering students education and learning opportunities, Somerset College pursues fundraising avenues such as corporate sponsorship, corporate partnerships and the development of a strong alumnus body so as to ensure the school's growth in a modern and dynamic educational environment.
The College aims to attract and retain first-rate teaching staff. With an increasingly competitive independent market that points to a teacher shortage in the future, innovative methods need to be found to develop, recruit and retain exceptional staff - and this is a crucial component of Somerset College's plans.
Our school essentially adheres to the concept of caring for the children we teach. We believe that a sustainable school should extend this commitment into new areas, including the care for the environment.
As a result we are committed to care about the energy and water we consume, the waste we produce, the food we serve, the traffic we attract and the challenges and opportunities for people living in the local community. It is part of strategic planning to become a more sustainable campus by, among other things, installing energy saving devices and using grey water.
Somerset College registered for the Eco-Schools Programme at the beginning of 2008. In so doing, the School joined a community of thousands of schools around the world who are concerned enough about the environment to pro-actively care for it.
Environmental issues are integral to our curriculum and the pupils are equipped with the information and skills that they need to become environmentally responsible citizens of the future. Moreover, the school practices what it preaches, and has an active recycling programme in place.
Somerset College has been awarded the Green Eco Flag, a reflection of the commitment of the entire school community to the environment.
In its broadest sense, 'diversity' involves open-mindedness, a willingness to see another person's point of view, and the ability to empathise with another person's experience. Somerset College strives to develop these attributes in our students and staff, both as individuals and as a collective institution. Aspects of this worldview are developed through our chapel services, social responsibility activities, Life Orientation classes, debating society, and school assemblies, as well as through the teaching and learning of five languages and Humanities subjects which reflect on the nature of society.
The College's Statement on Diversity outlines the following definition:
Diversity underpins the philosophy of Somerset College by promoting and celebrating individuality, and by acknowledging and respecting differences in race, social status, religion, culture, gender, sexual orientation, physical appearance, and physical and mental ability.
Somerset College recognises the need to become more representative of South Africa's culturally and racially diverse society, both in its teaching staff and its student body. Our collective challenge is to appoint more black teachers and to enrol more black students. In meeting this challenge, the College seeks to attract applications from a wider cross-section of Southern African society, and to consider what needs to be done to increase this attraction. In addition, concrete steps involve employment equity planning, teacher learnerships and a scholarship programme.
