Positioned on an established 7-hectare historic campus in Nottingham Road, with spectacular countryside vistas and a legacy of pioneering education dating back 115 years, Carlyle College is the new custodian of the old Kings Campus offering an exciting new chapter of modern education that will focus on developing essential life skills, practical learning, decision-making skills, and critical thinking.
Believing that education is a core driver of growth in any area and often is a key factor that affects families when deciding what area to live in Tim Johnson, co-founder of Carlyle College, did not hesitate when an opportunity arose, to reimagine, repurpose and reignite the old campus and revive its education heritage.
Named after the Carlyle-Mitchell family that ran Kings School for approximately 80 years, Carlyle College sits in beautiful natural surroundings and provides the perfect foil for children to connect to nature, develop curiosity and be inspired to learn. “Our Motto for this co-ed school” says Tim is “‘ Where passion meets purpose’ and that is really what we want to do as a school. More importantly we want to create an inspiring learning environment because if children are inspired, they can learn so much more”.
The skills needed for young people to succeed in the real world have shifted, and so education should fulfil this necessity. With this in mind, Tim and his founding team strongly believe that core competencies need to be instilled and one of these skills is entrepreneurship as it encourages critical thinking and problem solving which is vital for today’s world. To achieve this Carlyle College will, in addition to a strong academic focus, include Project Based Learning (PBL) where students will be able to interact with surrounding businesses, organisations and mentors across a broad spectrum of sectors in the local area and benefit from Real World Learning and Experiences in the areas of Agri-Business, Hospitality & Tourism, Conservation and the Environment. Equally, students will also be encouraged to engage with the broader community through Social and Community Upliftment Programmes.
With a purpose driven approach to education Carlyle College endeavours to provide their students with a holistic education, that will enable them to enter a tertiary academic institution and at the same time find their passion and place both in the local community and in the broader world.
Interestingly at The Africa Tech Week conference, that recently took place at the Century City Convention Centre in Cape Town in the first week of May, there was a panel discussion on rethinking the format of schooling. The consensus was that education needs to shift away from knowledge memorisation and focus on building skills. According to one of the panel experts Shirley Eadie (Head of Education Innovation at the National Education Collaboration Trust), "We need to be focusing on teaching skills, mindsets, character and attitudes. The reason for this is that the world is changing at a rapid rate. Yes, knowledge is still important, but knowledge should be used as a tool to teach and develop very meaningful skills and attitudes that kids can use to thrive economically and socially in a life beyond school. This approach should be problem-based and project-based learning," said Eadie.
Having already chosen this approach to education, Carlyle College is preparing children for the future. As Mahatma Gandhi so correctly stated “The future depends on what we do in the present”.
Carlyle College is an independent school that offers Grade 1 to Grade 7. A value-added affordable option is the introduction of Grade 8 in 2024 with an IEB aligned curriculum as well as Grade R and Grade 00.
For Further information on Carlyle College contact
[email protected] or visit
www.carlylecollege.co.za