Half a century ago, a group of matric girls celebrated their valedictory. This month, nearly 400 of them returned to mark a very special milestone.
Gqeberha, South Africa (13 May 2026) – It was 1976. A group of young women walked out of the doors of Collegiate Girls’ High School for the last time as pupils, led by the skirling of bagpipes into the next chapter of their lives.
Fifty years later, those same women walked back in, led by the very same sound.
Close to 400 Old Girls made their way back to school this week for the reunion, travelling from near and far to be there.
Among them was Sue Leppan, who flew in all the way from Sydney, Australia. In the comments section of a recent post shared by the school, she left a rare and treasured photograph of the Class of 1976 on their valedictory day (see above).
A special moment of the 50-year reunion came at the front doors of the school, where the returning class was led inside just as they had been half a century before, by a piper.
Merrill Wicht (née Cooper) had been a piper in the Port Elizabeth Ladies Pipe Band back in 1976, leading her fellow matrics to their valedictory. This week, now a member of the Nelson Mandela Pipes and Drums in Cape Town, she returned to do it again.
“50 years ago this group of women left the doors of their school at their Valedictory led by the bagpipes,” the school shared ahead of the reunion. “50 years later they return to the front doors in the very same way.”
The reunion brought together Old Girls from all over the world. The celebrations included a Founders’ Day assembly and flag-raising ceremony, and culminated in a dinner in the Hellenic Hall where the highlight was hundreds of women lifting their voices together to sing the school song one more time.
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Jamie Drove Sick Stranger's Sandwich Route for Three Weeks to Save Their Small BusinessCollegiate Girls’ High School is one of South Africa’s oldest institutions dedicated to girls’ education. The Old Collegiate Girls’ Guild has for generations enriched the lives of current pupils through bursaries, awards, and the beautiful school buildings themselves, ensuring the school’s legacy continues.
That legacy is also felt in the broader Gqeberha community, through Collegiate’s over-100-year-old annual carols service, its well-anticipated Charity Bazaar, and extensive outreach initiatives.
All guided by the school’s motto, ‘Facta non verba’ meaning ‘Deeds, not words.’
The acting principal at the time of the Class of 1976, Mrs V Jenkins, would no doubt have been beaming with pride to see her girls return – older, wiser, and every bit as spirited as the day they left.
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