Arts
Creating opportunities to develop the imagination, experimenting with ideas and experiencing the joy of creative expression are fundamental to the intellectual development of a Michaelhouse boy.
Cultural extension is actively encouraged through the vibrant programmes offered in Music, Visual Arts and Dramatic Arts with outstanding facilities supporting each faculty.
The Music School offers nine individual practice rooms. It also has a recording studio and uses technology extensively. There is a strong focus on performance in the Music Department with at least one fifth of the school actively involved in music. Students who do not elect Music as a formal subject are welcome to join one of the available bands where instrumentalists are exposed to sight reading techniques, improvisation and performance. The Marimba Band plays a wide range of music including Swing, Calypso, Rock, Pop, Blues and Latin American and performs regularly at various functions.
Instruments taught are piano, guitar, trumpet, trombone, French horn, clarinet, flute, drums, saxophone and violin. Voice training is also offered.
The 550-seat theatre is home to a dynamic Dramatic Arts Department and provides a venue for numerous school productions, local and international performing artists, enrichment speakers and musicians. The theatre offers first-class technical facilities, acoustics and an orchestra arena for musical accompaniment.
Opportunities abound for play-writing, acting, producing, the development of sound and lighting techniques as well as set design, stage managements and make up.
The Visual Arts Department comprises four studios which complement the creative disciplines of ceramics, sculpture, photography, drawing and painting technique.
The upper level is home to the Sculpture Studio where an initial sense of applied discipline is evident in some of the intricate works on permanent display. Finished work in the lower level Ceramic Studio bears testimony to the enormous enjoyment derived from working with clay. In the light and spacious Painting Studio, there is vitality in the boys’ artistic endeavours and a diversity of expression in the explosions of colour on the decorated walls. An adjoining Lecture Room is dedicated to teaching.
The Art School is focused on ensuring that art enhances the creative aspect of boys by encouraging them to become visually aware, responsive and articulate.
Important Year Dates
Prize Giving*
Grandparents' Day
Hilton/Michaelhouse Sports Day (Away)
Old Boys' Gaudy Dinners
Old Boys' Day
PBHS Winter Sports Day (home)
Michaelhouse/Hilton (home)
Matric Ball
C Block Journey
D Block Pondoland Hike
E Block Camp
Speech Day
Remembrance Sunday
New Boys' Day