About Our School
As the oldest school in Emalahleni (Witbank) Robert Carruthers has an interesting and varied history closely connected to the development and growth of this platteland city.
Our school caters for children ranging from 5 – 15 and demographically represents a microcosm of South African society in the 21st century. We are as proud of our diversity as we are of our academic and sporting achievements and believe that this wonderful institution instils a sense of civic and community pride for all things South African. Although our language of tuition is English, with Afrikaans offered as a first additional language; as many as twenty different languages are spoken at home by our 1158 children. We strongly urge all parents to ensure that their home language and culture is kept alive but ask that they assist us in our endeavours to teach English by supporting our insistence that only English (unless in the Afrikaans classes) is spoken at school. When making application for enrollment at our school parents of non-English speaking children should understand that in most cases it takes a child a full year to master the language of learning and teaching; usually resulting in the child having to repeat the academic year.
We are a Christian-based institution but cater for and respect all creeds. Religious studies are determined by the curriculum as laid down by the Education Department but Christian songs and readings are incorporated into weekly assemblies, formal and informal school ceremonies, events and activities. Non-Christian children will not be excused from any school activity but will not be required to participate in any Christian 
observance; they may in such instances remain respectfully silent. However, we also celebrate religious days pertinent to the many other creeds represented at our school and from time to time incorporate readings from other religions.
Robert Carruthers School has a staff of 64 people. We have 37 fully qualified teachers, (6 of whom are men), 8 student teachers, 6 administrative clerks and 11 general workers. All of our professional staff is registered with SACE and all regularly go on refresher courses or training sessions to upgrade skills. About our staff …
Our curriculum and assessment practices are determined by the Department of Education but we have introduced a number of additional educational programmes/aids to enhance learning.
- All children have morning access, once per five day cycle, to our Media Centre which has a wide variety of fiction and nonfiction books to whet the appetite for (and encourage) life-long reading habits. This Centre is open Monday – Thursday 13h45 – 14h30 so that children can gain access for research purposes.
- We have a fully equipped Computer Centre where children from Gr 1 – 7 are taught computer literacy skills. By the time they leave our school at the end of Gr 7 they should have acquired basic typing skills, a working knowledge of the operating system and its peripherals and Microsoft Word. In Gr 7 the children are taught the basics of Microsoft PowerPoint, Publisher and Excel.
- Our Gr 6 and 7 children utilise a fully equipped (including remote controls for each child) Interactive White Board in our Science Laboratory. This system is connected to the internet and is operated from the teacher’s laptop computer.
- We offer singing classes to all children from Gr RR – Gr 7 and opportunities to excel in this field are many.
- Over and above the normal music classes Pre-school and Foundation Phase children participate in a ‘movement to music’ physical education class once per five day cycle.
- All classrooms are equipped with overhead projectors and academic have laptops from which lessons can be generated via digital projectors.
- We are one of two schools in the city with our own swimming pool and as such morning lessons in the summer months are compulsory as they form part of the Departmental stipulated Life Skills/Orientation curriculum.
We do not see our purpose as being strictly academic and believe that by the time a child leaves our school at the end of Gr 7 s/he should know where his/her strengths lie. For that reason we offer a wide variety of extramural activities. Our own teachers and some outside coaches assist with all these activities and all children are encouraged to participate.
Extramural activities take place every afternoon Monday – Friday on our own sports grounds. Our successes are good and each year we have children making it through to provincial teams in many of the sporting genres and we regularly have children competing for place in the national teams. Our singing group is renowned for their successes and in 2011 one of our young girls represented the school at the Talent America Competition and another went in 2012 where she won all of her categories to become the Junior Champion.
Ours is a Quintile 5 school which means that school fees are compulsory and anyone not paying them is handed over to our attorneys for prosecution and collection. Children from Gr 1–7 pay R8460.00 for the year or R846.00 over 10 months and Gr RR and R children pay R11876.00 for the year or R1080,00 over 11 months Refer to our Fees. Over and above that fee Gr RR, R and 1 children are expected to buy stationery packs from the school and children from Gr 4 – 7 are required to provide their own stationery in accordance with the stipulated list. All children are expected to have the regulation black swimming costume, towel and cap and all are expected to have the stipulated English dictionary. Tours and excursions are optional and are charged for separately, as are the many ‘fun days’ we have during the year.
Each school day children have access to a privately run tuckshop which sells food as per the daily menu as well as crisps, sweets, chocolates and cool 
drinks and in the afternoon a privately run aftercare facility is available for working parents. Enquires – Sharmila Patel – 082 798 5433