Item 202000791 - Interview with Glenda Anderson 1974 - 2009 Staff

Interview with Glenda Anderson – Staff – 1974 – 2009
Glenda originally started teaching in Cape Town at Wynberg Boys Junior where she taught Gr 2’s for 6
years. She then met and married Trevor in 1973 and moved to Johannesburg with him. They celebrated
their fortieth wedding anniversary in 2013.
After an interview with Br Anthony, Glenda was appointed to take over from Ann Mc Cann and began
teaching grade 4 in October 1974. There were four terms in those days, Br Anthony went on leave and Br
Mario stood in for him and took Glenda for a walk around the school premises.
Glenda enjoyed St David’s, everyone was very friendly and on her first day the headmistress, Mrs
Kempster told her not to worry about playground duty but Glenda ended up having her duty week at the
end of term. As all the boys were hyped up it proved to be not the most pleasant of duties.
The staffroom was next to Carol Ansell’s old classroom. Mrs Kempster’s office desk was there and a long
table went against the window and everyone had their allocated seat. It was all quite formal. Unfortunately
Glenda was given a middle seat and at her “first break” everyone had to get out so that she could get in.
Needless to say she learnt to be on time in future.
Glenda was qualified to teach up to grade 7 and had also specialised in infant school methods and in 1978
she moved down to grade 3 as junior primary which was her first love.
Glenda produced several prep school plays including Tom Sawyer, Treasure Island and the nativity plays
at the year end. Her husband Trevor wrote the scripts and the plays were performed around the swimming
pool. The stage was the three steps by the baby swimming pool. The angels were comprised of grade 1’s
and 2’s and the main cast grades 6 -7 and the choir with other children.
On the sporting side Glenda was teacher in charge of the prep tennis from 1978 to 1995 and was also a
committee member of the Southern Transvaal Primary Schools Tennis Association.
Champagnat Day was always special and before the construction of the new chapel the whole school went
by bus to Rosebank Church. In the early days there were none of the festivities that currently occur so the
children received a bun and a cool drink with everyone cramming into the hall which is now the high school
library.
In 1995 she assumed the responsibility for training the first holy communion candidates as well as the
junior altar servers and considers this one of the most rewarding tasks undertaken until her retirement.
Together with her close friend Ann Hayward they completed and donated tapestries to the new chapel
which can be seen in the entrance portal.
After Mrs Kempster left Mr Manolios became headmaster but left when Mr Murphy was appointed
headmaster of the high school. Following this there was no headmaster in the prep school for some time
while Br Anthony, followed by Br Timothy, Messers Murphy, Frielick and Boswell and then Mrs Elliott for 9
months was in the position in the high school. There was an uncomfortable imbalance between the prep
and the high school, Br Timothy having previously indicated that the high school teachers were not to
fraternise with those of the prep school. The prep staffs weren’t allowed into the high school staff room
having their own staff room in the grade 4-5 block or art room where the chapel is today.
Things changed when Mr Davies became high school headmaster and Mr Royce prep school headmaster
in 1989. Greg Royce was young, in his mid-thirties, from St Martin’s in the south of Johannesburg. He was
very dynamic with lots of ideas and was up to date with all things international. He introduced Kumon into
the syllabus, the first school to do so in South Africa. David Spence was the prep school deputy
headmaster and put Royce’s good ideas into action. Glenda was placed in charge of Kumon to administer it
and involved the parents without making it too onerous. The children worked with it quite well in the
beginning but it eventually had to be watered down and made more flexible with time. The new leader in
Japan told the SA agent that the children had to achieve the precise times and were only allowed to make
so many mistakes. In the end it didn’t work as SA children were not the same as the Japanese children and
could not be so rigid. Repetition was good but Glenda had to adapt the system to help but didn’t stick to the
time limits as she found that the children became frustrated and disheartened.
In 1995 Paul Edey arrived as the newly appointed high school headmaster and Greg Royce left at the end
of the first term to take up the position of headmaster of St Peter’s Prep. Mrs Schaafsma also left in August
1995 and Rick Wilson was appointed as headmaster of the prep. Glenda was promoted to head of the
junior primary department replacing Mrs Schaafsma, and was then appointed director in 2004. The building
of the grade 0 Block at the paddock commenced and Glenda introduced a bridging class for grades 1-2 and
2-3.The children came out of class for the first two hours of the school day until break. Glenda also started
the grade 00 in 2006 which comprised of only two classes of 18 children because there was also an entry
point in grade 0 for children.
During most of Glenda’s time, the board of governors were rather like a secret society that no-one knew
anything about. Willy Castle was always trying to introduce them to the staff but they weren’t even in the
yearbook and it was only when Paul Edey and Kevin Brewer came that they became more visible.
Glenda has some tremendous memories but was not prepared to single out any particular pupils, because
to her, each pupil was special in his own way. She and Trevor were involved with the 50 year celebrations
and she was chairman of the committee involved organising the events. Glenda and Trevor were on the
PTA committee helping with the fundraising and annual fireworks events from 1990 until she retired in

2009. From the beginning of 2010 Glenda was involved in the research for this book that is to be published
      in 2016 in conjunction with St David’s 75th anniversary; however, she and Trevor retired to Mossel Bay in
      March 2011 and she was no longer able to participate in this project.
      JLE January 2014