Pearson High School

In January 1926 the P.E. Secondary School was opened in the old hospital buildings on Richmond Hill, with an enrolment of 35 pupils, both girls and boys. The founder principal was Mr Leo Deary. The school moved in July 1927, to the Grey Institute buildings on the Donkin. In January 1928 the school was named Pearson High School after the Hon. William Pearson, who served as mayor of Port Elizabeth for 16 years.

Afrikaans was recognized as a medium of instruction in South African schools until standard six, but in 1928 fifteen Port Elizabeth pupils wished to continue their schooling further through the medium of Afrikaans. Pearson was the only school in Port Elizabeth able to manage this. In 1938, under the headmastership of Mr H. Bezemer (1938 – 1947), the first Afrikaans-medium class passed the Senior Certificate examination. At this stage our enrolment figure stood at 575 and Pearson was the only parallel-medium high school in the Eastern Cape and Border area with classes offered in both languages in all standards.

Pearson had become the high school with the highest enrolment in the province. As extra accommodation was needed, a new school was built in Bayview Avenue (now Erica Girls’ School). The school moved to this site in 1941.

In 2019 Pearson introduced a new environmental club with the focus on our oceans. A group of knowledgeable and enthusiastic learners quickly created awareness about the impact that the irresponsible use of plastics has on the oceans. A small group started doing beach clean ups, selling glass straws and reusable cups. The group steadily grew and the club joined The Sustainable Seas Trust as well as WESSA for bigger beach clean ups and other events, that turned out to be a lot of fun as well.

The president, Sophia Finestone, was selected as the first youth ambassador for the African Waste Network. Sophia attended the 10-day Global Youth Leadership Conference in Washington DC in June 2019 where she had a platform to share her views regarding the responsible use of plastic with other young leaders from 145 countries as well as international agencies including the UN. Pearson is extremely proud of her.

2020 is sure to be a remarkable year with a growing group of learners who are excited about saving the planet’s oceans.n addition to providing you with information that we hope will be of use to you, this site also chronicles the many activities of the school, the staff and its learners.

Continuous assessment is done according to the CAPS guidelines for every subject or learning area.For work not handed in, a letter is sent to the parents. It is signed by the Grade Head. The letter is to inform parents that the learner is not making the required progress in a subject or is not handing in projects or assignments. Parents have to acknowledge receipt of the letter.