The school's motto is the Latin Forti nihil difficilius, meaning "Nothing is too difficult for the brave".

[2] The buildings of the college and the site on which its grounds lay were bought by the Witwatersrand Council for education, in 1896, as the school was struggling to function.

[2] In 1899, at the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War, with the number of students slowly decreasing, the school was forced to close down.

In September 1902, the Education Department was presented with an ultimatum, which stated that either they purchase the premises or vacate it, by October that year.

[5]: 339 When Johannesburg celebrated its centenary, in 1986, the main building of Jeppe High School for Boys, as well as the First World War Memorial, were declared national monuments.

Mr. James Humphrey Allen Payne, who was a headmaster at the school, died of a fever in 1917 while serving in the war.

When the school celebrated its centenary in 1986, the First World War Memorial, which was opened by field Marshal Jan Smuts, was declared a national monument.

[2] The main gates to the school are dedicated to FWB von Linsingen and AS Dashwood who were both killed in action in Bardia on 31 December 1941.

Two World War II plaques are situated in the foyer of the school's main hall.

However, over time they had become defunct, in 2009 the Jeppe High School for Boys Association (JBA) was officially formed.

Recipients of the scholarship are not chosen based on academic or sporting excellence but rather on strength of character and the will to succeed despite a disadvantaged background.

The Payne Hall, a stone building with a largely wooden interior, has been declared a national monument.