Faced with a flush of applications from local residents, a junior department was opened, and a one-acre plot of ground, "The Firs", at the corner of Campground and Rouwkoop Roads was purchased for £1900.

Two years later Ramage bought a local property which had been named Canigou Estate after an imposing monastery located high in the Pyrenees.

The school's first headmaster, WH "Papa" Law (1930-1943), was a Yorkshireman who was previously head of the large Tembuland Teachers' Training College where Nelson Mandela once studied.

He was succeeded by former staff member DM Laidlaw (1972-1987), an ex-RAF pilot, whose innovations included a science room, a computer centre and a 'Magnet' class for extending the brighter senior pupils.

The teachers project their notes and slide shows onto these boards and instead of becoming a one-sided lecture, it becomes a two-sided experience.