SUMMERWOOD PRIMARY SCHOOL / LAERSKOOL SUMMERWOOD, Summerstrand, Port Elizabeth.
The arms, which are not currently registered, may be blazoned:
Arms: Barry wavy azure and argent, a seahorse contourné argent, within a border argent.
Motto: Do ye even so.
The motto has remained unchanged since the school first devised its badge in 1948. A historical note handed out by the school states that it is taken from the Gospel of Matthew, the verse reference given being 12:6.
The 1948 design had the seahorse in blue on a white/silver background, with three wavy barrulets (in blue) behind it.
But it was later felt that this was insufficiently clear, so the device was altered and, as currently used, the background comprises upwards of 30 blue wavy barrulets, interspersed by far narrower white wavy stripes.
Neither the current badge nor the original is entirely satisfactory.
In both, the seahorse faces to the sinister (the left-hand side of the shield as seen from behind), which is traditionally regarded as a coward position.
And whether blue or white/silver, the seahorse incapable of making a clear contrast with the background as long as its colour is part of the background.
For simplicity of drawing, and clarity of design, heraldry does not tolerate even as many as a dozen bars in a background made up of stripes, whether straight or wavy.
The school also seems uncertain as to whether the border should be there at all. While it is clearly delineated in blue on the white school stationery, the badge printed on the back of the prospectus allows the border to disappear into the sandy beach photograph which forms the cover design.
The school’s governing body decided in the recent past that it would not apply to the Bureau of Heraldry for registration in view of the expense involved.
It is suggested, however, that the school should approach the Bureau because the cost of registration is by no means prohibitive (being less than R1 000 for a shield and motto).
In addition, the fee for registration covers professional design advice from the Bureau and includes the work of a professional heraldic artist, which then appears on the official registration certificate (so becoming available for further copying).
A further benefit in registering is that the school, besides obtaining a clear and definitive version of its arms, also gains legal title to them. This means that any unauthorised use can be punished under the law of the land.
About the school:
The school is today a parallel-medium (Afrikaans and English) primary school, Grades 1 to 7 (previously Sub A and B, and Standards 1 to 5) with premises in Second Avenue, Summerstrand.
It began on 1 April 1945 when a small wooden building in Port Elizabeth’s Happy Valley[1] opened its doors as an English-medium school under the name Humewood[2]-Summerstrand[3] Preparatory School. The principal was Miss R Clementz.
The building burned down in 1953, and all that could be rescued was a piano and the inter-house shield which is still in the school’s possession.
For 18 months the school was accommodated in the Dollorico Café in Happy Valley, in premises that were also used as a nightclub. Each morning the signs of the previous evening’s partying had to be tidied away before school started.
A new school building in Second Avenue, Summerstrand, was taken into use in 1954, having been formally opened by Port Elizabeth School Board chairman Albert Jackson. At this time the school’s name formally became Summerwood Primary, incorporating elements of the names of both suburbs. There were at that stage 260 pupils and eight staff members.
Pupil numbers grew to the extent that the new building was soon too small, and a double-storey building was erected behind it and taken into use in 1957.
The school became a parallel-medium institution in 1958 when the first Afrikaans pupils were admitted.
Enthusiastic fund-raising through the 1950s resulted in the erection in 1960 of a school hall, named for the energetic school committee chairman Warren Hastings.
Further fund-raising resulted in the building of a school swimming pool, opened in 1976. In 1977 four tennis courts were opened, and the acquisition of additional land across Fifth Avenue in 1980 permitted the development of two rugby fields and a cricket field.
The school installed a computer network in 1987.
A charming aspect of the girls’ school uniform is the use of a tartan. The dresses and sports skirts are made from a cotton tartan material designed with the help of the Wool and Textile Research Institute in Summerstrand, and especially manufactured for the school’s use.
The school song was composed in 1978 by Eugene Kritzinger, a music teacher who was teaching at the school at the time.
Website:
The school has its own website here.
[1] The name Happy Valley is first recorded as having been used of the Shark River gorge, which today lies between Humewood and Summerstrand, in 1924 when the Humewood Café was opened alongside the gorge.
The café building stood, although the business operated under a variety of names, until it was washed away in the flood of 1968.
The gorge is laid out with gardens and its lawns (at the lower end) are a popular venue for concerts and talent competitions. In the summer holiday season it is decorated with tableaus showing a variety of fantasy and TV show cartoon characters. These are illuminated at night for the entertainment of small children.
Previously the name Happy Valley was attached (from at least 1893) to the gorge next to which the Humewood Road railway station (terminus of the narrow-gauge line to Avontuur) was situated, when the line was built between 1903 and 1907.
[2] The township of Humewood had its beginnings in 1893 when the Port Elizabeth Harbour Board sold 20 villa sites between the original Happy Valley (the gorge where the narrow-gauge line climbs up onto the plateau to reach Victoria Park and Walmer) and the Klein Shark River.
The new township was named after board chairman William Hume.
The railway line is today affectionately known as the Apple Express line, since it is the route of a tourist steam train that operates under that name.
[3] Summerstrand had its beginnings in 1927 when 30 plots on the Marine Drive, south of the Beach Hotel, were offered for sale. The Beach Hotel first opened in 1924.
During the 19th century this area had been the farm Strandfontein, once briefly leased (but never owned) by Piet Retief, later a Voortrekker leader.
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