The first idea for the Sol Plaatje English School started in January 1989 when Connie Minchin Primary School had an  overflow of 75 learners who wanted to do English medium schooling. These children had to walk or travel to Retladirela School in Montshiwa for their lessons, often walking there in the hot sun and rain under the guidance of four educators, Mrs Balerileng, Mrs Rathebe, Mrs Kenene and Mrs Monage.

Parents came together to lodge a complaint with the Bophuthatswana Education Department.

Mr Andrew Thom helped them to speed up their request for a new school to accommodate the “overflow” from Connie Minchin school.   Mr Shepherd Molosiwa , Minister of Education, came forward with a solution whereby a “new” school would be started in some old buildings adjoining Connie Minchin. The school thus started off in the old Boitshenape Hostels in Montshiwa.

The school started immediately with about 4 classes, under the supervision of Mr Andrew Thom, who was then the principal of Connie Minchin.  He assisted the school for the whole year in 1989.   At the end of 1989, Mr Thom appointed Mrs Barbara Thompson,  who was a  Grade 1 educator at Connie Minchin,  to be the principal of the new school. She was then appointed as principal of the new school in December 1989.

It was named after Solomon Thekiso Plaatje, of Barolong Royal blood, a prominent person from the area during the early siege of Mafikeng, who was not only a visionary, but also an author of numerous books, founder and member of the first Tswana newspaper and a founder member of the early ANC. He was a journalist and  wrote numerous books such as Mafikeng Diary and  Mhudi  while  also translating Shakespeare into Setswana. He travelled widely, both nationally and internationally, and was widely respected for his views, his acceptance of aspects from Tswana as well as European culture  and his condemnation of the bad aspects in both.

In January 1990, the new “Sol Plaatje English School”  started with three Grade 1 and three Grade 2 classes.   The school was using the old Boitsenape Hostels.   They also erected corrugated iron classes and built two blocks of toilets to accommodate the children. Mrs Theresa Monage, Mrs Anna Balerileng, Mrs Rita Bodenstein, Mrs Ross Holderness and Mrs Vi Masalesa, were also appointed to help Mrs Thompson to start the school in 1990.

Mrs Kay Barker was with the new school for a short time as well. All the above teachers were Connie Minchin staff. Three of them, Mrs Masalesa, Mrs Balerileng and Mrs Monage are still with the school,  as staff,   to this day.

Six classes were started with the following staff:

Grade 1           

• (a)        Mrs Rita Bodenstein

• (b)        Mrs Anna Balerileng

• (c)        Mrs Theresa Monage

Grade 2          

• (a)        Mrs Judy Keeble

• (b)        Mrs Joyce Anderson

• (c)        Mrs Ross Holderness

Mrs Masalesa was teaching Setswana and Afrikaans 2nd language.   Miss Nancy Motlhala came to relieve Mrs Masalesa in 1990 for 3 months and together with Mrs Mavis Motlhale became Grade 3 educators in 1991 while Miss Heila Young also joined the school as a  Grade 3 educator.  Mrs Maria Leshomo, Mrs Anna Leshomo, Mrs Dina Jane and Mrs Maggy Lecholo were the cleaning staff at this early time. Two of the cleaning staff, Mrs Maria Leshomo and Mrs Dina Jane are also still support staff members at the school.

The building for the New Sol Plaatje school started during 1990 and continued until June 1991.  At this time an administration block was built with about 9 classes, largely funded by the parent body of the school.  The  move to the new school took place after the second term.  The school had three terms per year with mid-terms in between. Mrs Thompson was not well at the time of moving to the new school, got progressively  worse and  passed away, shortly thereafter,  in June 1992.

Joyce Anderson became the acting principal after Mrs Thompson until the end of 1992. She was followed up as principal by Mr Sandy Gilmour who was at the school until December 1995. Thereafter numerous other principals and acting principals followed, being Mr Modungwa, Mr William Gould, Mr Garth Grierson and Mr Dorian Soudien.

Management stabilized again when the present management took over in 1998. The school has grown each year since that time and has been extended up to grade 7, with four classes in each grade. Numerous other facilities have also been added such as a music room, a library, a computer laboratory and a swimming pool. The school  has also been further extended with the building of four grade 0 classes with numerous smaller projects being undertaken by an active and committed staff and School  Governing Body. All the above extensions and extra buildings were built and funded,  by a committed parent body who wanted a good English Medium school for their children. Some of the funds were raised by selling of bricks for R1 a brick or by means of parents paying a building fund of R 25 per term. The pool was one of those built in this way and was named after Mrs Barbara Thompson.

The school was briefly extended to include grade 8 classes,  after numerous requests from parents,  but this was stopped.  It was felt that the school had reached its limits in terms of size and should remain as a primary school. In January 2001 the Superintendent General of the North West Education Department, Dr Anis Karodia, also a past member of the SGB,  approached the school with a proposition to build a new High School. It was to be initiated with a large donation from the primary school and then completed by the Education Department through the Education Trust. The school commenced with five grade 8 and three grade 9 classes in January 2002.

It is envisaged that with the present staff and School Governing Body running the schools and with our committed parents,  the schools  will still reach even greater heights in the future with its full compliment of sport fields, a hall  and other structures to rival that of the most progressive schools in our area.