Sarnia Primary School started in a house in Stapleton Road in Pinetown on the site which presently is part of the Pineville Junction Complex.  From there, the school moved to its present site, which was originally the old Albers Dairy Farm.  The dairy farm had three palm trees in front of the farmhouse.  These same three palm trees still thrive in the school grounds to this day.

 

Sarnia Government School as it was then known, was officially opened in 1959 as a dual-medium school with 59 pupils, most of whom spoke Afrikaans and were the children of the railway workers. Mr Rousseau was the school’s first Principal. By the end of 1960 the school had grown to 83 pupils and held its first sports meeting on the 2nd September 1962. By 1975 the school had 246 mainly English-speaking pupils.

 

With the majority of the learners being English, the status of the school was formally changed from dual-medium to English-medium.

 

The school swimming pool was opened with great excitement in October 1975. Sarnia Primary School has always had a strong swimming tradition which has resulted in some amazing achievers, such as: Candice Crafford, who represented South Africa a number of times for Lifesaving; Paul, Shaun and Gareth Diaz who excelled in swimming and water polo – Paul and Shaun also represented South Africa for Lifesaving; Leith Shankland, who was a member the South African Olympic swimming squad in 2012. Sarnia Primary can proudly boast that they had nine learners competing at South African Schools level in one year alone!

 

In 1983, the school hall was officially opened.

 

Over the years, Sarnia Primary has seen many of their learners go on to excel academically at various high schools and universities.

 

The staff at Sarnia Primary is a dedicated team who instil the ethos to ‘BE THE BEST THAT YOU CAN’.

 

 

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