Our History

Our History

The suburb of Halfway House was laid out in 1890 and got its name because it was the stop halfway between Johannesburg and Pretoria for the Zeederberg coach service. Transport was by horse and carriage, and a stop was made to change horses. Halfway House was a farming community when Laerskool Halfway House was founded as the pioneer school in the area on 18 April 1923. It was a small rural school with mainly white Afrikaans learners. Later, a school building was constructed where Gallagher Estates now stands. In 1996, Gallagher Estates took over that school property and, in exchange, built the new school building on Van Heerden Road in Halfway Gardens. This new building was originally designed to accommodate 750 learners, which matched the enrolment at the time—but today, the student population has grown to 1,674. The school was a parallel-medium Model C school, with one Afrikaans-medium class and multiple English-medium classes per grade. English and Afrikaans were offered as first additional languages. Since 1994, the school has become multicultural. English is now the primary language of teaching and learning, while Afrikaans and Zulu are offered as first additional languages. As a result, the title "Laerskool" has been removed from the name, as the school is no longer a parallel-medium institution.