Head of Prep: Melvin King

Melvin King was educated at St Owen's Boys High School and graduated from the University of Cape Town with a B.Soc.Sc and HDE. In 2005 he attended the Executive Development Course for Heads of Schools held at the Wits Business School.

Starting out as a teacher of Geography at Livingstone High School, Melvin was promoted to Head of Department and Deputy Principal before leaving in 2001 to found Christel House. This independent school in Athlone has grown each year and next year will accommodate 540 children from Grade 1 to Grade 10.

In addition to his formal teaching career, Melvin has been a marker and moderator for Geography in the Western Cape Education Department and a Lifeskills Facilitator at the South African Institute of Race Relations. The other area that Melvin has been active in is Badminton. Apart from representing Western Province and being named the SACOS Western Province Sportsman of the Year, Melvin has served on the committees at national and provincial level to promote USSASA.

Melvin's passion is serving the community and this he has done through the founding and establishment of Christel House. The remarkable success of this unique model was the subject of Melvin's address to the Bridge House community at the 2004 Senior Primary Awards Ceremony. He presented a paper at the International Symposium for Service Learning at the University of Stellenbosch which was a joint initiative with the University of Indianapolis. He is a member of the National Executive of ISASA representing the Western Cape.

Melvin, his wife Liesl and children Matthew and Kathryn moved to Franschhoek at the beginning 2007