Churchill School (Harare)

Churchill School is a public, day and boarding school for boys aged 12 to 19 located in the Eastlea suburb of Harare, Zimbabwe. The school had the first school pipe band in Zimbabwe and produces cricket players of national and international calibre.

At one time, the school's pipe band was in the Guinness Book of Records for the longest piping hours. Pipers Neville Workman, Patrick Forth, Paul Harris and Clive Higgins blew their pipes for a combined 100 hours in July 1976, breaking the previous record of eighty hours.

History
Founded in 1950 as Eastlea Boys' High School, headmaster E.J. 'Jeeves' Hougaard helped inspire most of Churchill's traditions. Hougaard is credited with establishing the name of the school and its affiliation to Winston Churchill and his family, and the school mascot, the bulldog. The school was established using the name Eastlea Boys High School and operated at Roosevelt Girls High for the first two terms while a block was being built at Eastlea Boys High. It happened then that the headmaster, Mr. Hougaard, wrote to the then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Sir Winston Spencer Churchill, to rename the Eastlea Boys High School after him and the permission was granted. Since then the school has been known as Churchill School.

Houses
Two boarding houses, which had about 180 pupils, were named Winston and Spencer houses. The games houses (Akroyd, Beaumont, Cardell, Hamilton, Maxwell and Wakeham) recall pilots who died in the Battle of Britain. These houses compete in sports and cultural activities for the Governor's Cup.

Sport
The school offers a number of sporting disciplines such as rugby, baseball, hockey, cricket, basketball, tennis, soccer, water polo, volleyball, golf, swimming, athletics, cross country, squash, chess and, at one time, Churchill School had the largest Telescope in Zimbabwe, situated on the headmasters roof It had a 14" Reflector Telescope. In the early history of the school it also had Cadets. The Churchill School Pipeband has competed at the world championships in Scotland 4 times. Former pupil Derek Chisora went on to challenge for the heavyweight championship of the world in Boxing. It competes with Harare's other big sporting schools, mainly St George's College, St John's College and Prince Edward School.