St Stithians College (colloquially known as Saints) is a private Methodist school situated in the suburb of Lyme Park in the border of Sandton and Randburg in the city of Johannesburg in Gauteng province of South Africa. Founded in 1953 by Albert Collins, William Mountstephens and Gilbert Tucker, it has consistently ranked amongst the top performing independent schools in South Africa. It follows a co-ordinate educational model within a village of schools consisting of boys' and girls' colleges, boys' and girls' preparatory schools, and a junior preparatory. It is built on a 100 hectare estate, one of the largest school campuses in the country. The College is organized into six schools on its main campus in Johannesburg and maintains facilities at the Kamoka Bush School near Modimolle and the virtual St Stithians Online School. As a Methodist school, it has ties to Kearsney College, Epworth High School, Penryn College and Kingswood College. The Boys' and the Girls' Colleges are members of the Round Square Conference of Schools and G30 Schools Conference. St Stithians College is also the host of the annual Saints Sports Festival which is the largest and longest continuous school sports festival in the world. The 2017 edition witnessed over 1,400 participants in 8 fields of sport, 200 fixtures and over 50,000 spectators. History The Boys' College The idea of setting up a Methodist school in Johannesburg came to Gilbert Tucker, who wanted to base it on the pattern of his old school, Kingswood College in Grahamstown. The Methodist accountant did not have the money so he turned to people who would be interested in financing it. He met two Cornishmen, both born in 1859, Albert Collins and William Mountstephens, who were Methodists and promising new businessmen who had started to make a name for themselves in their new country. Collins, who never married, died first and this led to the creation of the Trust for building the Methodist school Tucker had dreamt of. The Trust was formally opened in April 1941 and, at Mountstephens' suggestion, was named after Collins' birthplace, Stithians, a village in Cornwall. These trustees were D.F. Corlett, C.H. Leake, J.B. Webb and G.K. Tucker. The Trust was able to purchase a piece of land, which was part of the farm Driefontein (one of the "fonteins" can be found on the grounds) for an amount of £8713 in 1943 but nothing further was achieved until