A School Like No Other
At the Parvis Institute of Economics and Music we do not simply teach subjects – we cultivate lives. Founded in the heart of Bedfordview in 2011, Parvis began as a bold experiment: could a school weave the analytical precision of economics and computer science with the expressive depth of music and design, and do so within the rich multicultural tapestry of Johannesburg? More than a decade later, the answer is a resounding yes.
Our campus on Smith Road sits beneath jacaranda canopies and hums with quiet purpose. Small by deliberate design – never more than 320 students across Kindergarten to Year 12 – we believe that true excellence flowers when every child is known, challenged, and cherished. Our pupils arrive from Sandton and Soweto, Alexandra and Edenvale, bringing languages, traditions, and dreams that make every classroom a small United Nations of curiosity.
We follow the Cambridge International curriculum through to IGCSE and A-Level, complemented by the South African IEB matriculation pathway where it best serves our families. Yet curriculum tables tell only half the story. What animates Parvis is the daily collision of rigour and joy: a Form 10 economist debating monetary policy one period, then rehearsing a Rachmaninoff prelude the next; a robotics team coding through lunch while the string quartet tunes in the courtyard.
Our faculty – many holding doctorates or conservatory diplomas – refuse to separate the “academic” from the “artistic”. They mentor, provoke, and occasionally stay late to argue about Keynes or Coltrane. It is not perfect; passionate people rarely are. Instruments sometimes go out of tune, code throws errors, and teenagers will be teenagers. But it is real, and it is alive.
We measure success not only in distinctions and university offers – though those are abundant – but in the confidence with which our alumni navigate a world that increasingly demands both analytical horsepower and creative soul. That, more than anything, is the Parvis difference.