Maitland High School (MHS) had its origins in the school buildings in Kensington Road,Maitland as Kensington Junior Secondary School (KJSS) in 1979. The number of learners who were entering grade eight from the coloured areas of Factreton, Kensington and Maitland was too many for the high schools to accommodate.

The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) established KJSS to accommodate the overflow of learners as an interim measure. In 1979 the grade 8 educators and learners of Kensington Primary School were joined by a new principal and other educators seconded from surrounding schools to form KJSS. The next year we had grade 9 learners and remained a junior secondary school until 1991, having had a name change to Kentemade Secondary School (KSS).

The principal saw an opportunity in the empty MHS building and its facilities, an ex modal C school, in Station Road, Maitland. He applied to the WCED for permission to allow KSS to occupy the building and to extend its curriculum to include grade 10, 11 and 12.

Permission was granted and we relocated to the new premises at the end of 1991 with approximately 300 learners. In 1992 we had our first grade 10 learners and in 1993 the name changed to MHS.

Our school motto is STRIVE TO ACHIEVE. Our school badge which shows our school colours of navy blue, red and white displays a sheath of corn indicating abundant growth, a lit lamp meaning education is a beacon of light, a book the symbol for learning and the motto. Our third principal coined a new slogan for the school: ‘the rising star of the Western Cape’.